And just like that it’s been over 3 months! Quite a bit happened.

MENU

1. WORK: Matchups, Deep Tech Summit
2. HOW I AI: Full Context, Learning Rate, AI Personas
3. CULTURE: Sultans, Beef, Bref, Larry, Frozen, Florence
4. THOUGHTS: Being kind, Misfortune

1. WORK

Events

• The SOSV VC/Founder matchmaking event focused on Physical AI ended with 933 participants, including 435 investors. Another focused on Therapeutics had 574 participants.

• Those free virtual events are becoming very popular, and remain an excellent source of deal flow for us, and of investors for our portfolio. The next one is focused on Deep Tech (November). I’m also preparing a “deep tech cofounders search” matching event for November. Pre-register to either or both here.

• The SOSV Deep Tech Summit - a new and improved version of our long-standing Climate Tech Summit - is coming in November. It will cover 3 themes: Climate, Health and AI for the Physical World. We have announced the first dozen speakers, including Jennifer Doudna (CRISPR Nobel), Steve Blank (Stanford / Lean Startup), David Kirtley (Helion / fusion) and more.

• I moderated a panel at the always great Hello Tomorrow in Amsterdam on “Why Do The Best Deep Technologies Still Fail?”. I was glad to have two founders of “failed” companies (one is rebooting after bankruptcy) and Michael Jackson on this panel: he’s one of the most interesting and humorous VC voices on LinkedIn with an astute cross-border perspective (and a quarter million followers). Most VCs and founders don’t talk straight because they care about their current job, company, investors or future prospects so this was a rather unusually frank discussion.

2. HOW I AI

Projects

• Over the past year, my understanding of AI has changed dramatically. I started by using it to write small scripts and automate personal tasks. After building more than 200 AI projects, I think the technology itself is no longer the main challenge. The hard part is designing reliable systems with end users (co-design), integrating them into organizations (integration), and helping people actually use them (onboarding / customer success).

• I still don’t see myself as a “software engineer” but I’m definitely a builder. My latest project is about 8,000 lines of JavaScript running as a Google Apps Script app. And I’ve never written a line of JavaScript.

• On the deployment aspect of projects, I also found that the technical prototype is not even half the battle. The real blockers are data permissions, co-design with a motivated and tolerant end user, onboarding and of course… data quality.

• Builders need to become product managers and also “customer success manager” — making sure end users see how to take advantage fully of the tools. The handover process should be 4 steps, and most companies stop at 1 or 2 (“deploy and forget” or “demo and forget”):

1. Show examples of outcomes, and one example end-to-end

2. Do one example together with the user

3. Let the user do an example, with support

4. Handover

The Full Context Company

• In the last letter, I mentioned a scale for personal AI fluency.

• My current view is that most organizations actually need to level up their “organizational AI fluency”, from using chatbots to shared skills relying on common context.

• This context is built from their various sources of data, from financials to emails, slack messages and meeting transcripts. Data dies in silos.

• “Full context companies” will use AI tools to guide or execute tasks fully aligned with the company’s roadmap and values.

• It is easier for new companies to build that capability from day 1 than for existing companies, which have a lot of legacy systems, processes, behaviors and… people.

• New versions of existing companies could likely be operated with a fraction of the staff, and several friends have started new companies with just a few team members, with no plans to expand the team.

Learning Rate

• A company’s biggest competitive advantage is often not intelligence, capital or even talent. It’s learning rate. Learning comes from experiments. Experiments multiply when friction and cost are low.

• The challenge is thus: how to reduce friction and learn fast not only as a collection of individuals, but also multiply the impact of learning by sharing internally effectively.

• See this excellent article by Steve Blank on the topic. How you operate with AI and how fast your company learns will make all the difference.

AI Personas

What is your view on AI:

• AI Skeptic > You tried a few times and were underwhelmed by the results. Skeptics generally underestimate the progress of AI, for lack of direct applications to their work.

• AI Oracle > You believe that you can just throw data at an AI and it will make sense of it miraculously. The reality is - as always - that while it can work on occasion, it generally fails due to (1) erratic results (2) performance as well as (3) “editability”. Not everything needs AI.

• AI Pragmatist > The AI Pragmatist knows when AI shines, and when it should stay out of the way. While I use AI for coding and never write a line of code by hand, my experience has been that if you want reliable results and fast performance in the system you build, you actually want to put in as little AI as possible, and instead rely on SQL-like queries and “clean” workflows. The most useful tools I am building for SOSV use zero or minimal AI for the end result.

Courses

• My vibe coding Udemy course is now FREE.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Beef 2***
The first season with Ali Wong was pretty funny and the second started very dark, which almost made me abandon it. Eventually it was a good show, with great acting, and a bit of a “White Lotus” vibe.

Bref 2**** (Disney +)
No to be confused with Beef 2 :) this is the second season of a comedy series made up of 2-minute shorts about a ±30yo guy and his semi-loser life that was broadcast in France over a decade ago and became iconic. The team reunited to deliver a follow up, when he’s about 40 and still hasn’t come around to growing up, but maybe will? A longer, different format but well done, guys.

Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness*** (HBO)
I’m a big Larry David fan. In particular Curb. When the show ended I wondered if he would do something next or relax enjoy his Seinfeld fortune, but he is back with this new “alternate history” show which is quite entertaining.

Rick & Morty Season 9*** (HBO)
Another season is out. The co-creator and main voice actor Justin Roiland was kicked out after Season 6 and I found the show’s style changed for the worse. It feels similar to eating sushi from the supermarket after I lived in Japan for 4 years - the concept is the same but the execution and freshness isn’t.

MOVIES

Not a lot of movies these days but I watched…

Frozen** (Disney+)

• I’m clearly not the target audience and knew very little about Frozen, aside from the title song and the fact that Elsa seems to have become a cultural icon.

• What surprised me most was realizing that the real protagonist is not Elsa, but her younger sister Anna.

• Elsa spends most of the film endangering others while emotionally isolating the one person who refuses to abandon her. I found it hard to believe that Anna would still persist after years of rejection.

• Watching it also gave a new meaning to its title. I had associated “Frozen” with Elsa, but I now think it refers to Anna, who is literally frozen twice by Elsa, as well as to Elsa herself, who is emotionally frozen by fear.

• In the end, Anna is the one who breaks the curse through an act of agency and selfless love. Elsa isn’t the hero. She’s the one being rescued - her title song about self-acceptance hasn’t solved her problem with controlling her abilities.

• In short: Anna is the real hero of Frozen. Too bad she didn’t get a good song.

MUSIC

On occasion, a piece of music impresses me. I hope you enjoy this version of Sultans of Swing as much as I did. Pedro Javier González really knows all the chords ;)

TRAVELS

Florence

• First trip to Florence! Beautiful city, great museums and great food. Some areas crowded with tourists, but that’s in most nice cities these days.

• The Medici were really quite something. Finance and soft power combined.

• It was fun to compare the Bear Cub Thief sculpture from Paris to the goofy Perseus and Dragon (?) in the Boboli Gardens. The latter was apparently finished hastily after a change of sculptors.

• So many Davids! Michelangelo’s (the biggest and most famous) but also Donatello’s and Verrocchio’s which are - in my opinion - much cooler despite being much smaller.

Malta

• A quick visit there for a conference. The country has a magical aura of ancient secrets, blended with a Game of Thrones presence. The language is quite odd, apparently blending Italian and Arabic. Overall worth it.

Amsterdam

• I hadn’t been there in ages and it was fun to see the city again.

• I love maritime museums and theirs did not disappoint. You can’t explain the country without its ships and trade - with all that entails. I also recommend the maritime museums in Lisbon and Hong Kong.

GAMES

Catan

• I played a lot of board games (and pen-and-paper RPGs) in my teens and twenties but I had never played Catan before.

• It is quite an interesting resource-management + negotiation game, no wonder it’s as popular as it is.

• I tend to prefer board games on mobile with AIs because it’s much faster than with humans, though it misses the social and negotiation aspects.

• After installing it I ended up with a mild addiction - even doing some maths to evaluate better the starting positions. I’m cured now.

4. THOUGHTS & EXPERIENCES

On being kind

After listening to a podcast on kindness that left me unsatisfied, I gave it some serious thought, and once again ended up finding that “there are plenty of semantic prisons which do not permit us to think straight” (a wise phrase I found many moons ago in The Human Situation by Aldous Huxley).

Namely, “kindness” is often avoidance in nicer clothes.

• True caring and honesty are not avoidant.

• When kindness consistently avoids courage, perhaps we should call it what it is: cowardice.

Conflict is often necessary

• “Conflict” (another semantic prison) is often conflated with violence, while it has a wide spectrum, from misunderstanding to disagreement to (as a possible outcome) violence.

• From BJJ practice, my view is that even much violence results from a lack of skill and control. A competent BJJ practitioner is controlled and can subdue an opponent without “violence” inflicting damage.

True kindness requires courage, and courage requires practice

All this circles back to the idea that everything is a learnable skill - the classic “growth mindset” - and that the avoidance comes from a lack of practice.

So what is the solution? Practice!

• If you want to learn surfing you don’t just show up in Nazare and try a big wave.

• You start small, and ideally with guidance.

• Standing, timing, then maybe turning, then slightly bigger waves.

So the solution to competence in conflict resolution is to practice on small things with low stakes when appropriate (someone cutting in line? your food tastes bad?), and get reps, so that there is confidence and muscle memory to rely on when the stakes are higher.

On misfortune

• Recently, my friend B. was “fired” by the founders of a startup in which he invested and he had helped full time get to the next level for many months. He was very upset. After hearing his story, I told him “this is likely the best thing that could happen to you” - he had other projects with 100% ownership that energized him, while the startup work was draining him.

• Last week I met a founder who used to be an Olympic athlete. He finished 4th at the Beijing Olympics and his sponsoring dried up. He was devastated. With bleak athletic prospects, he answered a random email from a researcher looking into performance. They ended up growing a genetics testing company together and selling it for 8 figures. Then he got a call that an athlete had tested positive for PED and was disqualified after years of debate, and that he was getting a bronze medal for his past Olympics.

• You might know some version of the old story “we’ll see”.

At close to 50 years of age, my observations have been that it’s impossible to tell if something is good or bad news when they happen.

Even the good news (e.g. getting that coveted job at a fashion magazine) could turn out bad. Staying equanimous, or rejoicing (while knowing it might be all an illusion) is likely the best attitude. And again, a skill to practice.

Let’s whistle while we work.

Until next time,
— Ben

And just like that, it’s been more than 3 months! I got busy.

MENU

1. WORK: Physical AI, Updated role at SOSV
2. HOW I AI: Free Course, Progress, AI Fluency Levels
3. CULTURE: Mickey 17, Darren Star Extravaganza
4. THOUGHTS: Brazil, Silicon Valley, BJJ

1. WORK

Events

• The SOSV VC/Founder matchmaking event focused on Energy ended with 873 participants, including 435 investors.

• The next one (#15) is on Physical AI (May 5-11). We expect 500+ participants. You can register here.

• Those events are now a core SOSV asset for our deal flow and the building of our co-investors syndicate.

AI & Automation

• Over half my time is now dedicated to capability building in AI and Automation at SOSV, and this will soon extend to our portfolio.

• That includes sourcing use cases, identifying best practices, training colleagues (many of whom are scientists), and building tools and workflows.

• One key element has been aligning with our IT team so governance and infrastructure are ready.

• I suspect every company in the world will go through some version of this transformation, whether to stay competitive or simply to survive. In short: soon it may be “AI or die.”

2. HOW I AI

Courses

• I made my Udemy course FREE. It is over a year old but it still introduces useful concepts such as APIs and libraries. Get it here.

• The main reason is that I decided to focus my efforts on my licensed live course which has generated over $200,000 in sales since launch.

• I am now preparing an updated version in both French and English, using my latest methodology.

Projects

• I have now built over 180 projects.

• Among my recent learnings:

  1. Using a product requirements document together with a build-guidelines document to speed up production

  2. Connecting to Slack to query our portfolio in natural language

  3. Reverse-engineering a SaaS API to extract data faster, rather than automating a browser

  4. I have also become a big aficionado of Antigravity — an incredible agentic coding workhorse.

AI Fluency Levels

Here is a simple distinction of AI Fluency Levels™:

Level 1: No AI
No chatbots, no assistants, no automation. Some people now call this “tradwork.” Many in this group do not yet realize how exposed they are.

Level 2: Chatbot use
People use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc. Useful, but mostly one-off interactions. Nothing compounds.

Level 3: Reusable AI
GPTs, Gems, saved prompts, prompt libraries. Better than improvising every time, but still mostly siloed and manual.

Level 4: AI workflows
Automations with triggers, steps, and sometimes AI in the middle. Data moves by itself. Real leverage starts here.

Level 5: AI-built apps
Lovable, Replit, Bolt, Canvas-style tools. You can ship lightweight internal tools or prototypes quickly, even without being a developer.

Level 6: AI coding (noob)
Using agentic coding tools inside an IDE to build more robust tools with actual code, files, structure, and iteration. This is where some software engineering discipline starts to matter.

Level 7: AI coding (mid)
Same as above, with PRD and build.md guidelines. (Note: this is me, sometimes)

Level 8: AI coding (goat)
Multi-agent development with parallel agents, agent swarms, delegated subtasks, asynchronous execution. Powerful, but usually better suited to experienced builders and still easy to overcomplicate.

Level 9: Full-context AI
AI has access to the real operating context: files, docs, emails, transcripts, CRM, support tickets, internal knowledge. This is where AI stops being a tool and starts becoming an operating layer for the company.

Level 10: High-autonomy agents (e.g. Claws)
Agents can not only see context, but also act across systems with meaningful autonomy. This is frontier territory: exciting, useful, and full of security, governance, and reliability risks.

In short:

• At lower levels, AI helps you think and write.

• At higher levels, AI helps you build and execute.

• At the highest levels, AI becomes part of the operating system of the company.

Is there a level beyond? Time will tell!

Barriers to AI

Here are some barriers I identified for the transition:

• For individuals: activation energy, making time, lack of urgency

• For companies: security, in-house design partners, deployment pipelines

New forms of software

When the building cost falls toward zero, you can have:

• Personal apps: my bread and butter. Well over 100 of them so far.

• Single-use apps: for one-off jobs. I do this almost every week.

• Ambient software: new tools you can access where you work (for example via Slack or email). I recently prototyped my first more advanced Slack apps tapping into our portfolio and investor data, all accessible directly from Slack.

• On-demand software: still frontier territory — apps created on the fly when needed, possibly paired with an ever-evolving PRD.

What does it mean for jobs and companies?

• More companies will be prioritizing the hiring and promoting of people who are “AI fluent” = able to use tools to create leverage in any role.

• If you’re not spending time using tools beyond chatbots, you will be left in the dust by growing skill inflation.

• Likewise, companies not using automation and AI will be outpaced by those that do — not only because they move faster, but because they keep accelerating.

