Shane Kimbrough, NASA Astronaut, and Dennis Leveson-Gower, Senior Project Scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, talk about cargo and science going to and from the International Space Station. Houston We Have a Podcast teams up with NASA in Silicon Valley Podcast. HWHAP Episode 20.
Ben & David cover the proposed largest tech M&A deal of all time, and in the process dive into the evolving dynamics of the industry that started everything in Silicon Valley—silicon. Just when VCs thought innovation was dead in semiconductors, a new wave of startups and large companies are redrawing the lines of competition in an industry dominated for a half-century by the “Wintel” duopoly of Intel and Microsoft.
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Topics Covered Include:
The Carve Out:
Tim Garner, Meteorologist in Charge at the Johnson Space Center, talks about how weather affects human spaceflight, especially for launches, landings, and tests. He also reveals how Hurricane Harvey impacted operations here in Houston. HWHAP Episode 19.
Dr. Doug Archer, Planetary Scientist, talks about Mars: what its made of, what it’s like on the surface, and why it’s such an intriguing place for humans to visit in the next giant leap. HWHAP Episode 18.
Ben & David venture to the land down under (and reunite in-person!) to tell the story of the granddaddy of all bootstrapped tech success stories, collaboration software company Atlassian. How did two plucky college grads from Sydney, Australia go from just trying to escape working for the man to becoming two of the top 10 wealthiest people in the entire country, all without raising a dollar of venture capital? We dive in.
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Topics Covered Include:
- How Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar met in college at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and their decision to bootstrap a startup as an alternative to finding a “real job” after graduation
- Atlassian’s “no sales” model, and the resultant efficiency of their sales & marketing spend relative to other SAAS companies
- Organic product growth and acquisitions over the years, starting with Jira and later adding Confluence, BitBucket, HipChat / Stride, Jira Service Desk and Trello
- Rapid revenue growth and the decision to continue as a bootstrapped company, only raising secondary capital prior to going public
- The IPO in November 2015 and subsequent stock performance (spoiler: it’s been good)
The Carve Out:
Nujoud Merancy, Mission Planning and Analysis Lead for the Orion spacecraft, talks about what Orion is, how it will work, what kinds of tests are being done, and where in space it will go. HWHAP Episode 17.
Les Padilla, Hardware Manager of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), talks about spacesuits: how they work, what they’re made of, how they’ve evolved over time, and what they’ll look like in the future. HWHAP Episode 16.
In a live recording from space, astronauts Randy “Komrade” Bresnik, Paolo Nespoli, Joe Acaba, and Mark “Sabot” Vande Hei talk about about photography and the view of Earth from the International Space Station. HWHAP Episode 15.
Tim Braithwaite, Liaison Manager for the Canadian Space Agency, talks about robotic arms in space: how they were conceived and developed, how they work today, and how the technology is useful on Earth. HWHAP Episode 14.
Today our heroes cover a deal that might have more impact on life in Silicon Valley than AI, wearables and AR/VR combined… Nestle’s acquisition of Blue Bottle Coffee. Will hipster entrepreneurs and the VCs who love/need them continue to line up around the block for their minimalist coffee experience of choice, now that it’s owned by the Nesquik Bunny? Is this the beginning of Blue Bottle pod machines filling the empty counter space left by Juicero’s demise in VC offices throughout South Park? We investigate.
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Topics Covered Include:
- The rise of “Third Wave” coffee
- Blue Bottle founder James Freeman’s “classical” (music) influences
- Venture capital and the coffee business
- Achieving liquidity when companies and founders’ don’t want to go public, and don’t want to sell their stakes
- Nestle’s position in single-serve coffee market and potential brand impact of Blue Bottle
The Carve Out: