Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast, the show where we discuss the latest developments in the technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most influential people in the industry.

In today’s episode, we’re happy to present an interview with Job van der Voort, founder and CEO of Remote, which makes it easy to hire and pay anybody anywhere. Job explains what Remote learned when it made its own AI course mandatory, including why some teams believed payroll work couldn’t use AI, and why his focus is on helping the people he already has get better.

We also get into what Remote sees in the job market, why more PhDs now label data for AI companies, the growing challenge of Europe’s labor rules, and how Remote competes with local payroll providers while staying profitable and private. His advice for anyone starting out: join a startup, fail a lot, and stick around.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:30 What Remote does for companies
01:07 From neuroscience PhD to Remote
02:24 Getting more from the team Remote has
03:45 Making the AI course mandatory
05:06 Reinventing how the work gets done
06:07 What Remote sees in the job market
07:37 How AI is changing contract work
09:45 Are companies replacing people with AI agents?
10:23 Funding, profits, and IPO plans
10:49 Uncertainty and Europe's labor rules
12:36 Remote's MCP server and AI agents
14:41 Competing with local payroll firms
17:40 Robotics, hardware, and acquisitions
19:06 Advice for 20-year-olds in tech

In today’s episode, we’re happy to present an interview with Steve Lucas, chairman and CEO of Boomi, a data activation company that delivers integration, automation, and AI capability to over 30,000 companies. Steve explains why he expects AI to bring 10x more work before there’s 10x less, and why he thinks the SaaS apocalypse is overrated.

We dig into why telling your team to use AI doesn’t work, how AI handles about half of Boomi’s accounts payable with humans in the loop, and why AI projects get stuck on data. Steve shares how Boomi tripled revenue in 4 years and why his book, Digital Impact, argues AI may give us back our humanity. His advice for anyone starting out: be curious.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:42 From Microsoft to Marketo
02:22 Why companies need a platform like Boomi
04:01 Where the name Boomi comes from
04:58 How Boomi rolls out AI internally
06:25 10x more work and the SaaS apocalypse
08:41 Where companies get stuck with AI
09:21 Which AI agents drive ROI
10:39 Have we already reached AGI?
11:48 How Steve spends his days
14:12 Digital Impact and 350 productivity apps
16:00 How Boomi tripled revenue
17:40 Why saying no is the hardest part
19:29 What's next: AI governance
20:40 Advice for new grads: be curious

In today’s episode, we’re happy to present an interview with Ivan Burazin, co-founder and CEO of Daytona, the infrastructure company that gives AI agents their own computers to train and work in. Ivan explains how Daytona grew about 50% a month for 18 months without any salespeople, through in-person events and his Twitter account, which he calls the company’s second growth channel and credits for its Nvidia partnership.

We also get into the pivot that took Daytona from Fortune 500 customers back to zero, why agents need Windows and GPU sandboxes, and why Ivan expects a CPU crunch bigger than the GPU crunch. His advice to young founders: learn to handle risk and failure, because everyone plateaus once they stop taking risks.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:47 Ivan's background and the Daytona name
02:17 Why customers pick Daytona over Kubernetes
03:52 Winning customers in person
05:12 Growing 50% a month without salespeople
06:18 The 3 reasons customers choose you
07:48 How Twitter led to an Nvidia partnership
10:34 Kill it or grind through it
12:57 Post-training and the CPU crunch
13:52 The pivot back to zero
14:47 Why Ivan hires for grit
15:26 Living between Europe and San Francisco
17:51 Why AI agents need Windows and GPUs
20:18 Risk, failure and how Ivan got started
24:12 Where the Daytona team is based

In today’s episode, we’re happy to present an interview with Arvind Jain, founder and CEO of Glean, the enterprise AI company that connects to every system a business runs on and turns its knowledge into context for people and AI agents. Arvind explains why AI needs that context to work well, why 80 to 90% of it lives in people’s heads, and how Glean feeds it to tools like Claude.

We also get into how Glean protects employee privacy, why word of mouth is still its biggest growth channel, and Arvind’s advice for graduates worried about AI. His most surprising answer is about lock-in: Glean wants to be easy to replace, because the memory its AI builds should belong to the enterprise.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:51 How companies use Glean
06:46 Why not just use Claude?
10:27 Why Glean wants to be replaceable
13:13 How Glean protects employee privacy
15:28 How Glean got started
16:56 Word of mouth and rapid growth
18:25 What context really means
21:06 Rapid fire: scaling and fundraising
22:53 How Arvind spends his day as CEO
23:36 Career lessons and advice for graduates
25:34 Where the idea for Glean came from
26:08 Why big companies get slow
27:37 Where Glean saves people time
29:34 Is Glean Asana plus Claude?