• The good news is that it is not too late. Remember: in AI, the A stands for agency, and the I is for you.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Mickey 17***
I watched it on a plane, a bit by accident, and it was a very nice surprise. Same director as Parasite, which I found great in the first half and a weird mess in the second. This one reminded me of a pen-and-paper RPG I used to GM called Paranoia, as well as a lesser-known film based on Michel Houellebecq’s The Possibility of an Island, itself inspired in part by the real-life French guru Raël. As a side note, I met Houellebecq at a lecture in Beijing years ago and asked him why he did not focus his efforts on curing the societal malaise he describes so well. His answer: “I’m only good at describing it.” Fair enough.

Stranger Things Season 5 (Netflix)***
The first season was great. After that, not so much. But they brought the creators back to handle the ending, and I think they did a pretty good job with it.

Younger** (Netflix)
I did not think I was in the target demo for this Darren Star show, but I suppose that since I watched SATC and Emily in Paris, in fact I am. Not deep, but it helps me relax after a long day.

Emily in Paris**
Another soothing show. I mostly watch for the outfits and eye candy. The last season was cringe at first, then tolerable.

Chappelle, Ricky Gervais**
Chappelle’s commentary is still interesting, but it feels less novel than it used to. Ricky now seems to be playing more directly to his audience, and I may no longer be core enough for it.

The Manosphere* (Netflix)
It focuses on some of the more toxic and money-grabbing characters. I am no expert, but I found it pretty biased. The more interesting people like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan (not covered there) who are generally advocates of self-improvement and personal responsibility are seen as adjacent to this movement.

4. THOUGHTS & EXPERIENCES

Brazil

My first real trip there since a quick TEDx talk more than ten years ago. Vast and green. Beach houses near São Paulo, barbecues, Carnival, jiu-jitsu, and Ipanema. Capybaras, snakes, toucans, batfish (weird), and lots of sun. It was also nice to be able to use my Portuguese there. If I go back, I will likely visit Florianópolis and Mato Grosso, and maybe Bahia.

Silicon Valley

I had not been to San Francisco in a while, and I was greeted by a new airport terminal, a Cybertruck, and a flock of Waymos. It feels inevitable that taxis and Ubers will soon be mostly autonomous. Seeing posters targeting YC founders is also a local curiosity.

BJJ

I had been asking myself why I still train ever since getting my purple belt. After receiving my brown belt at the end of 2024, having a child in early 2025, and then going through two accidents that year (one in BJJ, one from a scooter fall), I ended up training very little. MMA fighters typically cap out at blue or purple belt, which tells you something about the practical utility of the higher belts. I finally realized that I had silently quit. With time currently at a premium, I plan to train just once a week and redirect my effort toward higher-ROI or more family-compatible activities like weights and bouldering, at least for now.

To better habits in 2026!
— Ben

MENU

1. ROSES: Events, Boy, AI Hustle
2. LEMONS: Stitches, Scam, Startup
3. THOUGHTS: Agency & People

1. ROSES

Work

This year’s events not only continued but scaled:

• Our Climate Tech Summit drew thousands globally with ~100 speakers. I interviewed the Climate Envoy of Kenya (after Ministers from Singapore and Iceland), showcasing how to drive sustainable and resilient economic growth while supporting sovereignty.

• Five sector-focused virtual matchups (e.g., robotics) expanded investor-founder connections across deep tech, bringing together thousands of investors and founders for free.

Family

• A baby boy joined us, bringing a fresh eye to home safety, the edibility of objects, and polyphasic sleep.

• He’s now crawling fast and standing by himself for long seconds.

AI Hustle

What started as online courses expanded into a multi-channel approach to AI upskilling.

• A course on Udemy from March (4,000+ participants),

• Cohort-based courses from July (200+ participants),

• A B2B version from December.

Altogether, this led to ~$150k in sales.

I also gave talks on Building 100 AI Projects, Vibe Coding with AI for Non-Coders, Vibe Coding for VCs and was interviewed on AI automation.

In 2026, I’ll be testing additional markets (France in Feb 2026) and micro-SaaS based on some of the 100+ projects I shipped so far (a few examples here).

BONUS: As a loyal reader, I offer you a FREE code for my Udemy course (valid until Christmas).

2. LEMONS

Health

• A fractured septum during BJJ sparring, one week before our baby’s birth.

  The ER doctor said “just wait two weeks” — I went to see an ENT specialist immediately and had surgery within days. On the upside: better airways.

• A rainy-day motorbike fall led to my second surgery of the year, and my first stitches.

• With all this, my BJJ and gym practice mostly shifted into maintenance mode.

Wealth

• I was the victim of a well-oiled local scam while selling an e-bike and am pursuing legal action over security failures.

• Separately, a startup position that once looked like a seven-figure outcome went through a severe recap. A reminder that paper value during ZIRP is not liquidity.

• Fortunately, public equities performed well and some other startups are doing fine. Still, the experience reinforced my motivation to build durable, skill-based income streams.

3. THOUGHTS

Agency

My core takeaway this year was to bias toward high agency:

• Trust first-principles judgment (even over authority),

• Act to regain control when it’s lost,

• Increase the surface area for luck through building and sharing.

Responsibility doesn’t erase pain, but it accelerates recovery.

People

The most valuable compounding asset remains people.

• Giving first has generally worked for me, especially over a long enough timeframe.

• Teaching, investing, and building in public continue to create unexpected collisions: free workshops leading to deals, side projects to clients, conversations to partnerships.

Here’s to carrying that momentum into 2026!
— Ben

Finally some vacations! I’m recovered from my scooter slide and back on the mats.

MENU

1. WORK: Robotics Sparta
2. HOW I AI: New Talk, New Apps, New Courses! (bis repetita)
3. CULTURE: Wes, Clint, Darren + Gym Shows
4. THOUGHTS: Murder, Karaoke, Sore Throat

1. WORK

Events

• The SOSV VC/Founder matchmaking event focused on robotics is ended with 640 participants (300+ investors).

• We will be hosting several matchups in 2026 covering our favorite topics - we hosted 5 this year - likely Climate, Health, Physical AI and more. Sign up to our newsletter to get updates.

2. HOW I AI

My journey into the world of #AI #coding. My goals are to learn, have fun, and remove friction in my life. ChatGPT called me an “applied explorer”. Not bad.

Btw, it’s Christmas, here is a free code for my Udemy course! It’s expiring in 4 days.

Recent Projects (AI-assisted Python apps)

I passed 100 projects, and it’s accelerating:

• Antigravity (AG) is the new agentic coding tool from Google and it’s fire! I know it wiped a guy’s hard drive but he prompted wrong ;p I can build things so fast with it now - it’s almost unfair to say I’m building, as I’m just giving it pretty short prompts and it does all I asked, and often goes beyond!

• I also overcame the issue of deploying apps to the web by using Streamlit to create a web interface, and push the app from AG to Github then Streamlit Cloud. Now it sometimes takes me just 15 minutes from idea to deployment (for a basic prototype). I’m astonished. It’s almost like being in a giant mecha (not matcha).

Some recent examples:

1. AI Image Remaker > Possibly the most useless, but I came across a post on LinkedIn showing how to use a very detailed prompt to obtain a realistic image. That made me think: why bother writing the prompt? Let’s use AI to turn an existing image into a prompt, then use it to generate a new image. Why? Because we can ;)

2. Youtube Vibe Checker > Some videos have interesting discussions in the comments, but it’s tedious to read. I made an app that goes through the comments and summarize them. In the case of a discussion, it will do a vibe check on each speaker, and give an overall summary of the individual and discussion vibe.

3. Social Card Maker > I’m running another Investors/Startups virtual matchmaking event. To help with marketing I made a quick tool where participants can create a personalized badge to post on socials.

4. App Menu > I made an app to showcase some of my web apps here. Let me know if anything is broken.

AI Business

• I spoke in Lisbon on Dec 10 on “How I AI” at the Embrace:AI Meetup (free). I’ve done half a dozen AI talks over the past few months. Things are changing so fast that I update half my talk each time.

• More and more roles require “AI proficiency” for all roles. Most people (and companies) have no idea how to upskill.

• And… I designed my first B2B training for the executive team of an international real estate investment firm. Some called it - I quote - “the most interesting training they did in their careers”. I think there’s something there!

• I adapted some aspects of the course to the IT and legal constraints, and noticed B2B is quite different from B2C: with B2C people are self-motivated and have both - quoting Taleb - skin and soul in the game. There, the level of engagement varied. Some did spectacularly well, some less so.

• Discussions are progressing with several partners in France. The first short course is launching late February as a pilot. It will be 3 x 1 hour in French and suitable for non-coders. I might run an English version of this course as well. Leave your email here if you want to hear about future courses.

• As an aside, the Udemy model — discount VOD courses — is great for Udemy and for students (I learned coding with them!), but not so much for instructors. My “live” courses made 5 times more money with 20 times less students. Also, it requires a lot of self-motivation, while — just like yoga classes or gym coaches — a live instructor guarantees compliance, understanding and results! You also learn a lot from the difficulties and projects of others.

AI Thoughts

• Like many, I am concerned about AI’s impact on society. In particular: education is lagging badly behind technology. One notable entrepreneur in France - himself a medical doctor - said he would not recommend studying medicine now, as students would probably learn things that AI can do better already or very soon, and not focus on what humans can still do better than AI.

• AI is making it possible to create software on the fly - create an app on demand, including “single use” or rebuild a codebase from scratch. It turns code into “palimpsests” (you saw it here first!). And anyone can create some (that’s what I’m teaching). What should a software business or software engineer look like in the future, then?

• Another - widespread - thought, is that AI tools like ChatGPT will amplify our natural tendencies: curious people will learn much faster, while lazy ones will outsource their thinking. Just like “screen time” on youtube watching deep conversations is not the same as watching USDC ;)

• Ambient SaaS. While not strictly AI-related, I wasn’t familiar with this concept until a SaaS founder mentioned it to me. The idea is that interfaces for services (e.g. websites and apps) can disappear in favor of bringing the service into existing apps like Email, Slack, etc. or wherever you need them.

AI Resources

• My slides How I AI: Building 100 Projects at Embrace:AI

• My slides “Vibe Coding with AI for Non-Coders” for the InnoWomen Hackathon

• My video talk on AI automation at the Lisbon Vibe Coding Club

• My slides on “Vibe Coding for VCs” at VC Platform EU

• My Udemy course (4.5/5, 4,000+ students, 1.5 hours, in English)

• My live B2C course (NPS > 60, 200+ students, 15 hours, in Portuguese)

• My live B2C short course (coming in Feb, max 20 students, 3 hours, in French)

• Menu for some of my apps

3. CULTURE

MOVIES

1917***
Two British soldiers in WWI have to deliver a message. Impressive one-shot cinematography, sets, acting. A bit gruesome as one would expect. Solid movie.

The Phoenician Scheme***
Finally watched (twice - I fell asleep on the plane) the latest Wes Anderson. A cute fairy tale with impeccable visuals.

Valerian** (Prime)
I had missed this space opera movie from Luc Besson and, while the cast and dialogues were fair at best, the visuals and creativity - inspired by the original French graphic novels - were gorgeous. Pretty good!

Juror #2** (Turkish Airlines)
Stumbled upon this Eastwood movie — I’m generally a good client — focused on the moral dilemma of a juror. Pretty good though not as great as Runaway Jury. Coincidentally, a colleague has been on jury duty for over 2 weeks - I wonder what the case is!

SHOWS

Stranger things Season 5***
After the good surprise of the first Season, I found Season 2-4 a bit boring and predictable. Will Eleven win with a nosebleed again? The new season is starting pretty well.

USDC*** (YouTube)
A few years ago this young Lithuanian aikido master decided to test his skills in a light MMA sparring and got crushed. He realized his aikido had never been “pressure-tested” (sorry, Steven Seagal). Later, he decided to create a channel to document his journey to try to modernize his art, then to become a better fighter (note: he gave up on aikido). On the way he created a show inviting a group of martial arts influencers in an “Ultimate Self-Defense Championship” (USDC) where contestants face all kinds of situations.

The production budget is minimal - largely crowdfunded - but he did a pretty good job and is now in his 3rd season. It’s quite educative, especially on situational awareness and de-escalation. It’s also a reality check in what self-defense can really do (it’s not Hollywood). I recommend it!

As a side note: some YT celebs do poorly because they never spar, or lack in either striking or grappling - I wondered a bit how I would perform with my haphazard background in BJJ (brown belt - 6+ years - this was the hardest), shorinji kempo (black belt - 3 years in Japan - they give it fast), hapkido (blue belt - 6 months in Korea, building on my kempo baggage), wushu (long stick - no belt system - 2 years light practice in China), karate (teenage orange - 2 years) and aikido (6 months at Sugino dojo in Japan - papa Sugino was the technical advisor on Kurozawa movies) - ChatGPT gave me a decent shot! The creator organizes a USDC retreat in Lithuania for normies to play - maybe one day ;p

Younger** (Netflix)
I did not expect to be in the target audience for this story about a 40yo divorced mom who pretends to be 26 to get a publishing job, but it’s quite a relaxing show after long days. Also, did this guy Darren Star write all of US TV for the past decades?

Boots** (Netflix)
A young not-so-athletic guy joins the army during DADT (iykyk). Based on a true story. Quite a lot if predictable, but still decent entertainment.

Final Draft (Japan)** (Netflix)
It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure to watch people go through a bunch of physical challenges while I’m on the couch, but this show was reasonably entertaining after some long days. Some really have astonishing endurance.

The few women participating did not do so well including in agility challenges so from a training perspective, I asked ChatGPT what were the sports in which women would perform well against well at elite level against men. The list was short: ultra-endurance (100km+), horse-riding, sailing, shooting and archery — sports where performance was mediated by a device, an animal, or where women could tap into deep endurance metabolism. Biology matters for everyone: Khabib, Pacquiao and McGregor would have almost no chance against a skilled (but not world class) heavyweight fighter. I am constantly reminded of this in BJJ (like this 110kg, 35yo black belt yesterday… my goal was “survival”). Unless I outclass them technically by a wide margin my chances are minimal. The fun is to be on the mats, and face every challenge the best we can.

Makers on YouTube
Youtube has tons of channels about everything. There are a few notable ones by “makers / engineers”.

• Mark Rober (now also on Netflix) is probably one of the most visible.

• While I respect the educational and entertaining aspect of Rober’s work, I find the ex-Formlabs guy from Stuff Made Here much more impressive technically.

• I also came across a team of Chinese robotics guys called HTX Studio - even more impressive thanks to their team firepower.

Chess principles
I’m a casual at chess (peaked around 1800 on Lichess - no patience and time to work on openings, in particular). I came across this video about 5 simple principles from Capablanca. I haven’t tested them, but found them remarkable as they reminded me of the simulation of bird swarms “boids” (also works for fish schools), which also derive from very basic principles. If you’re into engineering, similar ideas are used in the design of this and that. Oh and there is this funny free game that has nothing to do with this. Beware: it’s potentially addictive, and teaches you about risk/reward and the importance of a talent pipeline.

