Tech News for MBAs with Paul Canetti
40 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 47 ratingsA weekly podcast hosted by Paul Canetti that explores the biggest themes in tech through the lens of the latest headlines.
Paul Canetti is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia Business School and sits on the Strategic Advisory Board of Riverside Acceleration Capital. He was the co-founder and CEO of MAZ, acquired in 2021, and has founded multiple other software businesses.
Canetti also does strategic consulting and corporate training. Previous clients include Verizon, Walmart, American Express, TikTok, and others.
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Episodes
My Thoughts on Generative AI
March 07, 2023 11:04 - 24 minutes - 28.1 MBI've been spending a lot of time thinking about the 3 different parts of generative AI tools like ChatGPT: inputs, outputs, and training data. There are many new applications that will be built using 1, 2, or 3 of these parts. It's important for us to understand what is possible. The whole internet is about to change... – PC Links ChatGPT Disclaimers and Disclosures This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not financial advice.
FTX and the Destruction of Trust
November 18, 2022 11:00 - 31 minutes - 36.4 MBFTX and Sam Bankman-Fried have imploded, sending ripple effects through crypto and well beyond. But is this really an example of web3? Or is this just a classic case of fraud? Technically, no, this is not web3. But do the semantics matter? The damage is done. I usually edit my rants down to < 20 min but I couldn't do it this week. SBF has betrayed us. Is it possible to create a system where we are truly no longer vulnerable to these sorts of con artists? – PC Links Bankrupt FTX's new...
Apple's NFT Tax
October 28, 2022 10:00 - 16 minutes - 18.8 MBThere was some debate in the web3 community about whether Apple was going to apply its standard 30% fee to NFT purchases made in iOS apps. Spoiler alert: Yes, they did. Is it fair? To discuss! – PC Links App Store Review Guideline updates now available Apple has new App Store rules for NFTs and cryptocurrency Apple Allows In-App NFTs In App Store, But Slaps Its 30% Levy On Transactions My new online course web3 for Business Disclaimers and Disclosures I own Twitter and Apple stock. This co...
Kanye is buying bizarro Twitter
October 21, 2022 10:00 - 15 minutes - 18 MBWait 'til I get my money right Then you can't tell me nothing, right? – Kanye West Links Kanye West to Buy Parler, Joining the Right-Wing Social Media Crowd My new online course web3 for Business Disclaimers and Disclosures This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not financial advice.
Meta, one year in
October 14, 2022 10:00 - 19 minutes - 22.6 MBThe metaverse will not built in a year. But it has been one year since Facebook rebranded to Meta and stated its intention to build the next phase of the internet. Let's talk about where they are now, and why so many people keep hating on them. – PC Links Meta Connect Keynote 2022 Meta Quest Pro Tech News for MBAs: Meta - What you need to know and why it matters Hypothetically Great: Facebook bought Oculus, now Oculus owns Facebook TechCrunch: Meta announces legs NY Times: Skepticis...
And the Oscar goes to... AI
September 30, 2022 10:00 - 18 minutes - 21.7 MBIt turns out that creative tasks are *not* immune to the robot takeover. Meta AI researchers have created a new AI that can generate video content on the fly from a simple text prompt. Basically, you send a text of what you want, and it creates a video of that exact thing. Film students everywhere, beware. – PC Links Meta AI: Make-A-Video DALL-E GPT-3 DreamFusion My new online course web3 for Business Disclaimers and Disclosures This content is for informational and enter...
And the Oscar Goes to... AI
September 30, 2022 10:00 - 18 minutes - 21.7 MBIt turns out that creative tasks are *not* immune to the robot takeover. Meta AI researchers have created a new AI that can generate video content on the fly from a simple text prompt. Basically, you send a text of what you want, and it creates a video of that exact thing. Film students everywhere, beware. – PC Links Meta AI: Make-A-Video DALL-E GPT-3 DreamFusion My new online course web3 for Business Disclaimers and Disclosures This content is for informational and entertainment p...
