James Cham — Investing in the Intersection of Business and Technology
James Cham is a co-founder and partner at Bloomberg Beta, an early-stage venture firm that invests in machine learning and the future of work, the intersection between business and technology.
James explains how his approach to investing in AI has developed over the last decade, which signals of success he looks for in the ever-adapting world of venture startups (tip: look for the "gradient of admiration"), and why it's so important to demystify ML for executives and decision-makers.
Lukas and James also discuss how new technologies create new business models, and what the ethical considerations of a world where machine learning is accepted to be possibly fallible would be like.
Show notes (transcript and links): http://wandb.me/gd-james-cham
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⏳ Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:46 How investment in AI has changed and developed
7:08 Creating the first MI landscape infographics
10:30 The impact of ML on organizations and management
17:40 Demystifying ML for executives
21:40 Why signals of successful startups change over time
27:07 ML and the emergence of new business models
37:58 New technology vs new consumer goods
39:50 What James considers when investing
44:19 Ethical considerations of accepting that ML models are fallible
50:30 Reflecting on past investment decisions
52:56 Thoughts on consciousness and Theseus' paradox
59:08 Why it's important to increase general ML literacy
1:03:09 Outro
1:03:30 Bonus: How James' faith informs his thoughts on ML
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Connect with James:
📍 Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamescham
📍 Bloomberg Beta: https://github.com/Bloomberg-Beta/Manual
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Links:
📍 "Street-Level Algorithms: A Theory at the Gaps Between Policy and Decisions" by Ali Alkhatib and Michael Bernstein (2019): https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300760
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💬 Host: Lukas Biewald
📹 Producers: Cayla Sharp, Angelica Pan, Lavanya Shukla
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20VC: Greenfield Opportunities For Machine Learning, Why Massive Corporates Finally See It's Potential & Why VC's Investment Decision Making Process Needs To Change with James Cham, Partner @ Bloomberg Beta
James Cham is a Partner @ Bloomberg Beta and one the pre-eminent thinkers in the machine learning space. Prior to Bloomberg, James was a Principal @ Trinity Ventures and before Trinity, James was a VP at Bessemer Venture Partners. At Bessemer, James was a Board Member of CrowdFlower and Open Candy. However, James has not always been a VC as he was originally a programmer receiving his degree in Computer Science from Harvard.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How James made his way into the wonderful world of VC from being a programmer?
2.) How are organisations and corporations thinking about machine learning? How are they looking to incorporate it into their current infrastructure?
3.) Kieran Snyder @ Textio said, 'the writing is on the wall for enterprise to embrace machine learning'. What are James' thoughts and how does the business model vary from licensed and SaaS?
4.) How is building machine learning models different from software development? On the topic of software development, how does James perceive the productivity differences between software developers?
5.) Moving to VC and how does James approach the investment decision making process as a VC? How does James relationship to religion intertwine with his investment career?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
James' Fave Book: Man Who Lied To His Laptop
James' Fave Blog or Newsletter: Rob May, Jack Clark, Tyler Cowan
James' Most Recent Investment: Netlify
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and James on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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