BOOKS

The Art of Spending Money**
Morgan Housel wrote “The Psychology of Money”, which I recommend. This one feels much less necessary, though it helps you think about what makes sense beyond emotion, envy and more.

4. THOUGHTS & EXPERIENCES

From heavy to light.

Wake

A young guy I used to train with at BJJ and his father were killed by a shady business partner. It made national news in Portugal. I went to the wake and it made quite an impression on me as I’ve never really lived in a place where violent deaths were a thing, nor known people dying so young. I told his brother that everyone like to train with the guy, and that he had unlimited energy and enthusiasm. He replied that his brother was often talking about his training and friends from the gym, and that it brought him joy.

Bonenkai

Different vibe: I joined a Japanese end-of-the-year party, forgetting they often double as talent show. This one had taiko drums, a virtual drummer, medieval sword fighting and more. It of course ended up in karaoke - I gave a shot at Pilantra, a Brazilian song, to the audience’s surprise (and mine).

Hot or Not

For decades I heard that with a sore throat it’s good to have a hot drink, sometimes with honey. But then Strepsils(tm) have honey, and honey is a natural antiseptic. And it finally clicked: the hot water is a vector to deliver the honey, which covers, soothes and fights the infection. You could just as well eat a spoonful of honey without the hot water. If you have hot black tea with no honey, it can actually have the opposite effect!

Stay tuned for the end-of-the-year special recap!
Keep vibin’
— Ben

Omg so much cool AI stuff!

MENU

1. WORK: Robotics
2. HOW I AI: New Talk, New Apps, New Courses!
3. CULTURE: Swedish Stuff, Neko Health, Crash, Some Shows

1. WORK

Events

• The SOSV Climate Tech Summit concluded with our largest audience ever (over 6,000 participants). Our all-star line-up included about 100 speakers and over 20 hours of content. This year I interviewed the Climate Envoy of Kenya (after Ministers from Singapore and Iceland) about “green growth”.

• I am organizing a VC/Founder matchmaking event focused on robotics on Dec 1-5. We already have over 250 investors and 150 startups registered. It’s 100% free and virtual.

2. HOW I AI

My journey into the world of #AI #coding.

Recent Projects (AI-assisted Python apps)

I made over 100 personal apps and prototypes. Not all end well, but I learn something each time! Here are the most recent ones, made with Google’s brand new IDE called Antigravity using Gemini. I was very impressed.

1. Media Coach > Talk about your startup with an AI journalist. Try it here.

2. Zoom Checker > Do you look good on calls? This tool checks your lighting, sound, background, head placement, and helps you fix everything.

3. Whatsapp Voice Message Translator > Our building contractor sends voice messages in Portuguese that I don’t understand well. This tool transcribes and translates them.

AI Business

• I gave a talk at a Women Hackathon about AI Coding. The slides are here.

• My AI courses have generated over $100,000 for my distribution partners and me since September. Most of it with the cohort-based course.

• I’ll be launching 2 short courses in France in 2026. I’m exploring other markets too.

• I am testing a new B2B course with the executive team of a first client in December. Let’s see if they decide to sign up their entire staff! An enormous number of businesses will have to learn to integrate AI in their products but also in their culture, to stay competitive.

AI Resources

• My slides “Vibe Coding with AI for Non-Coders” for the InnoWomen Hackathon

• My talk on AI automation at the Lisbon Vibe Coding Club

• My slides on “Vibe Coding for VCs” at VC Platform EU

• My Udemy course (4.5/5, 4,000+ students)

3. CULTURE

EXPERIENCES

Carlsberg Museum (Copenhagen)***
I’m always interested in learning about trades. This visit did not disappoint and highlighted a few interesting things, including some important scientific improvements and discoveries made there.

Open Air Museum of Old Swedish Houses (Lund, Sweden)***
Very interesting exhibition. Did you know the blacksmith pulled teeth?

Skissernas Museum of the Artistic Process (Lund, Sweden)**
Museums usually show only the results, this one focuses on how artists make their art. Creators of public pieces, in particular, tend to have to document their research, sketches and models before creating the final product.

Neko Health (London)****
Co-founded by the founder of Spotify, it aims to democratize and personalize health checks. The experience was great (thanks to S. for getting me on the list!). The results quite good too despite… (see next topic).

e-Moped Slide*
Don’t ride after the rain. And even less without full protective gear (I only wore a helmet). Pretty bad scratches and a deep cut that earned me my first 4 stitches. Still, I was quite surprised by the overall low level of pain. The fork of my lovely Niu NQi GT is bent and likely unfixable. I’m almost 100% recovered after 3 weeks. The human body is amazing.

VIDEO

Ted Lasso*** (Apple TV)
A feel-good show with an impossibly wholesome guy. It almost feels like a fairy tale. Now, I felt the writers lost the plot during half of the episodes of the final season, but it eventually ended well.

Severance*** (Apple TV)
Can you decide to split your mind in two and live well as a functioning schizophrenic? I watched more of it. It’s somewhat clever, but also a bit annoying.

Physical: Asia** (Netflix)
It’s the sporty equivalent of Emily in Paris for me. A follow-up to the made in Korea “Physical: 100”, this time teams of 6 from several APAC countries are pitted against each other in a series of physical challenges. Some fun games. I mostly enjoy the strategies some teams come up with. Judo/wrestling people are strong!

SHOWS

Gary Gulman
One of my favorite standup comics. Unfortunately I won’t be able to see his tour.

The Incal
The surrealist sci-fi graphic novel masterpiece by Moebius & Jodorowski is coming to the big screen with Jemaine Clement of the Flight of the Conchords fame. Color me curious!

That’s all for now. Keep vibing!
— Ben

It’s events season!

MENU

1. WORK: Events & Travels
2. VIBING WITH TECH: 100 Students, 100 Apps
3. CULTURE: Disgusting Food, Korean Lawyer, Severance
4. THOUGHTS: IgNobel, Friends

1. WORK

Events

• I was in NYC, Berlin, Malmo, Singapore and London is next. It’s over soon.

• We hosted a dozen events during NY Climate Week, with over 1,000 attendees in total. The mood was both realistic and upbeat despite headwinds in the sector.

• The SOSV Climate Tech Summit is next week (free, virtual, Nov 3-7). We have a great line-up of speakers and 5,000+ are registered. I am interviewing the Climate Envoy of Kenya (after Singapore and Iceland) — it’s an interesting story.

• SOSV’s 4th VCs/Founders virtual matchmaking of 2025 concluded with over 1,400 registrants and 2,000+ meetings. I will organize a final one focused on #Robotics next month.

• I was in Singapore this week and will be in London on Nov 11 (RSVP) to share insights from our annual Climate Tech Summit. Registration is free but requires approval.

Event Reports

• I gave a talk about “Vibe Coding for VCs” at VC Platform EU. Slides are here.

• I co-hosted a roundtable about AI & automation at The Drop in Sweden. Most VC firms are quite behind on this, with generally some basic GPTs and rarely even a workflow automation. This is frequently a personal interest from a team member, or falls on the laps of a platform person already in charge of comms, marketing and everything non-finance related.

• NY Climate Week - It was electric ;) despite the policy changes the mood was upbeat. Nuclear, geothermal, batteries are in. Supply chain resilience as well. Food/Ag and renewables not so much.

2. VIBING WITH TECHNOLOGY

My journey into the world of #AI #coding.

Ideas

• “AI Good” or “AI Bad”? Does your job or field of study benefit from, or is hurt by AI? If AI can be a basic doctor, lawyer, designer, copywriter or coder (and improving), what do those jobs look like in the future? My first job was in market research. Today, Gemini Deep Research might do a better and much faster job.

Recent Projects (AI-assisted Python apps)

I have now passed 100 apps and prototypes. Not all end well, but I learn something each time!

1. Semantic Search App > Input a CSV with 2 columns. Search the data in one column in natural language. It’s using embeddings via the OpenAI API. I turned it into a Mac desktop app, which looks quite neat!

2. VC/Startup Matching App > Internal tool to match startups in our portfolio with investors focused on their geo/stage/sector. In testing but promising.

3. SoupTime > A simple baby feeding game. Can you get enough spoonfuls of soup in, despite the baby closing his mouth, turning his head, and trying to grab the spoon? It helped me increase my accuracy in real-life scenarios :)

4. Karaoke app > Attempt focused on lyrics recognition rather than pitch, for language learning. I found out that most karaoke games don’t actually track lyrics, they only compare your voice to the midi reference frequencies.

5. Bypass detector > A platform connecting boat owners and renters wanted to detect if the owners were trying to bypass the platform using their boat description. An easy job for chatGPT API - even scales well to 40,000 ads with grouping, batching.

AI Business

• I shifted my focus from the Udemy course to the cohort-based course I licensed to a partner in Portugal. Over 100 participants joined, and the NPS is over 60. This 15 hours course is priced 750 euros so it’s starting to generate real revenue.

• I’ll be working on a B2B version for enterprise: every company will need to up-skill their staff, and often do not know where to start with AI literacy!

• After Portugal, I am now discussing with potential partners in France, and exploring other geographies.

AI Resources

• My talk on AI automation at the Lisbon Vibe Coding Club

• My slides on “Vibe Coding for VCs” at VC Platform EU.

• My Udemy course ($19.99). Already 4,000 students and 4.5 stars.

3. CULTURE

MUSEUMS

Disgusting Food Museum (Malmo, Sweden)****
If you are in Copenhagen or Malmo, I recommend a visit to this quirky museum. While I won’t agree with calling French blue cheese disgusting, marmite surely earned its spot, and many of the other displays are way beyond - for instance kiviak. Visitors can also try to win a prize by tasting over a dozen samples (I tried all but the 8 million Scovilles hot sauce) - bugs, fermented things and more.

Berlin Art Week***
It wasn’t planned but it was fun to go around so many galleries and exhibits. I often scratched my head to find both “the idea” and even more, “the craft”. Everything is art since white on white (1918), black on black (1968), IKB (1961), ready-mades (1913) and the banana with duct tape (2019). Take the money and run (2021) at least didn’t pretend!

TinyTopia (Singapore)**
A cute private pop-up museum focused on ants (and a few more insects).

Vintage Camera Museum (Singapore)**
I don’t know much about photography, but it was interesting to see some very old models and prints of the very first photos taken.

MOVIES

Scent of a Woman****
Rewatched (again) this excellent classic. My latest thought is that it’s a fairy tale. We need those sometimes.

SHOWS

After School Doctor**** (Netflix)
I thought that show was over, but it came back from one long episode featuring my favorite grumpy middle school resident doctor. The kids always do a great job as well in this heartwarming show.

Beyond the Bar (“Esquire”)*** (Netflix)
Another Korean legal show (after the excellent Attorney Woo) focused on a rookie female lawyer with principles and unorthodox ideas. The story and acting is not as outstanding, but still entertaining.

Severance*** (Apple TV)
I gave it a shot while flying back from Singapore and it’s pretty good. If you could forget what happened each time, would it be fair to trap yourself for 8 hours a day doing a meaningless task, with no escape? Is it what many of us already do every day?

4. THOUGHTS

IgNobels

Nobel prizes can impress (aside from recent Economics and Peace), but so can IgNobel prizes. I considered attending the ceremony this year but missed it by a few days. Check out the list here. The physiology one might save some Covid patients.

Friends

This sociologist focuses on crowds, and analyzed some research on how friendships form. The key elements are (1) “homophilia” (we like people with commonalities - often found where we live or go), (2) “triangulation” (friends of friends become our friends) and (3) the more friends, the more friends. Now you know what to do!

Keep vibing!
— Ben

Back from a short break - I hope August treated you well!

MENU

1. WORK: Events & Travels
2. VIBING WITH TECH: Next Course
3. CULTURE: Prada, Fisk, Board Games

1. WORK

Events

• SOSV Climate Tech VC/Founder Matchmaking (free, virtual, Sept 8-12)- 1,000+ participants are already registered. Meeting requests start next week.

• SOSV / HAX Hard Tech Startups Showcase (NYC, Sept 24) - Meet 20 portfolio startups doing hard things.

• SOSV Climate Tech Summit (free, virtual, Nov 3-7). Speakers include Vinod Khosla, Chris Sacca, Jigar Shah, Form Energy, Quaise, and many more to come.

Travels

• VC Platform EU (Berlin, Sept 11-12). I’ll speak about “AI automation and Vibe Coding for VCs”.

• The Drop (Malmo, Sept 16-18) - I’ll co-host a roundtable about AI & automation.

• NY Climate Week - I’ll be mostly at our NY office events.

2. VIBING WITH TECHNOLOGY

My journey into the world of #vibecoding #contextengineering and overall #makingthings.

My Key Ideas

• CROSSBOW > Like coders, archers needed years of training. Like AI-assisted coding is transforming who can create software, the crossbow transformed warfare by making peasants dangerous after mere days of training.

• TOOTHBRUSH > When getting started, build a toothbrush: something useful to you even for 2 minutes a day. This is the gateway to more and bigger projects.

• LEGO > Coding with AI is like assembling LEGO. You need to understand the elements, and make a plan, not mold bricks yourself.

• START > Where to start your AI literacy journey? Self-study can work for some, yet a hands-on course might be the most reliable way to commit and learn.

Learn AI & Automation

• The second cohort of my 15-hours course on “AI for prototyping and automation” in partnership with the up-skilling company CodeForAll starts next week! There are only 3 spots left (max: 20).

• Dates: September 2-18, Every Tuesday and Thursday

• Times: 19:00-21:30 UKT, 20:00-22:30 CET, 14:00-16:30 EST, 11:00-13:30 PST

What you will learn:

• Overcome the "fear of code" - if that's you and you never wrote code, I know where you come from! I worked in tech for 2 decades before picking up some Python skills during COVID, then realizing that AI could help non-coders if they acquired enough knowledge to "project manage" correctly.

• Open your eyes to what AI-assisted coding can do for you. Even ex-coders can benefit from learning about what modern code can do.

• Become an active prototype and personal tool builder. Previous participants said that their #1 satisfaction came from "building a thing" of their own. The first of many!

• Get on an exciting learning path that can lead to building more complex applications for yourself, your team or a broader audience. AI and code are very fun.

• Surf if up 🌊 — but the train hasn't left the station yet 🚂 ;)

Course fee

• Normally: €750. I can offer you a discounted fee of €500 - simply mention my name when reaching out to admissions@codeforall.com.

• If you are eligible for the Portuguese "Cheque-Formação + Digital", the course fee of €750 will be reimbursed 100% by the government. The team at admissions@codeforall.com will help.

Business Time

• I am looking to license this course to other partners like CodeForAll in other geographies. In particular in US, France, and Germany.

• If you know the names of reputable up-skilling companies, or have contacts there, do tell!