In today’s episode, we’re happy to present an interview with Michael Atalla, Chief Marketing Officer of UiPath, the Romanian-born business orchestration and automation company. Michael explains why AI agents won’t replace humans: they can’t grasp intent or learn on the job, so the exceptions that need trust and judgment stay with people. He also argues that AI should augment our skills and that cutting junior jobs is a mistake.

We also get into the AI agent his marketing team built for ad data, the Process Atlas and Cartographer launches at FUSION, why low-risk AI pilots stall, and why AI slop means marketing still needs humans. His advice for anyone starting a career in tech is simple: move.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

00:00 Intro
00:51 Robots, agents, and orchestration explained
01:59 What companies use UiPath for
03:10 Why Michael joined UiPath
04:29 How UiPath automates its own marketing
07:30 Process Atlas and Cartographer at FUSION
11:34 What AI agents still can't do
13:12 How Romania shaped UiPath's culture
15:46 Why AI pilots get stuck
17:06 UiPath's vision beyond the AI hype
18:14 How AI is changing marketing
20:58 Will AI agents replace humans?
22:15 Why cutting junior jobs is a mistake
24:13 From writing code to CMO
24:59 Advice for anyone starting in tech

In today's episode, we're happy to present an interview with Tom Eggemeier, CEO of Zendesk, the customer and employee service company helping businesses automate their interactions with AI. Tom explains how Zendesk's AI revenue grew from about $0 to a projected $400M in 2 years, and why the company is moving from seats to outcome-based pricing.

We also get into why companies should always offer a human option, what AI means for jobs, and Tom's own use of AI, including how Meta's Muse agent saved him $3,105 on internet, TV, and mobile bills in 5 days. His prediction: within 2 years, more than 50% of customer interactions will be a personal AI agent talking to a company's AI agent.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

In today's episode, we're happy to present an interview with Xuedong (XD) Huang, CTO of Zoom, recorded in Amsterdam at a Zoom event ahead of HumanX. XD has worked on AI for more than forty years, over thirty of them at Microsoft, where he founded the Speech Technology Group and became CTO of Azure AI. He explains what he calls C to C, Zoom's shift from conversation to completion, and why he says My Notes and ZoomMate are like bringing Steve Jobs to every meeting you attend.

We also get into why Zoom runs models from OpenAI and Anthropic alongside its own small language model, an approach XD compares to a panel of gymnastics judges, and why the speech technology behind My Notes is now open to other companies through the Scribe API. XD shares how he uses AI in his own meetings, why the language barrier is still not solved, and his closing take: the more AI slop people have to deal with, the more valuable a face-to-face conversation becomes.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

In today's episode, we're happy to present an interview with Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo, who joined the company in 2021 to lead its turnaround after the Apollo acquisition. Jim, who previously ran Ask Jeeves, CBS Interactive, and Tinder, explains why Yahoo is now past that phase and into its comeback, with 700M users a month and its biggest growth coming from Gen Z and Millennials.

We dig into Yahoo Scout, the company's new AI answer engine, and why Jim wants to restore the social contract of search by sending traffic back to the publishers that the first generation of AI answer engines left behind. Jim also shares his playbook for turning around big internet brands, the revenue model Yahoo had to reinvent, and his advice for anyone in their twenties who wants to build in tech.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

In today's episode, we're happy to present an interview with Chris Skipworth, CEO of PassPack, a cybersecurity company that brings credential security and governance to organizations without the complexity. Chris explains why compromised credentials remain one of the leading causes of breaches, and walks through the five stages of password maturity, from spreadsheets and sticky notes to full credential governance with audit trails and password rotation.

We also get into why small businesses are such a big target for hackers, how AI is changing the game on both the attack and defense sides, and why offboarding employees is one of the most overlooked security risks. Chris shares his own path from the semiconductor world into SaaS, the story behind acquiring PassPack, and his closing take: passwords open the doors, but credential governance decides who gets the keys and how long they keep them.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

In today's episode, we're happy to present an interview with Kirsty Sharman, founder and CEO of Referral Factory, one of the leading referral marketing platforms in Europe. Kirsty breaks down how referral programs really work, from the lemonade stand basics to the numbers behind them, and shares why cash is still king when it comes to rewards.

