The Difference Engine | B2B Category Design | Private Equity | Venture Capital

Is Microsoft and OpenAI a marriage made in heaven? Microsoft has its fair share of category leaders. Xbox, Azure, Teams, the list goes on. But for every win, there's a less successful skeleton lurking in their closet. Do you remember the Zune music player? Probably not. This was Microsoft's challenge to the iPod which had the questionable feature of being able to ‘squirt’ songs to other Zune devic...

Are Apple going to change the world? Again? Three months ago an iPhone 1 in its original packaging sold at auction for $145,416. A whopping 300 times its original price! That’s how much a moment of tech history (in its original packaging) is worth. This legendary device and its many iterations have changed the world. So, will Apple Vision Pro do the same? Should you keep one in its original packag...

The unstoppable rise of Elon Musk. Whether you love him or loathe him there is definitely something you can learn from him. From electric cars to telecommunications and even space exploration. The serial category creator knows exactly how to create, define and dominate entire industries. So what is Elon’s secret sauce?  In today’s episode, we look at how Musk crushes the competition. We pinpo...

AI has transformed every industry. Fact. From Open AI's Chat GPT disrupting Google Search, to increased productivity in agriculture, AI is already impacting us on a global scale. But how can you take advantage of this mind bending technology? Should you be looking to do so? And How should you think about it as you build and grow your category? To look forward to in this episode: AI: Is it the ulti...

Can you make a boat load of money by giving away your IP, for free? Imagine you’ve spent years, decades even, developing a product. No competitor can touch you. You’d guard that advantage with your life, wouldn’t you? Anybody encouraging you to share your hard won secrets would be swiftly booted out the door. Yet, they might just be on to something. Releasing Tesla’s IP to the world was a stroke o...

A show for founders, funders and the category curious. In the world of business and tech, people are always telling you to be original, different, think outside the box. Not bad advice, but what about making your own box? You choose the wallpaper, the feng shui, and get the lighting spot on. It's somewhere that everybody else wants to come and play. Well, th...