Recent Projects

1. AI in a Box > a box with a button, a microphone and a speaker, to ask questions to ChatGPT directly. Uses STT, LLM, TTS via OpenAI API on a Pi 5.

2. Filtered Push News > Weekly email on select topics with news & authors from 25 hand-picked media. To cut the noise and make connections. Uses SerpAPI + Gmail + PythonAnywhere.

3. Filtered News Search > A web version to do the same as above.

4. Next: Portfolio Semantic Search > Search our startups portfolio using natural language.

AI Resources

• YouTube > Matthew Berman | Greg Isenberg | Fireship | How I AI | Andrej Karpathy

• My talk on AI automation at the Lisbon Vibe Coding Club

• My Udemy course (here is a discount code to $9.99 for the next 4 days). Already over 3,000 students. My recommendation: watch everything, then try yourself!

3. CULTURE

MOVIES

The Devil Wears Prada**
Final opus in the canon of Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate about You and Legally Blonde.

• With a 2025 lens, this level of harassment would probably not fly today.

• It also reminded me of Emily in Paris: a pretty woman with awful behavior. Maybe that was Emily’s pitch? “The Devil Wears Prada in Paris, skipping the ‘ugly duckling’ transformation — she arrives already savvy and fashionable, and the show doesn’t end with redemption.”

• It is also an n-th reminder that “the frame guides the behavior”, and makes good people (that includes you and me) do bad things. Awareness can get you out of the frame (sometimes at a cost).

SHOWS

Fisk - Season 3**** (Netflix)
If you haven’t checked this cute Australian show about a socially awkward wills & probate lawyer, it’s quirky, well written, and short!

Long Story Short** (Netflix)
I had high expectations from the creator of BoJack Horseman, but this animated show about a Jewish family did not quite work for me - I might give it another shot later on.

BOARD GAMES

A few games I tried this summer:

• Flip 7 *** black-jack inspired, luck-driven but fun and tense.

• Skyjo ** light, fast, but felt like becoming an interface for an algorithm (like in Risk).

• Bears vs. Babies ** by the creators of Exploding Kittens (which I haven’t played). Build monsters to fight and capture babies. Chaotic fun for the first few plays, then loses steam as too much luck is involved and some buzzkill tactics become obvious.

Keep vibing!
— Ben

Mo’AI, Mo’Problems?

MENU

1. WORK: Events galore
2. VIBING W/ TECH: Next Course, Projects, Resources
3. CULTURE: DJ Mehdi and more

1. WORK

Events

• Climate Matchmaking - We are hosting our next Climate Tech Matchmaking for investors and founders - it is free and virtual Sept 8-12. Over 700 participants are already registered, including over 360 investors (not a typo!)

• Climate Summit - Our annual / virtual / free Climate Tech Summit is Nov 3-7. We confirmed our first speakers and look forward to a solid line-up! We expect 5,000+ participants. Register and send your suggestions here.

• Hard Tech Startups Showcase - Meet 20 portfolio startups doing hard things. In NYC on Sept 24. Register here.

Travels

• Berlin (September) - I’ll be at the VC Platform EU event where I’ll give a talk about “Vibe Coding for VCs”.

• Malmo (September) - There is a good chance I’ll be at TheDrop climate tech event. No talk planned for me so far, just networking.

• NYC (September) - I’ll be at NY Climate Week. We’re hosting a bunch of events at our NY office.

SOSV Deep Tech Live

• Our monthly event series had a great guest on nutrition last week: Dr. Robert Lustig. The video is here.

• Next session: Tim Latimer, CEO of enhanced geothermal energy star Fervo Energy, on Sept 22 at our NYC office and online. Register here.

2. VIBING WITH TECHNOLOGY

My journey into the world of #vibecoding #contextengineering and overall #makingthings.

Free Vibe Coding AMA

I will run a free 1-hour Free AMA on Tuesday 12 at 7pm UKT / 2pm EST / 11am PST. Register here.

Talk on AI & Vibe Coding

I was invited to speak at Lisbon’s Vibe Coding Club last month (1 hour video). Among the ideas I shared:

• Coding with AI is like building with LEGO.

• AI usage requires some code literacy. Learning what code can do (libraries, APIs, potential problems) is a huge advantage when building things beyond a simple website.

• AI is the modern crossbow: it can make a peasant as powerful as a trained expert in a matter of days.

Next Cohort-Based Course

The first 15 students graduated from the July cohort-based “AI for prototyping and automation” course. I’m taking a break in August but the September is open for registration, in partnership with the upskilling company CodeForAll. Want to open your eyes to AI and say ‘I made a thing!’ by the end? This hands-on course helps non-coders go from zero to prototype with AI. :)

• For non-coders and ex-coders who want to learn how to build things using AI.

• We use Google Colab and Cursor to generate and run Python code (no coding experience required), discover useful libraries and APIs and learn how to build apps like you assemble LEGO: you don’t need to make the bricks, just know what they are and how to stack them.

• Register your interest here.

Details:

• Fee: The usual course fee is 750 euros but only 500 euros if you register through me. Your company might be able to pay for it as part of Learning & Development.

• Dates & Times: September 2-18, Tue/Thu 7pm-9:30pm UKT (total: 15 hours)

• Cohort: Limited to 20 participants.

PS: My Udemy course for inspiration is here (already over 3,000 students!). It’s quite fast-paced - you can just watch to get a taste, as setup might discourage total beginners.

Latest Projects

AI in a Box

• What > a box with a button, a microphone and a speaker, to ask questions to ChatGPT directly.

• Why > I use ChatGPT for questions all the time and wanted a one-button voice interface for answers too.

• Status > fully functional.

• Tech > Raspberry Pi 5 with python code using the OpenAI API for speech-to-text, LLM and text-to-speech. Whisper, Microsoft’s Phi-2 and Coqui for the offline version.

• Latest > I already have a fallback local LLM in case of Wifi outage. It’s quite slow and mostly there because I could. The current version logs questions and answers in a file but does not have “memory” (by design). It can also run on a battery pack. Also, I received the tiny USB microphone and small bluetooth speaker I ordered from AliExpress, so I got some LEGOs to make a smaller box (and stop using cardboard).

• Next > I plan to port from the Raspberry Pi 5 to the Pi Zero to make it even smaller and cheaper.

News Scanner

• What > An app that scans news on particular topics and sends a weekly email with titles, links and authors from top publications.

• Why > My comms colleague is looking for new journalists to connect with, and using Google News or Google Alerts takes too long due to the lack of filter.

• Status > Complete.

• Tech > SerpAPI to query Google News, python code for filtering, PythonAnywhere to host the code and run the code weekly.

• Next > a web version for one-off searches.

Portfolio Semantic Search

• What > An app can list relevant companies using natural language search (no need for an exact keyword).

• Why > Our portfolio counts over 800 startups and it’s impossible to keep all in mind. It could also be used to search startups that join our VC/Startup matchmaking events.

• Status > Functional prototype

• Tech > Use OpenAI API to create an embedding of the startups descriptions. The search query is also turned into an embedding, and used with a cosine similarity search to identify the closest matches.

• Next > I first made it a web app, then a local Mac app (which was interesting to make). The final version will be a web app.

Favorite AI Channels on Youtube

• Matthew Berman (detailed news)

• Greg Isenberg (business cases)

• Fireship (short news)

• How I AI (generalist)

• Andrej Karpathy (fairly technical - coined the terms ‘vibe coding’ and ‘context engineering)
  

3. CULTURE

MOVIES

The General*** (Youtube)
An old Buster Keaton from 1926 - quite charming and with some dangerous stunts. Buster was the Tom Cruise of his time! Free on Youtube.

10 Things I Hate about You** (Prime)
I am told it is part of some canon. I was definitely not the target audience. Quick comments:

• Some of the behaviors from 1999 would get you arrested in 2025.

• It is inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Upon research, the Bard’s story was itself inspired by many stories in the oral tradition of Europe - some in which the Shrew is tamed by birching. In the movie, the Shrew is aggressively independent, was tame before becoming shrewish, and needed to be seen and accepted to soften.

Mike Birbiglia: The Good Life** (Netflix)
I loved his previous standup specials but this one did not touch me as much.

SHOWS

DJ Mehdi: Made in France**** (Youtube)
My friend O. who had a record distribution company in the 90’s and 00’s told me about this free documentary on Youtube on France’s legendary DJ/producer/musician whom he knew very well. I was not plugged into that scene and didn’t know his name, but I knew his work (and you likely do too as he worked with Daft Punk, Justice, 113). Like Kanye, he started as a beatmaker for rappers, then worked with the electro French Touch scene as they used the same machines and he was a curious guy. I highly recommend it.

Silicon Valley**** (HBO)
I rewatched this show - still an excellent illustration of startup life. It had an almost prescient ending in this age of AI!

After School Doctor**** (Netflix)
I partially re-watched this Japanese show about a frowny doctor working in a primary school and dealing smartly with the physical, mental and social problems of little kids. It’s charming and intelligent - I recommend it!

Leviathan*** (Netflix)
A steampunk anime series where the pre-WWI world is divided between countries who use machines and those using genetically modified animals. Not amazing but well made and decent story.

Keep vibing!
— Ben

Surf’s up with AI!

MENU

1. WORK: Events
2. VIBE CODING: New Course, Free Workshop, AI in a Box
3. CULTURE: Bad Picks Again

1. WORK

Events

• Our virtual Health Tech matchmaking has over 700 registrations from investors and founders. Meetings take place next week. Register here (free)

• Bitter Truths and Sweet Lies — a hybrid event about metabolic health at our NY office on July 30. Register.

• We also announced the upcoming Climate Tech Matchup in September.

• Our annual Climate Tech Summit will be in November. Register here.

Events

• Berlin (September) - I’ll be at the VC Platform EU event where I’ll give a talk about “Vibe Coding for VCs”.

• NYC (September) - I’ll be at NYCW. We’re hosting a bunch of events at our NY office.

2. VIBE CODING

First Online Cohort

My up-skilling course on Vibe Coding (using AI to code without needing to know how to code) in partnership with Code For All in Portugal will start on July 1st!

• It will be 15 hours total, on Tue/Thu at 7pm-9:30pm UK/Lisbon time (3 weeks). I might do a US-time version later on.

• This a great skill unlock to future-proof careers.

• No coding experience needed. You will learn to use AI to generate code for personal apps, using libraries and APIs.

• If you’re a Portuguese resident, a government coupon can cover 100% of the cost!

• I am facilitating the first run of the course. They will run it with a license later on.

More info / register here (info in Portuguese but the course is in English).

Free Intro Workshop

I will run a free 1-hour hands-on intro workshop next week on June 26 (Thu). 7pm-8pm UK/Lisbon time. Register here (free).

Udemy Course

My Vibe Coding Bootcamp has passed 2,500 students on Udemy. It’s a fast-paced cornucopia of tech with practical and quirky examples. Watch in one go, then try some!

Latest Project: AI in a Box

I vibe coded a few things - including a scraper for X.com which was harder to do since Elon wants people to pay for data, but the project I am most excited about is this one:

I use ChatGPT for search constantly and found myself longing for a more direct system than typing or talking to my phone. What if I could have a simple box on my desk with one big button that I could press to ask a question, then get an answer?

Initially it was only for me, but I also thought that our son is an “AI native” and will soon enough have plenty of questions, so a kid-friendly safe simple and safe AI would be useful. Maybe for survivalists, campers, sailors, and others too.

Though I have worked with many hardware startups, I don’t know electronics and last time I soldered was probably 30 years ago in a middle-school technical class. So I asked ChatGPT, who helped me narrow down the options to a Raspberry Pi 5 as the main brain. I then vibe coded two systems:

• Online: using the OpenAI API for transcribing, prompt and even text-to-speech. This runs pretty fast. I called it “Tim” (for “Tiny Him”, as a reference to the movie Her).

• Offline: I wanted a way to work ‘off-grid’, potentially for wilderness or privacy reasons. So this mode does all locally: it uses a local speech-to-text model, a local LLM and local text-to-speech. I called it “Pim” because it runs entirely on the Pi, and also because it is slower and not as smart ;p

I still have a few kinks to iron out, but I have connected a USB microphone, a bluetooth speaker, and a friendly guy at the local hackerspace showed me how to solder the button and a couple of LEDs. Now I need a few more hours to finish and put it in a box.

Possible developments: memory / private mode, solar or crank-powered (to be 100% off-grid). Depending on your knowledge, this project might sound hard or easy (it is quite easy, though it uses cutting edge tech), but more importantly to me, it really feels great to build a first gadget!

3. CULTURE

MOVIES

It hasn’t been a good time for me.

Broken Rage*
I used to love Takeshi Kitano’s movies — Sonatine, Kids Return, Hana-bi, Kikujiro, Violent Cop… — and saw he had a fairly new one on Prime. Sadly, after a first half hour of average yakuza story, it switched to some nonsense slapstick comedy. Did he need money from Amazon? Maybe that’s the real yakuza move. I stopped before the end.

Gladiator 2*
I tried to watch it on a flight. I thought it was a sequel of some kind, but it looked more like a remake, with unnecessarily better special effects, a dose of wokeness and a lack of emotional connection. I stopped in less than 10 minutes. Better rewatch the first!

Maybe I should try and ask ChatGPT for recommendations…

SHOWS

Clarkson’s Farm*** (new season)
This time he’s trying to buy a pub while fighting bad weather. I like this show, which illustrates the difficulties, constraints and uncertainties of running a farm.

Rick and Morty** (new season)
Alongside Black Mirror, here is another show I really liked that I feel got worse. Is the loss of flavor due to the firing of one of the creators? Has this show run its course? Is this part of the enshittification trend?

PODCASTS

I was interviewed on a podcast focused on the immigration journey. I was recommended by Derek Sivers as I lived in 10 countries, dabble in 7 languages, and apparently have interesting ideas about cultures and communication. I wondered initially why I was asked as I don’t see myself as neither an immigrant nor an expat, but we had a good chat. The episode should come out this summer - we’ll see how it turned out!

As a side note, these days I’m listening to:

• Peter Zeihan on geopolitics. He likes hyperbole but he knows a lot.

• Greg Isenberg / Matthew Berman / Fireship on AI.

Word of the day: parsimonious.
Word of yesterday: profligate.

Keep vibing!
— Ben

Quick post before flying back from NY to Lisbon.

MENU

1. WORK: Health Matchup
2. VIBE CODING: Workshops, License, Discount
3. CULTURE: Bad Picks
4. THOUGHTS: Productive Laziness, Constructive Struggle, Debunking Frogs & Marshmallows

1. WORK

VC/Founders Virtual Matchmaking

• The Health Tech Matchup has just been announced today and the first 100 registrations came in. We expect over 1,000 participants including 500+ investors. Register here.

• Those events might sound like anecdotes, but they are the largest events of their kind, with unprecedented info about both startups and investors, and they are FREE!

2. VIBE CODING

The term “Vibe Coding” was coined 4 months ago, and my Vibe Coding Bootcamp launched 3 months ago on Udemy.