We also get into the hard parts: why most referral programs fail (hint: it's marketing, not tracking), how European data privacy rules shaped Referral Factory's product, and why distribution now matters more than the product itself for founders building in 2026.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at contact@thenextweb.com.

In today’s special episode, we're happy to present an interview with Diana van Stijn, co-founder and chief medical officer at Lapsi Health, a Dutch startup that builds smart medical hardware — starting with a digital stethoscope. Also featured in the interview is the sound of Andrii's heart as captured by Lapsi’s first device, Keikku. 

Here are the links for this episode:

• Dutch startup targets remote patient monitoring with its smart stethoscope
• Keikku launch video on YouTube
• Another great podcast to listen to on this topic: Twenty Thousand Hertz — Sonic Diagnosis

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s special episode, we're happy to present an interview with Phill Robinson, founder of Boardwave — a networking platform for founders and CEOs working in the European software industry.

The conversation — recorded by our senior editor Linnea Ahlgren — focuses around Europe’s pathway to success. What are we doing right and wrong, compared to the other continents? What’s the future of the European software industry like? And what does AI have to do with it?

Here are the links for this episode:

• The white paper: “How the UK & Europe can lead the global software industry by 2034”

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s special episode, we're happy to present an interview with Anita Schjøll Abildgaard, co-founder and CEO at Iris.ai. The startup has been around for almost a decade and saw several significant pivots, while Anita and the team have been through all the highs and lows imaginable, including balancing on the brink of bankruptcy. Anita and Andrii talked about it all, as well as the future of academic publishing, the prospects of generative AI, the inconvenience of chat interfaces, and much more.

Here are the links for this episode:

• What is Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)?
•  Scientific publishing is rigged — at our expense, by Anita Schjøll Abildgaard

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s special episode, we're featuring a conversation between the TNW Podcast co-host Andrii Degeler and our old friend, former colleague, and current freelance contributor, Callum Booth, about the future of publishing — particularly in the space of tech journalism, but also in a broader context. This fireside chat was recorded with live audience at Rome Startup Week.

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s special episode, we're featuring an interview with Ilkka Paananen, co-founder and CEO of Supercell, recorded with live audience at the Italian Tech Week conference in Turin last week. Andrii and Ilkka discussed the history of the gamedev industry, the mistakes entrepreneurs make at the start of their journey, the unique culture and structure of Supercell, the changes AI is bringing to the ecosystem, and much more.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen's annual blog for 2024: "Something absolutely had to change"

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about energy use at data centres, the state of Northvolt, submarine communications, and a few things in between.

You will also hear an interview with Chiara Petrioli, CEO and founder of Wsense, a company that’s created what it calls the underwater Wi-Fi to help preserve cultural heritage, monitor critical infrastructure, and do a lot of other things. Andrii sat down with Chiara last week in Rome, during the Rome Startup Week, to learn more about the company, the technology it’s developed, and the future the founder has envisioned.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Swiss startup bets on photonic chips to cut data centre energy consumption 
  • Startups race to curb data centre energy use amid AI boom
• Europe’s great battery hope Northvolt fights for survival
  • Northvolt: the Swedish start-up charging Europe’s battery ambitions
  • Northvolt to cut more than 20% of jobs in battle for survival
• Communication with submarines

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about flight tracking and its community, the new European Commission, health trackers for pets, revisiting Prince of Persia, and much more.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• This Swedish startup wants to pay the flight tracking community using blockchain
• Thierry Breton on X
• Ursula von der Leyen unveils her new European commissioners
•  The EU is getting its first ever commissioner for startups
• The Making of Prince of Persia

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about quantum accelerators, major job cuts at WeTransfer, a planet that never was, and a few things in between. 

You'll also hear an on-stage interview with Lee Taylor, CFO of OnlyFans, with Cristina Criddle, technology reporter at Financial Times. The conversation was recorded at this year’s TNW Conference — Lee talked about the journey of OnlyFans and the intricacies of its day-to-day work, including those in the financial realm. 

To get access to video recordings of this and other conference talks, sign up for TNW All Access membership — it's free!

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• The world’s most powerful supercomputers are getting a diamond quantum boost
• Italiaanse eigenaar schrapt tot driekwart banen WeTransfer, een maand na overname (WeTransfer to lose 75pc of staff from Bending Spoons’ acquisition)
• 9 Ghostly Planets
• Vulcan May Not be Real, but Spock's Home System is

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about the Barbiephone, Telegram’s future in the EU, running blades for the Paralympics, the end of AnandTech, and more.