Season 4: web3 is upon us
September 24, 2022 01:46 - 18 minutes - 21.6 MBWelcome to Season 4! It was a big week in the world of crypto with the success of The Merge, in which Ethereum transitioned to a proof-of-stake network. As if that wasn't enough, Helium Mobile was announced– the world's first decentralized cellular network. Buckle up, web3 is upon us! – PC Links The Ethereum Foundation: The Merge Bloomberg: The Ethereum Merge Ups the Stakes—and Reshapes the Crypto Universe Helium Mobile For $5 A Month, Crypto Now Has Your Cell Plan Covered My new onl...
Is Facebook f**ked?
May 06, 2022 10:11 - 24 minutes - 28.2 MBWe end Season 3 in the same place we started: Meta's latest earnings report. Spoiler– it's not looking good. Why is this happening? Is it general market conditions? The maturation of social? Apple's "bullying"? All of the above?! Companion episode from a year ago: Apple and Facebook Battle for the Future H.A.G.S.! – PC Links Meta Reports First Quarter 2022 Results Meta says its metaverse biz lost another $3B, but the 2030s will be "exciting" Apple Podcasts: Apple and Facebook Battle ...
Elon Musk owns Twitter
April 08, 2022 18:05 - 18 minutes - 21.3 MB"Oh hi lol" <-- what Elon Musk tweeted Monday morning. Why? Because he had just bought 9% of Twitter's stock. Is this good or bad for Twitter? For its users? For society?? We shall discuss. – PC Links Elon Musk on Twitter WSJ: Elon Musk Takes Surprise 9% Stake in Twitter, Sending Shares Higher Parag Agrawal on Twitter Forbes: The World's Real-Time Billionaires Bluesky Also - my new online course! Customer Experience Strategy Disclaimers and Disclosures I hold $TWTR and $TSLA. Th...
Hacking the brain
March 25, 2022 10:00 - 24 minutes - 28.9 MBThis week I talk about two seemingly unrelated stories: a paralyzed man who is able to communicate using only his thoughts and the first ever basketball game captured through a new technology called volumetric video. What do they have in common? Both have to do with how we perceive and communicate our reality, and both represent a way to essentially bypass our normal five senses. As I like to say, the future is gonna be weird. – PC Links Nature - Spelling interface using intracortical ...
Is Substack a news app?
March 11, 2022 16:53 - 22 minutes - 25.5 MBSubstack announced its new iOS app that looks a lot like... every other news app. I thought this was a tool for writers to sell email newsletter subscriptions? There are a lot of great business lessons embedded in their strategy, which is perhaps the hardest kind there is: B2B2C. Also, I briefly touch on Apple's new product releases and the Biden administration's latest executive order on crypto. – PC Links Introducing the Substack app Apple unveils all-new Mac Studio and Studio Displa...
Decentralization in war
March 04, 2022 11:00 - 24 minutes - 28 MBThe war in Ukraine is an atrocity, and it has been a long time since there was a military invasion in Europe. There are a lot of interesting ways that internet technology is playing an outsized role in this modern age. Live images and video on social media, propaganda campaigns, and as we will discuss in this episode– the benefits of decentralized tech are being put into practice in this conflict. Ukraine is soliciting donations in cryptocurrency, SpaceX is delivering internet connectivity ...
The Super Bowl of Crypto
February 18, 2022 11:00 - 27 minutes - 31.9 MBSuper Bowl LVI was chock-full of ads for cryptocurrency exchanges, reaching over 100 million people who were all wondering the same thing: "Should I be buying crypto? And also, what is crypto?" I thought this would be a good excuse to do a cryptocurrency 101 episode. What is a blockchain? What are cryptocurrencies? What is Bitcoin? What is Ethereum? Spoiler– I spend a lot of time on Ethereum. First, because it's awesome. But also, because it's a good example of how cryptocurrencies are ofte...
Live from Columbia, it's Tuesday night!
February 11, 2022 11:00 - 19 minutes - 22.7 MBTo kick off Season 3 we did our first ever live recording, in front of the classroom of my Intro to Product Management class at Columbia Business School. We just set up a mic and went for it! Now everybody can have a taste of the classroom experience. I have to say, it was way more fun to record with a live audience of 80 students, in a big beautiful room at our new Manhattanville campus, instead of by myself, in a small office. We talked about Meta's record stock drop, Amazon's record g...
Season 3: Live from Columbia, it's Tuesday night!