Here is what happened recently:

• I came up with an acronym to describe AI benefits: BASE, for Building and Prototyping, Automating Repetitive Tasks, Speeding Up Execution, Enhancing Skills. It’s such a skill multiplier I worry for those who are exposed to disruptions and don’t get on board fast. Surf’s up!

• I gave a talk on vibe coding followed by a panel with an experienced CTO discussing the benefits and limits. AI-assisted coding is here to stay, and vibe coding is democratizing access.

• I ran an in-person workshop and some individual coaching sessions, and saw people move from a deep “fear of code” (FoC?) to being excited and starting to build their own tools.

• The first licensing deal for a 15-hours training is on the way with a coding school in Portugal specialized in up-skilling non-IT workers (PMs, accountants, lawyers, businesspeople…). It might become the template for other licenses.

• I added a lesson on how to use Google Colab rather than VS Code. Colab is a cloud-based virtual environment which includes Gemini. It sidesteps all setup difficulties people experienced with VS Code. If you want to try it, click here.

To conclude with a couple of recent ideas:

• On my United flight I used the Wifi but it was quite unreliable, and annoying to try connecting again every now and then. So in less than 10 minutes I vibe coded a network tester, which would check connectivity and measure its speed every 5 min, and log it. Easy peasy!

• I use ChatGPT a lot with voice on my phone instead of googling, but I find annoying to use the phone. So I am planning to build a “ChatGPT button”: a box with one button that I would press to start recording your question, then press again when I’m done, and that will give me a quick voice answer from ChatGPT. It took me about 15 minutes to write the python code for the voice => speech-to-text => generate answer => text-to-speech. Now I need to get a simple hardware and button to run it! Can I sell it to Sam Altman for $6.5 billion? Time will tell!

 👉 Here is a coupon with the best price ($9.99) if you’d like to try the course. It is only valid for 3 DAYS so be quick! I recommend watching it all before trying to vibe code by yourself. It’s made for non-coders and I tried hard to make it fun, easy and practical — email me if you have any issues!

3. CULTURE

DOCUMENTARY

Becoming Led Zeppelin**
Watched on United. Didn’t learn much but still good vibes.

MOVIES

Boiling Point***
A chef reaches his boiling point in this movie shot in a single take. Impressive but stressful!

BROADWAY

Glengarry Glen Ross*
It really pains me to say I did not really enjoy my first broadway play! And this despite:

• A cast I love (Bob Odenkirk & Michael McKean / Better Call Saul, Bill Burr, Kieran Culkin / Succession),

• A movie I liked,

• Having paid $200.

Other spectators seem to have loved it, though. Maybe it’s the jetlag, or having too high expectations? At last now I know!

4. THOUGHTS

Debunking Frogs and Marshmallows

There are two persistent myths:

• The Boiling Frog. That it won’t notice it’s boiling. Actually, it will. I still think it’s useful as a shorthand, or as my friend Derek Sivers would say “Useful, Not True”.

• The Marshmallow Test. That if a child can delay gratification they will be more successful later in life. Actually, there is no correlation at all. Also, they had not considered things like appetite, taste for sugar, trust in adults (will they really give me the 2 marshmallows they promised?). Self-regulation later in life (measured through surveys at ages 17, 27, and 37) was a better predictor of adult outcomes than marshmallow wait time. It can be learned!

Productive Laziness

• On the Vibe Coding panel, the CTO talked about the joy of putting sometimes disproportionate effort into code to avoid doing some boring work. I have the exact same spirit with vibe coding!

• The benefit of “doing” and acquiring new knowledge and skills pays off over time. For instance, by now I can whip out a custom web scraper in minutes, and use many other technology bricks to build quick programs. Productive laziness has compounding returns.

Constructive Struggle

• I had some thoughts and discussions recently about the benefits of "“constructive struggle”.

• As Nvidia's CEO said in a recent talk, struggle builds character (as long as it is not so hard it crushes you).

• For instance, many immigrants work hard for the hope of a better life, but their kids often grow up with more comfort and do not have the same drive.

• Similarly, children of well-off families, or kids with helicopter / lawnmower parents are deprived of the agency and growth opportunities from struggling.

• Arguably, life throws enough struggle at everyone without trying, but could we pick some useful ones?

• Now the questions is: how can you engineer constructive struggle when struggle is not necessary? I know jiu-jitsu was for me a chosen struggle (though I didn’t know I was going to get smashed for 2 years), and so were Asian languages I learned, and even learning python! Now that I’m a dad, I am thinking about what constructive struggle we should plan for our little boy ;)

Keep vibing!
— Ben

Keeping up the tempo - as a few things are happening.

MENU

1. WORK: Matchups
2. VIBE CODING: 2000+ students!
3. CULTURE: Silicon Valley 10y, Maths, VR Games
4. EXPERIENCES: Scams and Tricks
5. THOUGHTS: AI or Die

1. WORK

VC/Founders Virtual Matchmaking

• The SOSV Biomanufacturing event ended with 800 participants (about 50% investors) and a NPS of 44. Some new tools we introduced (and vibe coded) helped.

• Next events are focused on Health (June) and Climate. Pre-register here.

2. VIBE CODING

Quite a lot happened since the launch of my Vibe Coding Bootcamp on Udemy 2 months ago (the very first one published there):

• Over 2,000 students.

• Selected into the “Udemy Business” catalog.

• Received requests and in talks to license the course for trainings!

The feedback also helped me realize a few things:

• Setup can be difficult. Cursor and Google Colab might be better than VS Code.

• Vibe Coding can get you fired. Some firms don’t like you to run unverified code.

• Vibe Coding has limits. Great for prototyping and personal apps. Not enough (yet) for public apps that require reliability, security and performance.

More than ever, I am convinced that vibe coding is the fastest, most useful (and most fun) skill unlock of the decade. Try it out here!

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Silicon Valley**** (HBO)
It’s been 10 years! It is fun to rewatch it now that I’ve spent a decade in the world of VC and startups. Most of it is still relevant - a crash course in startup life with lots of gems. I also have a renewed appreciation for some of the characters (Jared/Donald in particular). Several actors are standup comics!

Legally Blonde *
Apparently I suffered from a cultural gap. This was the first opus of a canon I was supposed to watch. Not being the target audience made the first half especially difficult — lots of cringe.

Mean Girls**
More tolerable. Still not the target market. Wish me luck for the third one! (will you guess?)

VR GAMES

Tiny Archers VR***
You’re an elf shooting at goblins attacking your tower. What’s not to love?

PowerWash Simulator***
I only played the trial version, but a thorough power wash can indeed be very satisfying. See this guy on YouTube.

MATHS

Over 3 decades ago I was taking advanced math classes to prep for engineering school. I recall there was one little exercise I could not solve, with an interesting unstable solution to an iterated series. I couldn’t recall the details so I finally asked ChatGPT, who quickly helped narrow down the problem, then solve it! If you’re versed in the arts:

• f(x) = 2 . sin(pi . x)

• The only fixed points are 0 and x* = 2 . sin (pi . x*) (±0.72)

• | f’(0) | and | f’(x*) | > 1 so they are repelling fixed points.

• It also has ergodic behavior and values explore the whole space.

BIG ANIMALS

Can a bird carry a coconut? A baby?

• The strongest bird out there — the harpy eagle — can carry max 5kg (about half their body weight of 10kg), roughly the weight of a 3-months-old baby.

• The heaviest insect is only about 100g.

• The heaviest land mammal is the African bush elephant (±10t) and sea mammal is the Antarctic blue whale (max 190 tons).

4. EXPERIENCES

Blackout Part 2

I talked about my Lisbon 10-hour blackout experience in the previous email. I forgot to mention the type of concerns I had:

• How long will the water from the tap/shower be usable? It needs treatment.

• How will hospitals do after a few hours? Their generators will likely last only a day.

• How long will transports work? Gas stations are out so people only have 1 tank of gas.

Scams

Thanks to my reader A. who shared a "six zeros" scam story!

• It’s a fairly elaborate scammer pretending to be an investment firm offering an investment in the form of a convertible loan (Safe) to a startup at a high valuation.

• They asked to put the first year's note interests in an escrow stablecoin wallet, for “guarantee”.

• The US-based startup founder went to meet in person in Europe, had all the paperwork in order reviewed by lawyers, etc.

• The money was gone within minutes. Now it's a criminal case. As often: if it's too good to be true, it probably is. But… dayam!

Any seven zero scam?

Business Dishonesty

After scams, a few other tricks I came across:

• This guy spied on his tech employer for their competitor for 5kEUR / month.

• Looking at some online courses, some creators had many thousands of students but only a handful of reviews… Free passive users to boost optics.

• A friend discovered his YouTube channel had systematic downvotes, and found out their competitor used “capping bots” to do it, and game the algorithm.

Play fair!

5. THOUGHTS

AI or Die

• I came across a video of a pulmonologist looking at an X-ray who said he spent 20 years honing his craft and now AI does it in seconds. That’s an example of a high-skill profession made irrelevant.

• On that note, the first decade of my life was in market research and consulting. It is a peculiar feeling to think that I spent a decade doing work that AI can now probably do in minutes. I suppose those skills apply elsewhere, but still…

• The CEO of Duolingo said AI teaches better than humans (but schools will remain because people need daycare).

• Entry-level tech job offers have seen a big drop in numbers. Is the on-ramp disappearing?

• In academia a famous phrase is “publish or perish”, which MIT Media Lab then evolved into “Demo or Die” then “Deploy or Die”. I think ignoring AI today is like putting one’s head in the sand - like refusing to see doctors because one doesn’t want to know. It is quite clear that some jobs will disappear, and others will require AI literacy. It is not really AI or Die yet, but the writing is on the wall. The best way to start? You guessed it: vibe coding ;)

Over and out.
— Ben

More vibe coding, Portugal Blackout and some other things

MENU

1. WORK: Biomanufacturing Event
2. VIBE CODING: AI-First Firms, Course
3. CULTURE: More White Lotus, Monte Cristo, Gates Book

1. WORK

Biomanufacturing VC/Founder Matchmaking

• It is the 10th virtual matchmaking event I curated.

• There are 2 more this year: Health and Climate (pre-register here).

• Expected: 200 investors + 200 founders. Result: 350 investors + 450 founders.

• So many things can be made with biology now!

2. VIBE CODING

• After Shopify’s CEO memo, Duolingo’s CEO also announced they were now “AI-first”, and released 150 new courses thanks to AI. How many will follow suit?

• How to get their team up to speed? Where to start? Should they just prompt a random LLM? Should they try to use workflow automation tools? Should they learn to code?

One thing for sure: AI literacy is a new must-have, and here to stay!

One approach is to get familiar with using LLMs to produce code for fast prototyping and personal tools. This is the purpose of the crash course I created on Udemy: in about one hour you’ll see LOTS of applications.

• My course passed 700 students and has a rating of 4.6 / 5. Reviews include “Fun, interesting and fully practical course”

• My talk at the VC Platform Summit was called “MONUMENTAL”

• Here is a coupon with the best price ($9.99) that expires in 5 days (code: MAY2025).

• If your firm is interested in AI training with vibe coding, a workshop or a talk, let me know!

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

White Lotus**** (HBO)
Seasons 2 and 3 were great as well. This show is good at planting checkov guns, plot misdirection and making characters linger in awkwardness. There is also a sentiment of watching happen multiple slow train wrecks. Good job, Mike White and crew! Likely the best show I watched this year.

The Count of Monte Cristo*** (Prime)
The Alexandre Dumas classic about revenge is quite ok, though it definitely loses some literary charm. It was apparently partly inspired by a true story, and Dumas used a researcher / co-author that history mostly forgot.

BOOKS

Bill Gates: Source Code***

• A pretty good read. Gates really benefited from great timing, location and meeting other geeks before it was cool.

• Then his curiosity, enormous focus, confidence in learning and various strategic decisions really worked out for him.

• He also explored many ideas along the way, and was quite tactical in seizing opportunities.

• It sounded like he hoped to become a pure mathematician or scientist, but did not feel he had what it took to be the top dog in this field, and went into business instead in an exciting emerging industry.

• I also learned about various surprising hobbies he had, the loss of a dear friend, and that he apparently took (some) drugs (I thought he never did due to a Steve Jobs quote about him and LSD).

4. EXPERIENCES

Blackout

I experienced a 10-hours blackout in Lisbon from noon to 10pm. Among the interesting bits:

• Nobody knew how long it would last.

• Light, internet and most mobile networks were down.

• People went for picnic in the park.

• We were stocked enough with food for a week and not stressed out.

• Almost every supermarket was closed. I shopped with a flashlight.

• The butcher put the meat in the walk-in freezer. The ice-cream store had a queue!

• Rumors spread that the cause was (a) the Russians (b) a weather event (c) some cable. We still don’t know… I suspect Big Icecream.

• I am now in the market for a small solar panel and battery system :)

Scams

I can’t go into details as some are developing stories, but I’ve learned about several scams that happened in Portugal.

• One “0” scam: Overcharged by an airport taxi. Extra cost: ±$10

• Two “0” scam: Government services pretending that there is a charge to pay urgently. About $200

• Three to Four “0” scam: Fake buyers on a classified site that manipulate sellers to authorize access to their bank’s current account, and wipe it clean. I heard stories from $2000 to $30,000+

• Variable scam: the random whatsapp or dating app contact that explains she has a great crypto trading team and is happy to share her success. One used an entirely fake platform. The mark could get its initial money back with some profit, before putting the real money in.

• Five “0” scam: Fake buyers of expensive properties, who arrange a kind of kickback fee before payment is made. Cost: hundreds of thousands.

• I am awaiting to hear about scams in the millions. Those would likely be with companies rather than individuals.

Home Chemistry

I am still looking for 2-deoxy-D-ribose to try this experiment.

Over and out.
— Ben

This is it - I am obsessed with “Vibe Coding” (creating software with LLMs without reading the code). More below.

MENU

1. WORK: Events, Matchup
2. VIBE CODING: Bootcamp!
3. CULTURE: White Lotus, Bill Burr, Hello Ladies

1. WORK

VC Platform Summit

• The VC Platform Summit in Miami just concluded and it is truly a remarkable event.

• Congrats to the team, especially Dan who was kind enough to put me on a big stage to talk about “Vibe Coding for VCs” where I shared examples of AI automation applied to various tasks.

Bio-manufacturing Virtual Matchmaking

• We already exceeded our goal of 200 investors and 200 startups (total over 500 now).

• This free virtual event takes place on April 21-25. Register here.

2. VIBE CODING

Shopify’s CEO told his staff that AI proficiency is now mandatory for ALL employees (Forbes). The CEO of Box concurred, and I couldn’t agree more.

• AI proficiency is the most important skill unlock of the decade.

• “Vibe Coding” is the easiest path to it.

I also believe the crash course I created on Udemy is one of the fastest ways to get started on vibe coding.