You'll also hear an interview with Ferry Zonder, founder of the Dutch bicycle company Veloretti. The company has grown a lot over the past years and has very recognisable bikes. Our reporter Siôn Geschwindt sat down with Ferry in this studio last week to learn more about the latest developments.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• New Barbie dumbphone could cleave tweens from their screens
• EU investigating Telegram over user numbers
• The Fastest Woman on Blades | Who I am: Marlou van Rhijn
• End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell
• AnandTech, mainstay of computer hardware reviews, closes after 27 years

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about a silent hangar in the UK, the fate of Boeing Starliner, the detention of Pavel Durov in France, renewable energy and Iceland, and a few things in between.

You'll also hear an interview with Andreas Saari, co-founder and co-CEO of Paebbl, a startup that — very simply speaking — stores captured CO₂ in building materials, namely cement and concrete. It’s a fascinating story, I’m so happy to share it with you. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• UK 'silent hangar' to battle-ready aircraft, vehicles amid Russian GPS assault
• NASA will bring the Starliner astronauts home next year on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission
• How Telegram played itself
• Russian lawmakers hit back at arrest of Telegram chief Pavel Durov in France
• Iceland will tunnel into a volcano to tap into virtually unlimited geothermal power

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Ioanna and Andrii talk about the international expansion of Bolt, the benefits of Europe’s big tech regulation, the recent blue moon appearance, electric vehicles in Norway, and more.

You'll also hear an on-stage interview with Lethabo Motsoaledi, co-founder and CTO of Voyc, focussed around the practical aspects of deploying AI in a startup environment.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Inside Bolt's expansion strategy across 50+ markets
• Apple’s hold on the App Store is loosening, at least in Europe
• Super Blue Moons: Your questions answered
• Norway July 2024: Volkswagen #1, Xpeng breaks ranking record

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about a potential solution to the issue of death from overwork, the UK’s attention to AI companies, table tennis robots, and a very important decision that NASA is facing this week.

You'll also hear an on-stage panel discussion with healthcare professionals on some of the most important technologies that are changing the industry as we speak, recorded at TNW Conference 2024 and moderated by our reporter Ioanna Lykiardopoulou. Here are the amazing panelists: 

• Dr. Atul Gupta, Chief Medical Officer of Diagnosis and Treatment at Philips
• Noah Falstein, Game Developer & Producer, Founder at the Inspiracy
• Prof. S.C.E. Klein Nagelvoort Schuit, MD, VP of the Advisory Board of the UMCG
• Kamal Bhandal, VP of Invisalign Brand & Consumer Experience at Align Technology

And here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Death from overwork: AI app pitches solution to Japan's 'karoshi' problem
• Amazon defends $4B Anthropic AI deal from UK monopoly concerns
• 7th Generation FORPHEUS
• NASA is about to make its most important safety decision in nearly a generation

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Ioanna talk about the entry into force of the EU's AI Act and what it means for companies, futuristic robotic surgery, meteor showers, and enter the sci-fi fandom realm with some Douglas Adams trivia.

You'll also hear an on-stage conversation with Jennifer Goodall, CEO at MindAffect, a brain-computer interface (BCI) startup that develops hearing and vision diagnostics systems for hard-to-test patients. The topic of the conversation read "How Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Technology is Revolutionising Healthcare," and the on-stage interview was conducted by this week's co-host Ioanna Lykiardopoulou. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• EU AI Act enters into force, sets global standard for AI governance
• First UK child has surgery in robot device trial
• Versius Surgical Robotic System | Transforming Surgery. For Good.
• Perseid meteor shower 2024: when, where and how to see it
• Towel Day

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about batteries and life on Earth, very expensive AI research proposals, copyright traps, and of course the Olympics. 

You'll also hear an on-stage conversation with Parag Parekh, Chief Digital Officer at IKEA Retail (Ingka Group), conducted at the TNW Conference by Linnea. The topic of the conversation read “Digital Ethics in Practice” — and Parag was able to offer a good overview of how this is approached by the retail giant across the channels it operates in.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• ‘Battery rock’ discovery challenges understanding of life on Earth 
• Von der Leyen gives nod to €100 billion ‘CERN for AI’ proposal
• In Europe, it's easier to be an Olympic medalist than a unicorn founder
• "Copyright traps" could tell writers if an AI has scraped their work

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about AI in healthcare, the future of European solar, CrowdStrike and Formula 1, astronomers detecting deepfakes, and much more. 