February 11, 2022 11:00 - 19 minutes - 22.7 MBTo kick off Season 3 we did our first ever live recording, in front of the classroom of my Intro to Product Management class at Columbia Business School. We just set up a mic and went for it! Now everybody can have a taste of the classroom experience. I have to say, it was way more fun to record with a live audience of 80 students, in a big beautiful room at our new Manhattanville campus, instead of by myself, in a small office. We talked about Meta's record stock drop, Amazon's record g...
2021: The year online communities invaded the real world
December 17, 2021 11:00 - 20 minutes - 23.4 MBWe review these last 12 insane months, drawing out a central theme: community. Again and again, we saw examples of collaboration via digital tools to accomplish things in the physical world. A lot to think about as we head into 2022... And also, thanks for listening to the first year of Tech News for MBAs! – PC Disclaimer This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not financial advice.
The AWS outage and the perils of centralization
December 10, 2021 11:00 - 19 minutes - 22.1 MBNetflix, Venmo, and Roomba were all down for hours on Tuesday. Why? Because they all use Amazon Web Services. We are incredibly reliant on just a small handful of solutions to power our entire society. Is that a smart idea? What if the web3/decentralized crowd have a point... + Some thoughts on Instagram's Senate hearing. – PC Links Lawmakers urge the head of Instagram to better protect children. An Amazon server outage caused problems for Alexa, Ring, Disney Plus, and deliveries Disc...
Buying the US Constitution with crypto
December 03, 2021 11:00 - 22 minutes - 25.5 MBWe are going deep down the web3 rabbithole this week with a bizarre tale of anonymous strangers raising almost $50 million to buy a physical copy of the US Constitution, only to be outbid by an internet villain, and then in the end lots of people make a lot of money, completely accidentally. I'll tell you the whole story through my own experience, where in the last few weeks I made a 50x return in crypto without even knowing I was investing in the first place. 🤔💸 – PC Subscribe to my free...
One of the biggest IPOs in history... with no revenue
November 19, 2021 11:00 - 17 minutes - 19.8 MBHow the times have changed! It used to be you couldn't raise a seed round without some traction– now you can go public. Rivian, the company creating "electric adventure vehicles", just had one of the biggest public offerings in history. We will dive into how a company that doesn't even have a business yet could be valued at over $100 billion, electric vehicles generally, and the macro trends around speculative trading. – PC Links Rivian announces pricing of upsized initial public offering...
Roses are red, Twitter is Blue
November 12, 2021 11:00 - 19 minutes - 22.9 MBOh Twitter, my beloved Twitter. User growth has almost stalled, but revenue growth is still going strong– and now, for the first time, a major social network has a SaaS subscription product available to its users. Twitter Blue is $2.99/mo and represents not only a new revenue channel for Twitter, but perhaps a new model for social products altogether. Also, we'll kick things off with a bunch of metaverse-related announcements from this week. – PC Links Introducing Twitter Blue - Twitter’...
Allbirds goes public on the wings of Shopify
November 05, 2021 10:00 - 15 minutes - 18 MBMy favorite shoe brand IPOed this week to much fanfare, and its success says a lot about the state of enabling technology platforms like Shopify, which Allbirds is built upon. We also breeze through a couple of other headlines about the new laser eyed major of NYC and Airbnb's blowout quarter. And, I couldn't help myself, so I had a couple more things to say about Meta. – PC Links: Eric Adams on Twitter Airbnb Announces Third Quarter 2021 Results Yahoo Finance: Allbirds surges 90% on ...
Meta - What you need to know and why it matters
October 29, 2021 13:36 - 21 minutes - 25.3 MBThere is no Facebook, only... Meta. Mark Zuckerberg has laid out a longterm vision for his company in a way that most public CEOs wouldn't dare– and if he pulls it off, Meta has the potential to be much bigger and even more influential than Facebook ever was. We'll dig in on what was announced and what it means for the future of the internet. – PC Links Meta.com Connect Opening Keynote Meta: Founder’s Letter, 2021
Back to school
October 22, 2021 10:00 - 22 minutes - 25.9 MBThe fall semester is in session, and we're back for Season 2! I talk a bit about what to expect this season, what I've been up to over the summer (spoiler: a lot), and we will take a tour through the headlines from this week that set the stage thematically for where tech is going. Welcome back to Tech News for MBAs. – PC Links: CNBC: Bitcoin jumps to new high above $66,000 after landmark U.S. ETF launch Jack Dorsey on Twitter The Verge: Facebook is planning to rebrand the company wi...