• It is nearing 300 students in only a month

• Rating: 4.8 / 5 - it has been described as:

  “Absolutely world class, terrific… I learned so much and tried so many of the examples… it was totally inspiring! This vibe coding stuff is un-fucking-believable! Amazing. Great course. Loved it.”

• Register with the coupon APR2025 (best price: only $10 for a critical new skill!)

• For fun (and learning), one of the lessons explains how to create a “Ghiblifier” - here is a trailer:

Target Users:

• Non-technical people, so they understand not only the principle of vibe coding, but get exposure to many amazing libraries and APIs (e.g. browser and GUI automation, computer vision, NLP, OpenAI and many more tools)

• Tech people who want a quick primer on the latest tech.

• Corporations who want to train their team quickly and affordable with a fun course.

=> If you’re interested in offering a fun A.I. Vibe Coding workshop or bootcamp to level up your team on AI skills, let me know!

Note: I’ve already done several workshops very well received - see www.vibecodingcourse.com for more info.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

White Lotus**** (HBO)
The staff and clients of a luxury resort. Everyone is a bit insane but also very real. This was actually a great show. I only watched season 1 for now and hope the other 2 are just as good.

Bill Burr: Drop Dead Years (Disney+)***
Not his best but still a good show. What is it doing on Disney+ ?

Hello Ladies** (HBO)
I like Stephen Merchant (The Outlaws and of course The Office UK were great). This show was cute but not outstanding.

Nosso Sonho**
Stumbled upon this “documentary” about a brazilian musical duo who rose to fame years ago. It’s ok.

4. EXPERIENCES

Home Chemistry

A team of researchers who were studying wound treatments on mice found that hair was re-growing faster than usual. In 2024 they published a widely-cited article focused on the hair part. They used a gel with 2-deoxy-D-ribose - a naturally ocurring sugar in the human body. I’m in the market to buy some! Most labs don’t sell to individuals so I’m trying via Alibaba and my personal network. If you know a freelance pharmacist or chemist who ships to Lisbon, let me know! ;)

Skin Scan

During a visit to Paris, a department store had just installed a brand new Korean skin scanner (like this one) in their cosmetics department. It measured hydration, UV damage and more. The pictures were quite horrific - great way to sell products ;p

That’s all for today - keep vibin’ !
— Ben

The “Vibe Coding” edition - sign up here to the virtual workshop on April 1st!

MENU

1. WORK: Travels, Matchup, Event
2. VIBE CODING: Course, Apps, Workshops
3. CULTURE: Innocuous Works

1. WORK

Travels

• Hello Tomorrow in Paris was great. Looking forward to next year!

• I’ll be at VC Platform in Miami in April, running a session on “Vibe coding for VC”.

Biomanufacturing Matchup

• The next matchup will be announced shortly. The theme is Biomanufacturing - making things with biology. We expect 200+ startups and 200+ investors to join this free virtual event on April 21-25. Pre-register here.

Deep Tech Live

• SOSV launched a new series of events focused on deep tech. They take place at our NY office and are broadcasted live + shared on various podcast platforms.

• Previous session: “From the IRA to "Drill Baby Drill" with Professor Jesse Jenkins, Princeton University, co-host of the Shift Key podcast Leader of Princeton’s Zero Lab (video)

• Next sessions: “The evolution of space tech and the role of startups in shaping the next era of exploration” with Aerospace Corporation CEO Steve Isakowitz (March 27, RSVP), and “Commercializing Deep Tech for Industrial Resilience” with Dr. Vanessa Chan, Vice-Dean Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Penn Engineering + Former Chief Commercialization Officer, U.S. Department of Energy (April 2, RSVP)

2. VIBE CODING

Since it’s a serious hobby now, it will have its own section for a while. My main takeaway is that it’s a new and important skill to acquire: the ability to talk to an AI to create apps, without learning to code!

• It enables non-coders to create personal apps to automate things, even “single use” apps. Some build complete websites, automated workflows and more.

• Experienced coders can even use that to create apps that can be shared safely and scaled.

My Course

• My crash course on Udemy (discount code: MAR2025) has passed 100 students! Each sale and review is a great feeling :) (current rating: 4.8 / 5).

• Besides non-coders, I was surprised to see that experienced coders enjoyed it, as a way to learn about what is possible today.

Some apps I made recently…

• A telegram bot to send me new reviews of the course (uses the Udemy API).

• Another bot to track a crypto asset hourly (scrapes a website).

• An app to track baby feeding times and mood.

• A scraper to get a list of 2,000+ AI startups from a startup map (download wasn’t enabled so it loads the entire page, then scrapes the rendered HTML).

• A tool to create 100+ google alerts to track startups (note: since Google didn’t have an API and blocked browser automation, I used GUI automation + computer vision to click buttons).

Workshop

• I thought that meeting users in-person would be interesting so I organized a workshop in Lisbon last week, which ended up fully booked.

• I will be running another workshop at the VC Platform Summit in Miami next month.

• I will run a virtual workshop on April 1st at 6pm-7pm GMT / 2pm-3pm ET / 11am-12pm PST. You can register here (free). It will be mostly LIVE Vibe Coding, and I highly recommend to take my crash course beforehand to understand what is going on. Here is a discount code: MAR2025 (< $15).

Explorations

• I mostly use ChatGPT and VS Code but I’ve started playing with Claude (which seems to code better), Replit (1-click to deploy but every AI edit costs money, and live files are “locked”).

• I’m looking into making my first Android app thanks to vibe coding.

• I shared some thoughts on why vibe coding is the best on-ramp and up-skilling path to coding in this article.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Represent*** (Netflix)
A French community educator decides to run for president. Entertaining comedy that references many recent event in french politics.

The Internship** (Netflix)
An older comedy about two sales dudes landing internships at Google. Good enough if you're tired. I'm using vibe coding to build the mobile app they created during one of the challenges.

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl*** (Netflix)
While the poetry is on Miyazaki’s side and insanity on Satoshi Kon’s, I have to give Nick Park credit for consistent outstanding craftsmanship. And this time, I found the story pretty funny too. Neat and tidy!

Flow** (Prime)
How many ways to skin a cat? This indie animation is a good work considering the budget, but I did not feel much for it after they tried to kill this poor cat in so many ways.

Moana 2** (Disney+)
I’m probably not the right demographic for this, but I tried.

BOOKS

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama**
The story of Bob Odenkirk, and how he became Breaking Bad’s one and only Saul Goodman. From standup and odd TV shows to a somewhat serious role with complex emotions to portray. Maybe he did it so well because success came late to him!

That’s all for now!
— Ben

I’ve launched a short AI course for non-techies on Udemy! (free code below for the first 100)

MENU

1. WORK: Classic Work Stuff
2. EXPERIENCES: Baby, Vibe Coding
3. CULTURE: Structures
4. THOUGHTS: Training Wrong

1. WORK

Travels

I’ll be speaking at Hello Tomorrow in Paris next week, and joining VC Platform in Miami in April.

Matchups

• Our Women’s Health VC/founder virtual matchmaking concluded with about 3x the expected number of participants — over 500 participants and 1000+ meetings. It was great to see the sharp rise in interest in this category!

• To pre-register for our events on Biomanufacturing, Health Tech and Climate Tech click here (free).

2. EXPERIENCES

Baby

My son is born and his mom and he are in good health. I won’t expand much as non-parents are unlikely to care, and parents already know the drill. Suffice to say it’s an experience!

Vibe Coding

Since I now have a baby and can’t sleep much, I put this time to good use and I created a short course (about one hour) on vibe coding.

I have shared in this newsletter my experiences learning python, and how ChatGPT has been a game changer for both creating works tools and hobby projects.

When I realized I was building things without even reading code, it looked like this was a skill anyone could (should?) learn. It’s now called “vibe coding” and is taking the world by storm (see on New York Times and Business Insider). And it’s A LOT easier than learning to code - it’s more like being a product manager.

My course was approved last night on Udemy and as part of the launch, I am offering it for free for the first 100 users — in exchange, I ask you to send me feedback by email (what you liked, what could be improved, what else would you like to see in the course?) , or even better: a review on Udemy! I hope you like it!

I want to learn vibe coding NOW!

PS: I think it’s the first course to exist on the topic - the term “vibe coding” was coined by Andrej Karpathy, co-founder of OpenAI, just a month ago!

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Riku Oh*** (Netflix)
A Japanese drama with Yakusho Koji (a great actor) about a tabi maker venturing into sports shoes. Quite cute.

Wild Babies*** (Netflix)
A documentary on wild animal babies - lions, pangolins, bears, seals, monkeys… Some interesting parenting techniques.

Skeleton crew** (Disney+)
A Star Wars universe side story - kind of a mashup of Goonies, ET and Indiana Jones. Kids + Jude Law in there. Not bad, not amazing.

BOOKS

Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down***
Recommended by Elon via ChatGPT. I read this after the baby wakes up at night… It’s an old-ish but timeless book about how things stand up and don’t collapse. It really made me look at quite a few things around me differently:

• Why my gi breaks around the patches,

• How compressing solids could store energy,

• Why karate chops work,

• Why old people break bones (it’s not direct impact)

• The mystery of bicycle wheels

4. THOUGHTS

Training Wrong

I am realizing that I have probably been training BJJ quite wrong: too much theory, too little “live” practice. The ideal ratio — according to coach John Danaher — seems to be about 1 to 5, going from compliant training to fully resisting opponent.

I think this applies also to training with AI, and it is also what makes vibe coding so appealing: it’s almost entirely practice, with tiny bits of theory that ChatGPT sprinkles here and there if you bother to read or ask questions.

‘til next month
— Ben

Picking up the pace this year. Shorter letter!

MENU

1. WORK: Women’s Health, Trips
2. EXPERIENCES: Making Apps, Glucose, Body Damage
3. CULTURE: Tokyo Vice, American Primeval, Franklin & more
4. THOUGHTS: Coding with AI

1. WORK

Matchups

• This week I’m running a VC/Founder virtual matchmaking event focused on Women’s Health. It’s an important theme at SOSV and we have over 20 investments in the category.

• The event sort of blew up and while we expected about 100 founders and 100 investors, we now have 350 startups and close to 200 investors signed up.

• The event is 100% virtual and free. You can register here.

• We have other similar events coming up this year on Biomanufacturing, Health Tech and Climate Tech. Pre-register here.

Travels

I’ll be speaking at Hello Tomorrow in Paris in March and joining VC Platform in Miami in April.

2. EXPERIENCES

Making Apps

• As ChatGPT has become a very capable developer, I set out to build a “Tinder-like” experience for our VC/Founder matchmaking events to increase the engagement of investors.

• The experience felt more akin to product management than programming, aside from a few manual tweaks to the code provided by GPT-4. The app is now up and running!

• I also tried to build an AI version of David Lynch to continue his weather reports. Use APIs for the weather, ChatGPT for Lynchisms, a voice clone then a video and finally publish! Or so I thought. It was all well until the video, as services prevent users from using the likeness of celebrities so I had to stop there. I still got the voice though!

Sugar Sugar

• I got a continuous glucose monitor (Abbott’s Freestyle Libre 2 - about 50 EUR for 2 weeks). It sits painlessly on the back of an arm.

• The goal was to check my glucose and especially response to various foods, sleep, exercise patterns.

• Aside from avoiding too much cake or entire bags of pao de queijo, all is well!

Body Damage

• After a few twisted fingers, damaged ears and fractured ribs over the years with BJJ, I got a septum fracture which required surgery — my first — with general anesthesia. Cost: 2,200 EUR. While the fracture and surgery were quite painless, the first 2-3 days of recovery were fairly uncomfortable.

• Side note: the ER doctor I first saw told me to wait for two weeks. I didn’t listen and quickly went to a ENT specialist, who recommended to operate ASAP.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Tokyo Vice (HBO)****
I really enjoyed this show, loosely based on the eponymous book by US journalist Jake Adelstein I read back in 2010 or so. He worked for the crime unit of a Japanese newspaper in Tokyo for many years. In fact, quite a few of the stories I remember hearing about when I lived there! The cast is excellent (with one exception) and the stories mostly true.

American Primeval (Netflix)***
A brutal show about a young lady with a boy traveling to the US West circa 1850. Solid story, acting, sets, etc. The author co-wrote The Revenant, so you can expect quite graphic scenes.

The Cage (Netflix)*
This show is about a young underdog MMA fighter trying to rise to the top. I don’t know what I was expecting but it didn’t have it.

MOVIES

Definitely Maybe***
Cute romcom with Ryan Reynolds.

Lion King 2**
Not bad.

BOOKS

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin***
He wrote it for his son and legacy, and likely removed what didn’t fit his intended narrative, but it was quite a surprise to learn about his upbringing, how he built businesses and community projects, invented things, got into public service… as well as his principles to improve himself, one virtue at a time. It reads very well despite being published in 1791. I tried to read Walter Isaacson’s biography after that but while I suppose Isaacson added his own research I found too many quotes from Franklin’s bio and gave up.

GAMES

Exit 8 (Quest 3)***
Still exploring the occasional VR game. The latest one being this odd game in which you’re walking in a corridor of the Tokyo subway, and have to notice anything bizarre then turn around.

FitXR***
Quite a good VR workout app, with Zumba, fitness boxing and more.

MUSIC

GoGo Penguin****
I went to see a concert by this British jazz/electronica band. It was excellent, and all played with real instruments!

4. THOUGHTS

Coding with AI

• Things are moving at breakneck speed in that space, and AI really opens up product development in a big way to amateurs.

  • Forget the careful “measure twice, cut once”.

  • In Shenzhen, the supply chain was so efficient that I learned “measure once, cut twice”.

  • With AI, changing things is so fast and cheap that you barely need to “measure” (define a clear spec). Measure once, and cut 100 times!

• I’ve heard several people say that too:

  • "It's the era of the idea guy." -- Shaan Puri, My First Million podcast

  • “It’s for the AI PM with ideas.” — Andrew Ng

  • "Find an industry that you're familiar with and build a GPT wrapper to automate some of the work there. You can do it 100 times and one of them will take off." -- Amjad Masad, Replit

• Now I’m experimenting with creating AI agents to write code, review it, create the art, etc. a bit like in the seminal publication ChatDev (already quoted over 500 times in less than a year). It actually worked quite well for simple games!

• The future is probably more about how to coordinate / manage AI agents than code, though during this transition phase, knowing some programming helps quite a lot. Along those lines, I recently gave a short presentation explaining how to get started (learning the minimum viable amount of python to use an API).

To the future!
— Ben

Welcome to 2025! It’s been a few months - let’s unpack that.

MENU

1. WORK: Thousands of Meetings at Matchups, Asia Tour
2. EXPERIENCES: Asia, BJJ Brown Belt, Coding, Expectation
3. CULTURE: Health Shows, Digital Art
4. THOUGHTS: US Elections, What is Worth Learning?