You'll also hear an on-stage conversation with Remon Berrevoets, co-founder and director of R&D at Q*Bird, with whom Linnea spoke at the TNW Conference about quantum tech, and specifically the technology of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) that the company is working on. There were some really interesting questions from the audience as well, so make sure you don't miss this one. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• How Europe’s universities are using AI to battle dementia
• Can the solar industry keep the lights on?
• The shocking details behind an F1 team's painful revolution
• Researchers detect deepfakes with the same tools used to survey galaxies

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about the launch of Ariane 6 and its consequences, the woes of Firefly, robotic laundry folding, the math of swimming, and more. 

You'll also hear a panel discussion Andrii moderated a few weeks ago at the Pendomonium + #mtpcon Roadshow in Amsterdam. The session was called “AI in practice at Europe’s leading companies” and featured speakers from Mews, Manyone, Adyen, and Road. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Ariane 6 has lift off! Historic rocket launches Europe back into space 
• Can Ariane 6 turn Europe's spacetech startups into global powerhouses?
• Feds who forced Ukrainian investor to sell rocket company backtrack years later
• Laundroid: Giant robot folds clothes for you
• How America’s Fastest Swimmers Use Math to Win Gold

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii talks about fusion energy in Europe, 'the war on floppy disks', and more.

The guest of the show is Daniel Keiper-Knorr, general partner at Speedinvest, with his vision on the early-stage startup ecosystem in Europe, the market consolidation processes, and a few things around that.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• ITER troubles expose need for fusion between startups and governments 
• World’s largest fusion reactor hit by more delays and spiralling costs
• Japan wins 2-year “war on floppy disks,” kills regulations requiring old tech
• Why the Floppy Disk Just Won’t Die

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, we're featuring two interviews recorded at TNW Conference 2024 ago with two amazing women working in very different parts of the technology industry. 

The first guest of the show is Chiara Manfletti — who had a lot to say about space, including the debris issue, satellite tech, regulation, and much more.

In the second part of this episode, you'll hear from Sophia Velastegui, an AI expert who had worked with Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many other companies. She’s currently an AI advisor to the National Science Foundation.

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

The guest of the show is Maria Amelie, CEO and founder of Factiverse. The company has just raised €1mn in funding to further build its platform that helps researchers, journalists, and everyone else to fact-check anything, including output of LLMs like ChatGPT.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• UK cybersecurity startup PQShield raises $37M for post-quantum cryptography
• The Microsoft Excel superstars throw down in Vegas
•  Fact-checking startup targets AI hallucinations after raising €1M 

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Ioanna and Andrii talk about the jumbo funding round for Mistral, how AI is impacting copywriters, and also — which TNW Conference sessions we’re looking forward to. 

The guest of the show is Crijn Bouman, CEO and co-founder of Rocsys — a company that’s building hands-free charging solutions for electric vehicles. That involves a lot of robotics and AI, and we’ll talk about all of it in detail.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• French AI darling Mistral reportedly almost triples valuation to €5.8B
• AI took their jobs. Now they get paid to make it sound human
• AI Detectors Get It Wrong. Writers Are Being Fired Anyway
• June 20, Vision stage: Deep Tech Trends: What Can We Expect by 2030
• June 21, Growth Quarters stage: The Period(ic) Table: An Algorithm for Natural Birth Control

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Ioanna and Andrii talk about some of the latest developments in the Dutch and European chips industry, Danish media and OpenAI, our spatial navigation skills, Chinese internet disappearing, and much more.

The guest of the show is Zach Butler, Director of Events at TNW, to discuss the upcoming TNW Conference and everything around it, as well as get an impression of what happens behind the scenes.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• ASML’s new lab opens up access to its most advanced chipmaking machine
• Dutch chip giant NXP plans $7.8B plant in Singapore amid tensions with China
• Danish Media Threatens to Sue OpenAI
• Scientists Reveal Promising Way to Stave Off Cognitive Decline
• Goldfish Memories
•  Report: The Netherlands is the leading startup ecosystem in the EU 
• Conference highlights: master classes, Extreme Tech Challenge, DEI lounge, KPMG x TNW Karaoke Cruise
• What comes next: VDS, October 23—24; Future of AI, November 6—7

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Ioanna and Andrii talk about critical minerals from Australia, the new AI Office, asteroids on Mars, a washing machine chime dispute, and more.