Season 2: Back to school
October 22, 2021 10:00 - 22 minutes - 25.9 MBThe fall semester is in session, and we're back for Season 2! I talk a bit about what to expect this season, what I've been up to over the summer (spoiler: a lot), and we will take a tour through the headlines from this week that set the stage thematically for where tech is going. Welcome back to Tech News for MBAs. – PC Links: CNBC: Bitcoin jumps to new high above $66,000 after landmark U.S. ETF launch Jack Dorsey on Twitter The Verge: Facebook is planning to rebrand the company wi...
Why did this podcast go MIA?
August 27, 2021 10:00 - 1 minute - 2.35 MBHi! As we approach the fall semester, I'm just checking in with a quick mini-ep to let you know what I've been up to, why Tech News for MBAs has gone dark the past few months, and to assure you that I will be back at it soon! Fun trivia: My band in college was called Missing In Action. – PC
Apple and Facebook battle for the future
April 09, 2021 12:31 - 14 minutes - 16.9 MBTim Cook gave a rare and revealing interview on Kara Swisher's Sway podcast responding to Mark Zuckerberg's assertion that Apple is one of Facebook's biggest competitors. (Spoiler: Cook says they're not.) But what if their competition isn't set for the present, but for the future? Professor Paul Canetti goes deep on his theory about how Apple's defensive moves against Facebook are less about advertising and privacy and more about handicapping a future challenger for the next paradigm shift i...
Come for the tool, stay for the network
March 27, 2021 02:56 - 16 minutes - 19.5 MBWe do a deep dive on a popular but difficult to execute tech strategy that manages to connect the dots between many disparate customers into a massive (and valuable!) network, exemplified by new features from Slack and Stripe that were announced this week. Links: Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs face House grilling Bounce House Come for the tool, stay for the network Slack - Start a direct message with someone outside your company Stripe - 1-click payments using Link with Stripe
2.9% + 30¢
March 19, 2021 11:32 - 16 minutes - 19.7 MBA deep dive on Stripe, now worth almost $100 billion, Facebook’s moves into emerging markets, TikTok’s monetization strategy, and Uber faces new regulatory changes in the UK. Plus a new Random Startup You’ve Never Heard Of. Links: Stripe has raised a new round of funding to accelerate momentum in Europe and reinforce enterprise leadership Facebook targets emerging markets with the launch of Instagram Lite, an Android app that takes up just 2MB, in 170 countries TikTok will make personali...
Best year ever
March 12, 2021 16:55 - 21 minutes - 24.3 MBPandemics are the worst… unless you’re talking about tech. Reflections on a horrible year in physical reality that was great for software, the Roblox IPO (no pandemics inside virtual worlds is a plus!), Facebook moves deeper into the creator economy, Russia is pumping the brakes on Twitter, and Random Startup You’ve Never Heard Of. Links: 12 Charts That Show How Tech Took Off During a Year of Shutdowns Roblox goes public: What to know as RBLX stock debuts on the NYSE Hangio Facebook exp...
I’m a business, man
March 06, 2021 03:30 - 19 minutes - 22.1 MBJAY-Z and TIDAL join Square, new privacy laws and the death of third party cookies, Netflix launches a TikTok killer, Instagram tests out life without likes, and a random startup you’ve never heard of. Links: Jack Dorsey on Twitter: “Square is acquiring a majority ownership stake in TIDAL” Axios - Privacy laws push online ads beyond tracking Sponsor: Bounce House - Sell your service online Random startup you’ve never heard of: Kumospace The Verge - Netflix has created a TikTok clone th...
Non-fungible episode
February 26, 2021 10:00 - 15 minutes - 17.9 MBSpecial guest Seyi Taylor helps explain what NFTs are and why it matters, Twitter wants you to pay for certain tweets, Spotify launches a new ad network, Random Startup You’ve Never Heard Of, and more! Links: What you need to know about NFTs, the collectible digital tokens that are selling for millions online Seyi Taylor on Twitter Twitter announces paid Super Follows to let you charge for tweets Mirza David Dobrik's retro photo app Dispo raises $20 million Facebook says it will pay n...