1. WORK

Matchups

I ran four VC/Founder virtual matchmaking events in 2024. They attracted over 1,500 investors and close to 2,500 founders, leading to thousands of meetings. While it’s impossible to know how many deals happened, SOSV alone invested in 8 startups we met through those events, making them our single largest source.

Asia Tour

The climate tech events in Singapore, HK, Seoul and Tokyo went well with 50-100+ investors participating. Those markets are definitely behind the US and EU in the climate space, but interest is rising. For the cultural part, see below.

2. EXPERIENCES

Asia Tour

In addition to quick stops in SG, HK and Seoul I took 10 days off in Japan. The timing was great and the yen at a 20-year low. It was also my first “long vacation” there in 2 decades after living there for 4 years. Fortunately I managed to maintain my Japanese language skills, which made the trip super easy :)

Among the highlights (in no particular order):

• Beautiful maple and gingko leaves in Matsushima (ya!). I initially hoped to see red leaves in Akita but it was already too far North. Fortunately the Japan Weather Association track 775 spots for foliage and helped me course-correct.

• Cat cafe (in Seoul) and Shiba cafe (in Kyoto). I did not visit the owl cafe, the bengal cat cafe, the mini-pig cafes — all in Kyoto.

• Kabuki experience in Kyoto. Explanations about origins (it was all female!), costumes, makeup, sound effects (early foley)

• Convenience stores are as great as usual, with much better quality and healthier options than abroad. ATMs for foreign cards were also a life savior.

• Jimjilbang (Korean spa) in Seoul. Chill time.

• Digital art museum by TeamLab in Tokyo (their Singapore show is a bit crap compared to their Tokyo ones).

• K-pop performance featuring the son of a Korean friend. He is a trained musician but started dancing 2 years ago. He just signed a 4-year contract to try to become a star with a group.

• Louise Bourgeois show at the Mori Arts Museum in Roppongi Hills. Quite a few cool pieces - including a revisit of Charcot’s hysteria.

Among the changes I noticed in Japan:

• A LOT of tourists in famous spots. I mostly avoided those areas. Japan is adapting to it as their tourism ratio is still quite low (25M for 125M or 1:5 vs. 100M for 68M in France or 1:0.7).

• Many foreign staff in convenience stores and restaurants (from their name tags, mostly South Asians, Koreans, Chinese). They all seemed to speak quite good Japanese. Japan’s birthrate is at 1.26 (Korea at 0.78) and average age at 49.4 so it looks like they relaxed immigration a bit - we’re at a peak with 3.5 million for 124.5 million (still only 2.8% vs. 13.8% in the US).

• Worse English? It was never great, and while the olympics might have helped improve in the hospitality sector, it felt like Japan had turned more insular than before. Korea was the opposite. Note that I only used English occasionally.

• Cash is sometimes the only option and foreign cards are sometimes not working, while China is all digital — and even in Lisbon where I live I rarely use cash or even plastic cards.

Brown Belt

I received my brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Frankly I don’t think I put as much sustained effort into any skill or hobby ever before (even in learning Japanese). Impostor syndrome struck again, but the professors said to everyone “if you don’t know why you’re receiving this belt, we do”. I feel the target on my back just grew larger, in a gym where most people are 10-20 years younger and 10-20 kg heavier (sometimes 30-40kg)… I try to beat enough of them so they don’t notice I’m barely hanging in there ;)

Temu

I wasn’t a big shopper but the dirt-cheap prices and creativity of the weird gadgets I found on Temu got to me. I have now ordered dozens of semi-useful things, from a magnetic agitator to the highly-rated toilet light (I ordered several more as gifts). It’s a bit hit or miss but some products turned out to be great.

Coding a Game

Toying again with Python code, I managed to build a simple “flappy bird” game in 2 hours, with graphics and background music using ChatGPT (it used the popular gamepy library). It’s not GTA or COD but the development speed impressed me (and some tech savvy friends). Further thoughts on this in the last part of this newsletter.

Expectation

I’m part of the expecting team as we are pregnant with a boy due in February. I’m discovering the joys of getting equipment, medical visits and glucose monitoring. How do you get enough D, B12, choline, as well as C to absorb enough Fe, and keep your glucose in check? (the answer for the latter: an over-the-counter CGM patch - it’s quite educative to track). A little anecdote: Japan and Korea offer cute tags to pregnant women that help get priority seats or entry in various locations. Japan introduced them almost 20 years ago. It was a proud moment to get them, and I doubt many tourists did!

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

After School Doctor (Netflix)***
Surprisingly good! This unassuming Japanese drama features a young and grumpy pediatrician sent to work at a primary school due to an issue at his hospital. Each episode deals with some issue the children face and hit me in the feels with its “Mr Rogers” vibes. It also reminded me of the Korean movie “My Teacher, Mr. Kim” I liked years ago.

MOVIES

Respect*** (Netflix)
A biopic of Aretha Franklin — true singing & musicianship!

Joy*** (Netflix)
An interesting movie about the invention of in-vitro fertilization. Despite government, church and sometimes public opinion resistance (including James Watson of DNA fame), the first IVF baby was born in 1978, followed by millions (about 2% of US babies) and a Nobel prize in Medicine in 2010 - a tad late as 2 of the 3 inventors had passed away.

DOCUMENTARIES

Don’t Die** (Netflix)
If you’re already familiar with Bryan Johnson’s longevity antics, the main novelty is the personal aspects, notably his religious upbringing and relation with his youngest son. If you’re not, you might be surprised by the extent of this modern health explorer’s commitment to finding a solution to aging, and marketing his journey to the masses. For the busy crowd: exercise, sleep, eating right (+ avoid sugar, alcohol, smoking).

ART

The City of Wine***
An educative and experiential exhibition about wine, in the city of Bordeaux. I was intrigued by the “fake” wines (some not even involving grape) which plagued the market until more controls were introduced.

TeamLab: Borderless**
Digital art rarely gives me much emotion, but some of the Tokyo installations of TeamLab, a team of Japanese “ultra-technologists” were quite thrilling. Note that they also have a show in Singapore which is unfortunately not as good.

4. THOUGHTS

US Elections

As a French living in Lisbon I didn’t really have a horse in this race, but I am wondering what the first batch of executive orders will be, what the DOGE department headed by Elon and Vivek will come up with, and what RFK Jr. will do with healthcare. My native France is generally trailing 10-20 years behind the US on social and political movements so it might be a window into its future.

What Is Worth Learning

With tools like ChatGPT offering instant (albeit sometimes flawed) knowledge, the question arises: how much "theoretical" learning is necessary before diving into creation?

• If you want to make music, should you spend years in a music school? Or should you simply sing your ideas into a microphone and use software to refine them?

• If you dream of building a computer game, is it essential to study computer science? Or could you collaborate with tools like ChatGPT or Claude to develop your vision, learning what you need along the way?

This question speaks to both the present and the future of learning.

• Do we need solid foundational knowledge to begin?

• Or should we prioritize curiosity and playfulness as the core drivers of education? After all, many top musicians today can’t read sheet music or play an instrument, but they can recognize good sounds and transform raw ideas into polished art.

Similarly, when I created my small game, my primary role was guiding the process—providing instructions and reviewing a bit of code—rather than writing it myself. The friction was minimal.

Tools are both enabling and limiting — if I have a hammer… — but could provide not only the reward of faster creations, but also a better on-ramp to deeper interest.

On those thoughts, onward to 2025!
— Ben

It’s been over 3 months since the last one, quite a bit to unpack!

MENU

1. WORK: Climate Summit, Asia Tour
2. EXPERIENCES: Longevity, Coding
3. CULTURE: Clarkson Farm, Fisk, K-Pop, Emily?
4. THOUGHTS: A.I. skills, Lowering the Bar

Subscribe now

1. WORK

Climate Summit

The new fund is closed with $306M! My attention is now on our annual Climate Tech Summit (large virtual and free event taking place in October). Click here to register (3,500+ signups as of today).

We are running another VC/Founder virtual matchmaking event. Those have worked surprisingly well. It has a separate registration here (already 700+ signups).

Asia Tour

I’ll be in Singapore, HK, Seoul and Tokyo late October / early November to run investors-focused climate tech events. It’s been a year!

2. EXPERIENCES

Longevity Conference

Over the past 25 years I can count on one hand the events where I felt at the cutting edge of an emerging domain. I had that feeling at the recent Longevity State Conference.

During 2 days, about 100 participants (researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, activists) shared and connected on the topic of longevity. While SOSV has invested in a handful of companies that would fit the definition, it was a rather new angle for me.

Definitions vary but in short, there are:

• Those who want to live healthy until they die (= ideally with the body and mind of a young adult),

• Those who want to “defeat aging” / “kill death” or, in the words of Bryan Johnson (who spoke remotely at the event), “don’t die”.

While the conference did not dive into technicalities (there was a follow-up event for that) - here are some high-level approaches:

• prevent

• repair

• replace (ever heard of ‘full body replacement’?)

• if nothing works, freeze (cryo)

While there are already close to 200 startups at work globally, the main complain was the lack of money going into longevity, which would require moonshot-level budgets. Longevity would not only be a benefit for individuals, but also for nations facing population collapse and costing a fortune as they age (e.g. due to low birthrate - South Korea is at 0.72 — population replacement is at 2.1).

Some speakers discussed the policy aspect - how to enable faster trials and go-to-market. Or maybe establish new “independent states” with more favorable regulations (e.g. Vitalia, based in the special economic zone of Honduras).

It was also the first conference where I was offered drips and blood banking.

Back to Coding

To refresh and improve, I completed the Harvard CS50 Python course on EdX, which I recommend. I gave a shot to their AI course but found it way harder - from recursive algorithms to Bayesian Networks and Markov Models. Still, I’m keen on skilling up as having more tools in the tool belt helps creativity.

To give an example: after a discussion about whale songs — which are partly infrasound (below 20Hz) and thus not audible by humans — I wondered about how to embed voice or text (like a URL) in sound using ultrasound (around 20kHz), something a machine could still hear but a human would not. It led me to experiments with text-to-speech, speech to text, FFT, morse code, NATO alphabet (“alpha tango…”) and eventually opting for some kind of “what-three-words” addressing system.

Thanks to ChatGPT and python the whole thing took just a few hours. AI is really enabling creativity by reducing friction between idea and execution, and lowering the cost (in both money and time) of experiments.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Clarkson Farm***
I never watched Top Gear but Amazon Prime promoted Clarkson's Farm, a documentary series about Jeremy Clarkson’s (of Top Gear fame) attempt at running his 1,000-acre (400 ha) farm in the UK. It turns out to be both entertaining (he’s trying many business lines from sheep to bees) and educative (the economics are tough, and the weather!).

Fisk***
A kind of British The Office in a low-key law firm in Australia. It opens as a new female lawyer (who has just been fired from her previous job) joins the firm. Fewer characters but solid acting. The main character (and co-author) is great.

Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE***
Legendary labels Geffen and Korean K-Pop company HYBE (mothership of K-Pop legends BTS) get together to found a girls group that can be the nexts Spice Girls by adapting the K-Pop talent selection and training methods to the West. I’m not a fan of the music but it’s an interesting glimpse into what it takes to perform at that level

Emily In Paris Season 4**
It’s almost embarrassing to admit… I’ll blame my watching on the nostalgia of living in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, and on the appeal of watching the train wreck of Emily’s relationships as she basically keeps betraying everyone around her. Also, great outfits.

MOVIES

Rushmmore**** (HBO Max)
Oddly I hadn’t heard of this sweet early movie by Wes Anderson. A Young Jason Schwartzman plays an oddball student in a private middle school, surrounded by a coterie of whimsical characters. I am yet to watch his first, Bottle Rocket, that even Bill Murray claims to have not watched yet!

Memento***
I re-watched this 2000 Christopher Nolan movie. Still a masterpiece in confusionism. Both frustrating and enjoyable. Is there a word for that feeling? (maybe in German? or Japanese… ira-tanoshii?)

Kinds of Kindness***
I was planning to watch Inside Out 2 but did not book and this movie was playing almost at the same time. I knew nothing about it going in, aside from the fact that the director had done The Lobster, which I liked. I almost walked out half-way because the situations were so dark and upsetting, but somehow the movie took a bit of a different vibe and I eventually liked it. Quite a miracle!

Inside Out 2**
Cute enough. I found a bit bizarre that all the new emotions starting during teenage years seem quite negative (anxiety, envy, embarrassment, ennui). There is surely more to it!

The Big Sick** (Prime)
A semi-fictional biopic of Kumail Nanjiani of HBO’s Silicon Valley fame. Between pressure from his traditional Pakistani family and aspiring standup comedy career. Starts slow but picks up nicely in the middle.

Wrong**
A surrealist movie by Quentin Dupieux of Flat Eric fame. Entertaining. I am yet to watch Rubber, the story of an evil tire.

PODCASTS / YOUTUBE

Zeihan on Geopolitics*** (YouTube)
While he is certainly not always right, Peter Zeihan is well-informed on many aspects of geopolitics.

Prof G Markets*** (YouTube)
Scott Galloway’s entertaining take on markets.

In French:

Piano Jazz Concept***
Analysis and commentary on music, including pieces on OSTs in movies, animation and video games. In short: kids animation music is getting worse, while major video games music is now on par with movie productions! Technicalities are the fun part.

C’est ca la Science***
A course on science with a biology angle, from Professor Didier Raoult, France’s most cited microbiologists. It’s unfortunate there is no English version.

GAMES

I tried the board game Everdell which, despite its cute look, has solid mechanics. It has similarities to Wingspan with less of the feeling of playing “in parallel” due to limited player interactions. I ended up downloading it on mobile, where it offered a handful of challenges. After enjoying it quite a bit, I deleted it 3 times and it’s now off my phone.

4. THOUGHTS

On A.I.

Jensen Huang from Nvidia said that coding is going to be mostly AI and recommends to young people that they consider careers in biology, manufacturing and farming. The real economy, some might say!

For AI usage, I think there will be a few layers of AI ability:

• Level 0: People totally unaware of AI tools,

• Level 1: People who are simply end users (chatGPT in the browser, etc.)

• Level 2: Those who can use it to program a bit using APIs or integrating it in custom programs. They will have a big productivity advantage. I recommend starting with Python and the quick Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, which gets you started quickly.

• Level 3: Those who can contribute to AI projects. The typical AI engineer, who will have a very comfortable income.

• Level 4: Those building new AI companies. Success could reach the stars.

• Level 5: Those who create novel algorithms. A very very tiny minority of super-brainy researchers, who will likely be paid less than Level 3 and 4, but will create new fundamental technologies.

Lowering the Bar

Should you have high or low standards? With new skills or activities, setting a high bar can be discouraging for taking the first step, while a low bar can make it more accessible.

I verified that recently during a karaoke session at an event. Nobody wanted to sing. I volunteered and butchered a version of Don’t Stop Me Now (it was my first attempt ever). Then after my dismal performance people started lining up to sing! I might have redeemed myself later with Counting Stars. So remember: lower the bar to get started!