The guest of the show is Henrik Green, General Manager Autonomous Technology at Einride, a self-driving truck scale-up based in Sweden.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• EU, Australia strike critical minerals supply deal amid tech rivalry with China
• With the EU AI Act incoming this summer, the bloc lays out its plan for AI governance
• Mars is more prone to devastating asteroid impacts than we thought, new study hints
• Washing machine chime scandal shows how absurd YouTube copyright abuse can get

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

The guest of the show is Marta Krupinska, CEO and co-founder of CUR8, a market-maker platform for carbon removals.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• AI translation unicorn DeepL reaches $2B valuation with new $300M investment
• “Unacceptable”: Spotify bricking Car Thing devices in Dec. without refunds
• How Long Does it Take to Become Proficient in a Language?
• The Hardest Languages In The World To Learn
• China’s latest answer to OpenAI is ‘Chat Xi PT’

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

The guest of the show is Peter Garraghan, CEO and co-founder at Mindgard. We discuss the questions of security of generative AI, potential attacks on it, and what businesses can do today to be at least reasonably safe.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• LLMs ‘for all official EU languages’ on horizon for Finnish startup
• Europe, meet Claude: Anthropic’s ChatGPT rival finally available in the EU
• Raspberry Pi considering London stock market float
• Scarlett Johansson says OpenAI ripped off her voice after she told the company not to use it in software
• r/OpenAI: Sky has left the chat
• Do teachers spot AI? Evaluating the detectability of AI-generated texts among student essays

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

The guest of the show is Jānis Pūtrams, CTO and co-founder at Aerones, a robotic wind turbine care systems startup from Latvia.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• UK’s Wayve raises $1B in Europe’s largest ever AI funding round
• UK joins European super-computing scheme as world-class British researchers now able to bid for funding
• Watch: first-ever CGI character interacting with a real-life actor
• Dazzling auroras are just a warm-up
• Bonus: EU’s JEDI supercomputer most energy efficient HPC system in the world

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about protein powder and carbon capture, Europe’s potential answer to Starlink, Disney’s R&D department, how many browser tabs you can keep open, and more.

The guest of the show is Peter Sarlin, CEO and founder at Silo AI. He has some strong opinions on the European AI ecosystem and its future, which we discussed in detail — together with the work Silo AI is doing on the so-called low-resource languages.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• This startup is using protein powder to beef up carbon capture
• Europe’s ambitious satellite Internet project appears to be running into trouble
• Watch: I Tried a Disney Secret Project!
• Firefox Power User Keeps 7,400+ Browser Tabs Open for 2 Years

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

The guest of the show is Alexandra Balkova, general partner and head of portfolio at Startup Wise Guys. In the interview recorded at TechChill in Riga, Alexandra talked about the current state of the VC industry, Ukrainian startups, defence tech, and much more. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Paris startup adds 'universal compute' weapon to France's growing AI arsenal
• Getir is exiting Europe and closing Gorillas as fast grocery delivery feels the chill
  • Getir ends European expansion with 1,500 UK job losses expected
• Germany wants to develop games on Baldur’s Gate 3 level

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

The guest of the show is Sebastian Aristotelis, whose title is co-founder and Lead Architect at SAGA Space Architects, a Danish company that is building human habitats to use on other planets.  

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Chip giant ASML plans Eindhoven expansion in big win for Dutch tech
• AI startup Stability lays off 10% of staff after controversial CEO's exit
• Stable Diffusion 3 API Now Available
• Europe baked in ‘extreme heat stress’ pushing temperatures to record highs
• 3 carbon capture technologies you’ve probably never heard of

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

The guest of the show is Caroline Viarouge, CEO at EIT Manufacturing. A big part of the conversation focused on the cooperation between the UK and the EU when it comes to research and innovation.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Meta's AI chief: LLMs will never reach human-level intelligence
• Fairphone Fairbuds 
• Bonus link: Andrii disassembles and assembles the Fairphone 2

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

The guest of the show is Jean-David Malo, Director of the Executive Agency for EIC and SMEs (EISMEA). It’s a long title — but you’ll understand every bit of it if you listen to the conversation. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Quantinuum, Microsoft claim to have quieted quantum computing 'noise'
• Why Polish founders are being forced to return millions in public grant money 
• Mac at 30 

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea and Andrii talk about flying cars, unexpected effects of climate change, espresso origins, and real-life invisibility shields. 