Should I pay or should I go
February 20, 2021 10:00 - 19 minutes - 22 MBAustralia tries to bully big tech and Facebook fights back, Bumble goes public, robots take selfies on Mars, and Shopify challenges Amazon. Plus our new segment “Random startup you’ve never heard of” Links: Augment Nation: Moving Humanity to the Software Layer Facebook Newsroom - Changes to Sharing and Viewing News on Facebook in Australia CNBC - Bumble IPO: The female founder behind the dating app making market history App Store - Dispo - Live in the Moment Engadget - NASA's Persevera...
Cryptomania
February 12, 2021 10:00 - 17 minutes - 19.9 MBOur first expert guest! Shawn Cheng of Consensys Mesh explains the basics of Bitcoin so we can understand why Elon Musk is so obsessed with it. Clubhouse has Facebook hot on its heels. And soon you won’t even be able to tell who has a real face. So... just a typical week in tech. Links: AP - Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, will accept as payment soon Shawn Cheng on Twitter NY Times - Facebook Is Said to Be Building a Product to Compete With Clubhouse Digital Humans | MetaHuman Creator - Unreal E...
The everything CEO
February 05, 2021 10:00 - 18 minutes - 21.4 MBThis week we got hit with the news that Jeff Bezos is resigning as CEO of Amazon, Apple promoted an executive to work on a topic secret project, and we go through an overview of earnings reports from Amazon and Google. Links: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees Apple Newsroom - Dan Riccio begins a new chapter at Apple Amazon.com Announces Financial Results and CEO Transition Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2020 Results
The Trolls of Wall Street
January 29, 2021 10:00 - 18 minutes - 21.9 MBA busy week of tech, and it’s still only January. Subreddits > hedge funds. Newsletters > tweets. Audio > video. Apple > everyone. Links: NY Times - 4 Things to Know About the GameStop Insanity NY Times - The GameStop Reckoning Was a Long Time Coming Bloomberg - How ‘Flows Before Pros’ Is Disrupting Stock Markets Twitter Blog - Making Twitter a better home for writers Clubhouse Blog - Welcoming More Voices Apple Reports First Quarter Results Microsoft Earnings Release FY21 Q2 Facebo...
Robot cashiers and privacy fears
January 22, 2021 11:00 - 16 minutes - 19.1 MBThis week we discuss two major funding events in the new class of car companies, how people are worried about WhatsApp's new terms, the latest on Parler, Nancy Pelosi's stolen laptop, and changes to the way you will shop at the airport (and in general). Links: TechCrunch - Rivian raises $2.5 billion as it pushes to bring its electric RT1 pickup, R1S SUV to market TechCrunch - Microsoft invests in Cruise in new $2 billion round BBC - WhatsApp and Facebook to share users' data outside Euro...
Season 1: Online speech, offline harm
January 15, 2021 19:21 - 26 minutes - 30.6 MBThis week we discuss the fallout across the Internet as a result of the siege on the Capitol including the removal of President Trump from many major platforms, its implications, and what it says about how ingrained technology is in our society. Other headlines include OpenAI's DALL-E, Apple's car initiative, and the failed acquisition of fintech startup Plaid by Visa. Links: Wizardest - The limit of process OpenAI Blog - DALL·E: Creating Images from Text Bloomberg - Apple Targets Autono...
Online speech, offline harm
January 15, 2021 19:21 - 26 minutes - 30.6 MBThis week we discuss the fallout across the Internet as a result of the siege on the Capitol including the removal of President Trump from many major platforms, its implications, and what it says about how ingrained technology is in our society. Other headlines include OpenAI's DALL-E, Apple's car initiative, and the failed acquisition of fintech startup Plaid by Visa. Links: Wizardest - The limit of process OpenAI Blog - DALL·E: Creating Images from Text Bloomberg - Apple Targets Autono...
Introductory episode
January 14, 2021 21:28 - 3 minutes - 3.8 MBIn this brief introduction, Professor Paul Canetti explains what Tech News for MBAs is all about and its origins from the classroom.