E71: Plaid IPO?, NY State sues Gemini, Amazon + humanoid robots, AI and your kids/business | Pre-IPO Stock Podcast – Oct 23, 2023 | Clint Sorenson, Nick Fusco, Aaron Dillon

00:18 | Plaid IPO?
- Plaid hired former Expedia exec, Eric Hart, as their CFO, sparking IPO rumors
- Plaid laid off 20% of their staff in 2022, IPO prep?
- Visa's attempt to acquire Plaid for $5b was killed by regulators re: antitrust
- Plaid at $15.4b implied secondary market valuation, +15% from Apr 2021 round at $13.4b valuation
- “High quality” IPOs are coming … larger valuations, broader current investor base … Plaid, Databricks, Stripe

06:53 | NY State sues Gemini
- Gemini’s Earn product allocated money to DCG’s Genesis which subsequently allocated to Three Arrows Capital and Alameda Research, both of which went bankrupt, leaving a $1.1b deficit
- FTX’s Anthropic investment could fill the $1.1b deficit
- “Picks and shovels” crypto companies are of particular interest; e.g. Kraken, Fireblocks, ConsenSys
- Secondary market buyers have pulled back, both buyers and sellers

13:12 | Amazon + humanoid robots
- Amazon testing Agility Robotics’ Digit humanoid robot in warehouses
- Robotics and AI would play a significant part in lives over the next 5 to 10 years, impacting business and geopolitics
- Robotics will have a positive impact on economic growth, population decline will require robotics to enhance productivity
- Robotics have been around for a while but humanoid robots are making the opportunity very tangible and real for many
- Robotics will drive onshoring manufacturing due to lowered costs of production

21:13 | AI and your kids/business
- I turned by 5 year old, Duke, loose on ChatGPT audio option this past weekend
- Duke has a full on conversation with “Mr. George”, the name he gave ChatGPT
- ChatGPT knew Duke was 5 years old and was prompting Duke with questions to further engage and education him
- Clint uses ChatGPT to write investment research and create initial drafts of chapters for a book he is writing
- AI, like ChatGPT, will make to possibility of “1-person-companies” a reality
- A $1.0b valuation 1-person-company is close!