The guest of the show is Svilen Rangelov, co-founder and CEO of Dronamics, a Bulgarian scale-up that’s working on long-distance drone transportation with remote piloting.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Flying cars edge towards takeoff after Chinese production deal
• Melting of polar ice having effect on global timekeeping, research shows
• Invisibility Shield 2.0
• The History Of Espresso Machines

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Linnea, Tom (!), and Andrii talk about Ukrainian startups, drones, information security, European quantum landscape, reverse brain drain, and a lot more. 

The guest of the show is Michiel Scheffer, President of the Board of the European Innovation Council. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Hidden racial slurs are flooding across Russian media, AI reveals
• European Declaration on Quantum Technologies
• Why tech talent is flocking to Europe

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Linnea talk about a new supercomputer in Denmark, the situation at Stability AI, the way our brain constructs reality, ChatGPT in scientific papers, and more. 

The guests of the show are Tanguy Goretti and Adrien Roose, co-founders of the Belgian-born ebike startup Cowboy. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Denmark is building an Nvidia AI supercomputer
• Key Stable Diffusion researchers leave Stability AI as company flounders
• This startup is building AI that can fly drones and make its own decisions
• Scientific journals are publishing papers with AI-generated text
• Urban mobility leader Cowboy launches Cross, first all-road ebike model 

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Linnea talk about the ‘Operation Beethoven’ by the Dutch government, founders’ mental health, some Dune: Part Two trivia, world’s oldest actively developed web browser, and more.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Dutch government launched secret task force to keep ASML in Netherlands, report says
• 49% of founders say they’re considering quitting their startup this year
• Stellan Skarsgård would rather sit for 8 hours naked in the makeup chair than do CGI
• The oldest web browser that's still being developed

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Ioanna talk about the benefits of walking, progressive web apps, unhealthy food, and physical controls in cars in the EU. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Doctors have started prescribing a new medical treatment: A walking app
• Apple reverses decision about blocking web apps on iPhones in the EU
• European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
• Ultra-processed foods linked to heart disease, cancer, and 30 other health conditions (and the paper itself)

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Ioanna talk about multilingual LLMs, the latest news from Mistral AI, some boardroom drama, language learning theories, and a few things in between.

The guest of the show is Zeynep Yavuz, partner at global venture firm General Catalyst, taking about her view of European fintech, the most important trends that drive the VC industry, and much more.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• AI model Poro sets new milestones for multilingual LLMs in Europe
• Mistral releases new 'top-tier' AI model, partners with Microsoft
• How Klarna’s boardroom spat exposed a schism at Sequoia Capital
• Theories of Language Acquisition: Differences & Examples

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse. Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Linnea talk about AI safety, Europe regulating Big Tech (but not quite), snowmobile emissions, and the cost of chatbot hallucinations.

The guest of the show is Gerard Grech, managing director of Founders at the University of Cambridge — and the founding chief executive of Tech Nation in the UK.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• AI chip tags can fight espionage from hostile states, report says
• Apple won’t be forced to open up iMessage by EU
• Apple, Microsoft partly exempted from EU Digital Markets Act
• Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot
• Traditional snowmobiles can emit a whole lot of hydrocarbon pollutants and greenhouse gases

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Linnea talk about deepfake face swapping, the incredible race of Arm’s stock price, epilepsy trolling, and learn more about how much startup founders are paying themselves across Europe.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in this episode:

• Deepfake ‘face swap’ attacks surged 704% last year, study finds 
• Taylor Swift deepfake porn deluge a ‘wake-up call’ for lawmakers
• Arm Holdings jumps over 40%, adds to staggering AI-powered rally
• Is Arm really an AI stock?
• The Everything Blueprint: The Microchip Design that Changed the World
• Cyberflashing and epilepsy-trolling offenders to face prison in UK 
• Founder Compensation 2.0

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Linnea talk about the AI Act, the leak of Mistral’s surprisingly powerful large language model, European supercomputer chips, and more. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• EU member states approve world-first AI law
• Mistral CEO confirms ‘leak’ of new open source AI model nearing GPT-4 performance
• Robot trained to read braille at twice the speed of humans
• Europe is getting a homegrown microprocessor for supercomputers, built by SiPearl

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Linnea talk about a new European space mission, AI-generated podcasts, antiquated tech in German trains, and much more. 

In the interview section, we’re featuring a conversation with Oscar Kneppers, CEO of the Amsterdam Centre for Entrepreneurship, or ACE. He’s also founded several well-known local publications and one of the country’s major startup accelerators, Rockstart. 