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Over and out.
— Ben

Back from a few business trips. Here’s what’s new with me.

MENU

1. WORK: $306M, Virtual Events
2. EXPERIENCES: Miami
3. CULTURE: Waller-Bridge, Curb, Crowd work, Ed Sheeran
4. THOUGHTS: A.I., Future Sports, Art & Music

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1. WORK

New Fund

It’s done. $306M focused on early stage planetary and human health.

Virtual Events

• Both the Health Tech and Climate Tech virtual (and free) matchmaking events are a wrap. In total they attracted about 1,200 investors and 1,500 startups, generating thousands of meetings. I haven’t seen other virtual event come close to those numbers. Have you? Click here to pre-register for upcoming ones (it’s free!).

• We held a series of 8 online talks during “Earth Week” with great founders and investors. Videos are here. I used some code and AI to produce podcasts here.

Conferences

• I spoke at Hello Tomorrow (deep tech), ChangeNOW (sustainability) in Paris and SIM (tech) in Porto.

• I participated for the first time in the VC Platform event held in Miami, which was a nice surprise with lots of talks on operations, content, comms and automation. I ran a well-attended workshop talking about automation and was surprised to be the only one who could code! (here is an example of podcasts produced with AI from a virtual event)

• SOSV also held a deep tech meetup in Boston, joined TechCrunch Early Stage, and held demo days for its HAX hard tech program.

2. EXPERIENCES

Miami

I extended my stay after the conference to visit a bit. Here is what I came across:

• I had a bit of a 80’s scifi moment stumbling upon dingy pink delivery robots on the sidewalk. They looked both modern and beat up. Apparently remote controlled and offering a lower fee to merchants than Uber Eats, and supported by ads.

• I saw a car advertising free self driving rides and gave it a go. There was a driver “car-sitting” and taking over for some manoeuvers, as they were still testing out the technology and customer experience. The driver was a musician who simply answered a vague ad about driving and tech. He wasn’t allowed to have his phone in the car and was reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy during his extensive downtime.

• I swung by the Miami History Museum and learned about its business of cigars, the rise and fall of the sponge industry, slaves and more. It also finally became clear to me that Miami’s aesthetics are deeply associated with the Art Deco movement.

• The Rubell Museum (modern art) was pretty good, but while Rubell had more famous artists, I liked better the Istanbul MoMA.

• Strolled on Miami Beach - saw 3 pelicans in formation fly over.

• World Erotic Art Museum. A surprisingly interesting collection there, including pieces from children book author Tomi Ungerer, a drawing by Cocteau and many more.

The Art of the Brick

Visited this LEGO show created by a lawyer turned creator. Some interesting pieces. Lots of tedious work!

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Fleabag**** & Crashing**
I rewatched Fleabag - truly an exceptional show. My take is that under its guise of depicting the struggles of a young British woman, it’s a story of redemption / self-forgiveness, with a couple of Christic characters. Phoebe Waller-Bridge created it based on her standup show, and the TV version is - interestingly - vastly superior. Out of curiosity I watched her earlier show “Crashing”. It’s about a girl crashing a community of young adults living in an abandoned hospital, but not as good — clearly an early work. I look forward to PWB’s future creations!

Curb Your Enthusiasm Final Season****
A great ending for the 12th season of this show. Larry David’s outrageability is unmatched.

Phil Hanley*** (YouTube)
I came across this standup comic who has a knack for crowd work. I later found an old interview where he describes how his skills grew by accident as he was filling in between bands in Canada, and only realized later crowd work was also comedy. There is some echo with Ed Sheeran’s story (see below).

Dungeon Meals** (Netflix)
A Japanese fantasy animation depicting a team of broke adventurers who decide to “live off the land” (= monsters) in a dungeon.

MOVIES

Dune 2**
A pretty good job. Oddly, I prefer the charm of the David Lynch version (despite its flaws and lower production value).

Président*** and Second Tour**
Two movies 20 years apart by/featuring French director/actor Albert Dupontel as the republic’s president. I liked both though the older one better.

White men can't jump**
An oldie with Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson as basketball hustlers. Not amazing but still a pretty good time. There is a modern remake but I didn’t finish watching it.

DOCUMENTARIES

Ed Sheeran*** (Disney+)
I finished my Disney+ subscription with a documentary on Ed Sheeran. It was very interesting to see how young he decided to become a music guy and the kind of work and hustle he put into it. Some notes:

• He stuttered following some facial laser to remove a birthmark near one eye, which he solved unintentionally (?) by singing rap songs he liked slowly at first.

• He doesn't read and write music. A very common trait of modern musicians. It makes you wonder what music education does aside from producing concert players and disgruntled music students.

• He thought that success would come from simply outworking others. Funny enough, singer/songwriter stages didn’t really welcome him so he went to rap stages, jazz scenes, anywhere they would have him. He played 3 times per night. This reminded me of what serious standup comics do: move to a city with a big scene to get more stage time. As I heard before, he “figured out the price and paid it”. Quite similar to what I heard about Lady Gaga’s debut.

• He is very selective with the songs he puts out as he has to “live with them”. Quite different from some musicians “filling the album” around the one hit song.

4. THOUGHTS

On A.I.

Amazon/Audible now has 40,000 titles using virtual voices. And it’s good enough. A.I. is coming for many, many jobs — better learn how to use it, or and up like portrait painters when photography took off!

21st Century Sports

Now we’re talking.

• Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League: “10,000 spectators and 600,000 online viewers witnessed history as eight AI-powered cars battled for a $2.25M prize.”

• Enhanced Games: “Sport is safer without drug testing.” Coming soon.

• As a side note, I am waiting for the Mike Tyson / Jake Paul match. Apparently an exhibition match with 16 ounces gloves, 2min rounds. Maybe not the best design for a quick K.O. by Tyson, but maybe protecting the fighters better? I root for Tyson (bets seem to favor him slightly).

Art or Not

“Art” today often feels like a sacred cow. While it has many functions (read The Artistic Ape), its production used to be mostly considered the domain of craftspeople. So there is the idea, the craft then the audience. How to rate the idea and craft of the following artworks?

• I asked a guy who was painting a cool mural how he did it. He (1) staged a photoshoot with a friend (2) used photoshop to clean it then “posterize” a version (reducing the number of colors used) (3) projected it onto the wall to trace it (he sometimes used a grid instead) (4) painted while looking at the printed versions of the 2 images. He added an imaginary background as well. The painting part took him about 20 hours over 2 days. Where is the creative part? The photo staging and a bit the background. The rest is all '“busy work” without real difficulty. My rating: Idea: ** Craft: ** (because tedious)

• The art nouveau Czech painter and illustrator Alfons Mucha is known for his dreamy posters and product packages. Turns out he took loads of photos around 1900 as source material for his illustrations. Not that different from the painter above. My rating: Idea: *** (more elaborate photo staging) Craft: *** (decoration + color sense)

• Visiting the studio of a graffiti artist, who sells black&white graffiti on canvases. I found it fun to realize that he (1) didn’t steal the paint cans (2) painted indoor (3) painted on canvases (4) sold the paintings. Quite a departure from OG street art. My rating: Idea: **, Craft: ** (though I don’t really know how to evaluate this…)

• An early Jeff Koons piece featuring neon tubes and a vacuum cleaner - like an updated ready-made from Duchamp. My rating: Idea: *, Craft: * (marketing: ****).

• The art market is also a bit of a mystery, with a few tastemakers deciding the value of pieces, often quite unrelated - IMO - to either the idea or the craft. I visited annual drawing fair in Paris and found a good half of the pieces lacking in both…

• Eventually, it’s up to each of us to decide what each piece is worth to us.

Music For All

Before you could have 10 million songs streamed on your smartwatch, music used to be only heard when performed live. And before cities, it was in small groups, and likely much more participatory.

I remarked previously how modern musicians often do not have formal music education. I came across yet another example: Michael Jackson used to sing whole compositions into a recorder for musicians to copy later as he could not play well any instrument nor read/write sheet music.

More to come in the next newsletter!
— Ben

Spring is coming!

MENU

1. WORK: Matchmaking, Conferences, Fund
2. EXPERIENCES: Istanbul, Med Tourist, VR
3. CULTURE: Jeff Schaffer, Bank of Dave, Wenders
4. THOUGHTS: AI Kills the On-Ramp, Entrepreneurship, Motivation

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1. WORK

Matchmaking Events

I am starting the year with a couple of virtual and free matchmaking events for investors and founders.

• The first one was focused on #HealthTech and welcomed 400+ investors and 650+ startups - likely one of the largest of its kind out there (we also published our yearly Top 100 Health Tech Portfolio List).

• The next one will be on #ClimateTech. Over 800 investors and 800 startups joined last year. Pre-registration is here (it’s free).

Conference Season

I was invited to speak at the Hello Tomorrow deep tech conference in Istanbul, and now in Paris for the larger Hello Tomorrow Global Summit (I am a regular), followed by ChangeNOW (first time). In April I’ll then be in Miami for the VC Platform conference and in Boston for TechCrunch Early Stage.

Fund Closing

We’re getting close to the final close of our next fund - continuing our focus on early stage deep tech for human and planetary health.

2. EXPERIENCES

Istanbul

I extended my stay after the conference to visit a bit.

• I tried my usual trifecta of body/mind/soul with BJJ + museum + standup comedy, but missed the English comedy date.

• I visited the Modern Art and the Naval museums. The former was interesting — this despite my frequent disappointment with modern art (where skill is often questionable, and the result a matter of taste) — the latter less so but still ok. My favorite maritime museums are in HK and Lisbon so far.

• I had some conversations about what it means to live with >50% annual inflation. It sounded quite intense: salary reviews all the time, can’t keep cash, looking for investment schemes (real estate, foreign currencies, crypto). The system seems to work because Turkey controls its currency and exchange rates (vs. Greece), and spends lots of government projects that employs many (despite corruption). Still, the price of real estate is skyrocketing and the gap between haves and have nots is widening. Can this end well?

Health Checks

I hadn’t had a physical for a long time and Turkey is a hot spot for medical tourism so I gave it a go. I got about 100 biomarkers tested to baseline my health. The experience was smooth - including filling the 12 blood vials required - and the price (±$2k) affordable (about 1/1000th of Bryan Johnson’s bill).

Following the tests (nothing alarming), I googled, then tried to ChatGPT the analysis, but ChatGPT vehemently rejected all my attempts. Claude, however, was happy to oblige. To check with a real doctor I used an app from the Philippines, where doctors are available for remote consultations on short notice, for $10-$20. I’m not recommending freestyling health, but I found it very useful to get an informed opinion.

Bonus: if you’re interested in investing in a smart breastfeeding bra (part of the SOSV portfolio), head over here.

VR

Still using VR (and demo-ing to friends), mostly to play the Battle Royale game Population:ONE after I reached Expert mode on my favorite Beatsaber songs (I can’t clear Expert+ yet). I also tested Racket Club, a VR-first twist on padel. Unfortunately I couldn’t try the workout game Supernatural due to geo restrictions.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Curb Your Enthusiasm Final Season***
My favorite disgruntled funny old guy is back from what might be the last season of this show. I like the show.

Dave**
Lil’Dicky is a Jewish comedy rapper, and wrote this show chronicling his unstoppable rise to fame. It has an odd charm coming from a form of honesty, and the third season had quite a wild and fun ending. The co-writer and executive producer is Jeff Schaffer, who also does Curb.

MOVIES

Bank of Dave**** (Netflix)
A remarkable movie / documentary about a British businessman who decides to open a new bank in the UK focused on lending to small, local businesses. The UK had apparently not issued new licenses for 150 years. Very good.

Perfect Days***
I finally got to see the latest Wim Wenders (of Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire fame), starring Yakusho Koji (of Shall we dance? and Tampopo fame). I enjoyed the contemplative aspect of it, and some of its goofiness. Some see it as a movie about appreciating the moment — I rather imagined a complex backstory, and some hints that the main character is not as enlightened as he appears. SPOILER: I think he’s a former alcoholic, likely from a rich family, and possibly suffered some tragic loss that led him to go for a simpler, anonymous and laconic life (maybe Unagi-like), which probably only started a few years prior.

Paint**
A Bob Ross-esque TV painter played by Owen Wilson loses his top spot to a young gun. Reasonably entertaining.

Blinded by the Light**
A feel-good movie about two British South Asian youths who find their soul mate in Bruce Springsteen. Predictably ok.

Bobcat Moretti*
I thought it would be a kind. of Million Dollar Baby movie. Boy was I wrong.

The Boy and The Heron*
I am generally a great client for anything Ghibli (esp. Miyazaki’s works) but I could not finish watching this one. Something about the pace and silence throughout.

DOCUMENTARIES

Light and Magic**** (Disney+)
A great documentary about the history and technologies at ILM that made Star Wars and many other movies stand out. It covers the evolution from practical effects to digital, which echoes the current impact of A.I. — I was impressed by the stop-motion work, and how this expertise became critical to animate digital models too.

Raël: The Alien Prophet*** (Netflix)
This French creator named Claude Vorilhon aka Raël has been quite successful with a new religion: he has spread his faith across various countries.

BOOKS

Material World***
The materials we need for the world to work, their sources, economics, supply chains, etc.

4. THOUGHTS

Will A.I. Kill On-Ramp?

After text, images and videos by the usual suspects, I have been impressed by the music generation app suno.ai, which can be combined with kits.ai to replace a voice. Some ideas:

• Will those tools put (less than great) musicians out of work?

• Will they help musicians produce more and better work?

• Will it destroy the on-ramp for newcomers, or facilitate it?

One thing for sure, music creation in the future is likely to look quite different from today! And AI will eat into many more tasks, and possibly entire jobs, while creating possibly much less new jobs (how many “prompt engineers” for 100 call center jobs?).

No School for Entrepreneurship?

I stumbled upon the thought that entrepreneurs:

• Don’t wait to be told what to do

• Do their best

• Don’t expect praise

Which is in most cases the opposite of what schools trains students to do:

• Do what you’re told

• Do just enough to get by

• Expect some reward or praise (at school or at home)

With this setup, only resilient students with a “disagreeable” trait (as in the Big Five) are well suited to entrepreneurship, provided they survive their schooling ordeal ;p

It’s a bit of an over-generalization, but it also somehow connects to what Jensen Huang, Mr. Nvidia, shared in recent talks with students.

On those thoughts, Spring is coming!

Motivation

In a previous letter I WROTE about the importance of a growth mindset, and the fact that it needed to be combined with grit (to last) and curiosity (to start). But how to instill those?

For the latter, I read this quote from Cus D’Amato (trainer Mike Tyson and other champions): “A boy comes to me with a spark of interest. I feed the spark and it becomes a flame. I feed the flame and it becomes a fire.”

But how did he feed the spark and flame?

Once results come, it helps build confidence and generalize the concept (e.g. see the Arnold documentary).

On those thoughts, enjoy your Spring!
— Ben