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

•  ESA embarks on world-first mission to detect ripples in the fabric of space-time
• Spotify and Palantir alumni raise $3m for AI audio platform
• [Deutsche] Bahn: Administrator for Windows 3.11 wanted

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Linnea talk about Europeans in space, laser weapons of the future, embodied cognition, functional programming languages, and more!

In the interview section, we’re featuring a conversation with Ton van 't Noordende, Managing Director at QDNL Participations and Architect at InfinityQD. We’ll talk about the quantum computing ecosystem in the Netherlands and globally, its challenges and prospects, and everything in between.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• First commercial crew of all-European astronauts launches to International Space Station 
• Opinion: Why Europe is lagging behind in the spacetech race
•  Advanced future military laser achieves UK first 
•  Delhi metro works on Haskell!

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse. Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In the interview section, we’re featuring a conversation with Anton Volovyk, co-CEO at Reface and a speaker at the upcoming TNW Conference. Reface is a Ukrainian scale-up launched in 2020, which has made it through the pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, raising a few million dollars from investors like a16z along the way. 

If you want to hear even more from Anton, make use of the special offer we've got for the listeners of this podcast. You can use the code TNWXMEDIA to get 30% off your business pass today!

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

•  Domestic humanoid backed by OpenAI closer to market after $100M raise
• Scooter startups Tier and Dott agree to merge
• Deal Dive: Tier and Dott’s merger is not a sign of what’s to come in M&A this year
• Scientists Destroy Illusion That Coin Toss Flips Are 50–50
•  Coin Tossing Marathon (4th of December 2022)

Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at podcast@thenextweb.com.

In the interview section, we’re featuring a conversation with Cal Henderson, co-founder and CTO at Slack and an investor in firstminute’s third fund.

Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode:

• Dutch startups created 151K jobs in the Netherlands in 2023
• The Commission has approved a €2.9 billion French State aid scheme for supporting investment in green industries
• Commission approves €902 million German State aid measure to support Northvolt
• 52 Interesting Things I Learned in 2023
• Apple Vision Pro

Music and sound engineering for this podcast is by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at andrii@thenextweb.com.

We discussed how space policy actually works (and whether it works at all), what to expect from the EU space law that's being developed as we speak, and much more.

Music and sound engineering for this podcast is by Sound Pulse. Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at andrii@thenextweb.com.

In today’s episode, Andrii and Linnea talk about brain-computer interfaces, autonomous cars in the UK, cybersecurity safewords, Benford’s law — and many things in between. 

In the interview section, we’re featuring a conversation with Marjut Falkstedt, the Chief Executive at the European Investment Fund.

Here are the stories mentioned in the episode:

• Tech to transform human-machine interaction with brain data wins €30M 
• Self-driving cars could be on UK roads by 2026 — minister
• Numbers by Radiolab

Music and sound engineering for this podcast is by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at andrii@thenextweb.com.

• Kinga Stanislawska, founder of European Women in VC and co-founder Experior VC. We talked about the state of diversity in European VC, the issues we're facing, and the potential ways to solve them.
• Sten Tamkivi, partner at Plural Platform. We discussed his vision of the European VC landscape, as well as some predictions for 2024.

Listen to the episode with the player above — or, better still, find us on your favourite podcast platform and subscribe!

Music and sound engineering for this podcast is by Sound Pulse.

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at andrii@thenextweb.com.

In the interview section, we’re featuring a conversation with Erika Cheung, a Theranos whistleblower who’s now working on bringing ethics and responsibility to entrepreneurship.

Music and sound engineering for this podcast is by Sound Pulse. 

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at andrii@thenextweb.com.

• Ida Tin, co-founder and chairwoman of the period tracking app Clue — and the very person who coined the term 'femtech' itself.
• Valentina Milanova, founder and CEO of Daye, a gynaecological health startup based in the UK.

Listen to the episode with the player above — or, better still, find us on your favourite podcast platform and subscribe!

Let us know how we did and get a chance to win a ticket to the TNW Conference 2024! Fill out the form here: https://tnw.typeform.com/to/VnX8cjg3 (We'll announce the winner in the next 'normal' episode on December 20.)

In today's episode, Andrii and Linnea talk about Mistral AI's jumbo funding round, the future of the AI Act, big eVTOL news from Lilium, and a few things in between.

In the interview section, we're featuring a conversation with Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau, Special Envoy at Techleap.nl.

Let us know how we did and get a chance to win a ticket to the TNW Conference 2024! Fill out the form here: https://tnw.typeform.com/to/VnX8cjg3

Music and sound engineering for this podcast is by Sound Pulse. 

Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at andrii@thenextweb.com.