Graeme Thickins on Tech

Stocking Up on Apple

September 13, 2024 / Graeme / 0 Comments

Not AAPL shares (I do that, too) — I’m talking about my fall click-and-buy ritual on Apple.com! Well, in the case of iPhone, every other fall this time around. I decided last year that I would keep my iPhone 14 Pro Max for two years — that is, I skipped the 15. Why? Two reasons: 1) I was very happy with the 14 (display, battery life, and especially the camera), and 2) I was paying for it on a 24-month installment plan — through Apple, of course… on my (you guessed it) Apple Card! So, why not pay it off first, then trade it in when I buy another one? That, and I was hearing the 16 might be offering some exciting stuff worth waiting for. Though I didn’t know it for sure a year ago, that exciting stuff turned out to be — well, you know!

Sure, we’ll have to wait till next month for some of the Apple Intelligence features to be useable on the iPhone 16, with coming software updates — but I’ll be ready with my new phone, which will likely arrive on my doorstep around October 1. Here’s an article from The Verge on the AI features that will be coming this fall, and more into early 2025.

For a look at all the goodness that comes with the iPhone 16 — in addition to Apple Intelligence — the following slide from the September 9th “Glowtime” event wraps it up. (Click on any of the images in this post to enlarge.)

And here’s more on the iPhone 16 camera features — all of which are very much important to me:

For a complete rundown on the features of the iPhone 16 Pro — including the Pro Max — the following slide tells it well. Note the new “Grade 5 Titanium,” which results in lighter weight than my 14 Pro Max, while — get this — giving me a larger screen at 6.9″! I’ll take that combo.

But, wait — I didn’t stop with a new iPhone — oh, no! I was ready to upgrade my Apple Watch, too! Again, I’ve been happy with my Series 9, but knowing I could trade that in (it’s in great condition) to get a pretty good deal on the new Series 10, why not? Was there one overriding reason for me to upgrade? No, sleep apnea detection is not something I’m worried about. For me, it was a combination of things. In addition to an improved design and more “intelligence,” that would be longer battery life (up to 18 hours!) and faster charging. The Series 9 was pretty good in regard to those last two points, but who wouldn’t want more improvement when it comes to a wearable that’s become an indispensable part of one’s life? I wear my Watch at night, too, as many people now do, to track sleep data. So, here’s a rundown of what the Apple Watch Series 10 brings to the party:

I expect my Watch Series 10 to arrive in the next few days, along with a return box for my trade in. And I can’t wait to strap it on!

How are you planning to upgrade? I have no doubt that this upgrade cycle will be a huge one for Apple — one that will propel the stock of the largest company on the U.S. stock market even higher.

(By the way, did you know that Apple’s market cap, at $3.3+ trillion, is larger than the entire GDP of the U.K.? Blimey!!)

A.I. Startups of Several Flavors Pitch Passionately in Minneapolis

June 22, 2024 / Graeme / 0 Comments

It was my pleasure to host an awesome group of founders at a conference on June 7, 2024 — all of them focused in data and AI. The conference attracted more than 1200 attendees. It was the seventh edition of the MinneAnalytics DATA TECH Conference, which took place at the Best Buy HQ Campus in Richfield, MN.

As a board member of MinneAnalytics, I again organized and hosted a “Startup Showcase” that morning. It was the 16th such session over the past decade that I’ve had the privilege of putting together. All told, MinneAnalytics has given a platform to a total of 139 startups in these showcases, which collectively have raised hundreds of millions in capital and created thousands of jobs. Already, a dozen of these startups have had successful exits via acquisition.

Our startup session this time continued the strong attendance we had at our last event, the April 19 Healthcare Conference (which I wrote about in my previous post). Attendance was again standing room during most of this session, and even more crowded for the VC Panel at the end.

Please do click on the links below to learn about each of these promising startups! They’re representative of the wide array of data & AI startups that are popping up all over these days. After the event, I asked each presenter, What was one good thing that happened to you because of your participation in this session, or one interesting contact you made?

STARTUP PRESENTERS’ FEEDBACK

Luke Roquet, Datavolo (Minnesota & Arizona): “We met some really interesting people from across town, but hearing what Philips Healthcare is doing and how we might be able to help them with their image processing pipelines was my top takeaway from the event.”

Kristopher Purens, Uroboros Innovations (Chicago): “We made several great connections with new people and reconnected with old contacts. Really valuable event for us. Panel discussion was very helpful, too.”

Dan Feehan, Code4pro (Minnesota): “Fantastic event. Loved the organization and straightforwardness of it all and the complement of the panel and timely AI discussion. I also loved how easy it was to connect with folks and understand their part of the ecosystem. I even ran into my best friend from 7th grade that I haven’t seen in 30 years! Great job by all presenters!”

Michael Petersen, Raise a Hood (Minnesota): “We came away from the event with a dozen new connections — potential investors, potential customers, and even potential partners. It was a day very well invested!”

Jeremy Vaughan, Start Left Security (Jacksonville FL): “Great event, great community! MinneAnalytics provides an example of what other cities can do for their tech folks and startups. Start Left Security made great connections with new partners and even have some investors chasing us down now!”

Toriano Sanzone, Dot Dog (New Orleans): “The Startup Showcase was truly impressive. I do wish I had brought more business cards and USB drives with my pitch deck, as the networking opportunities were exceptional. Presenting my company DOT DOG and Dog Training AI has boosted my confidence in the direction I am heading. Attending MinneAnalytics events is a priority for the rest of 2024, and I look forward to the possibility of presenting again in 2025.”

Jolly Nanda, Altheia (Minnesota): “It was a great event. I liked the opportunity to connect with my fellow startups, VCs, and supporters. I enjoyed the networking between sessions as well.”

George Asante, Affine Health Intelligence (Evanston IL): “It was great to be included in such a remarkable event.”

My sincere thanks to these amazing founders! They pitched their hearts out and captivated our audience.

PANELISTS’ COMMENTS

The panel following the startup pitches packed the room even further. The topic was, “How Are Investors Evaluating Startups in the Age of Data and AI?” After the event, I asked each panelist, What was the single best insight or comment you would cite from the discussion?

Ryan Weber, Great North Ventures (Minnesota): “I loved hearing from John about Piper’s cautious adoption given security concerns and protecting their clients — and from Ryan Broshar about how one of their portfolio companies is addressing it. Also loved Nick’s comment on the due diligence “BS call,” where they bring in an expert to chat with [a startup pitching them] to ensure they aren’t just big talkers. We do that, too, but I never thought of it so bluntly. It makes very clear the intention of that call. With all the hype and new jargon, [such a step] makes a lot of sense in this age of AI.”

Nick Moran, New Stack Ventures (Chicago): “I believe it was Ryan Weber that emphasized the importance of data in an AI strategy. This is an area we’ve been spending on a lot of time in as we think about defensibility and long-term moats. The comments really resonated and made me think about how that applies to our investments.”

Ryan Broshar, Matchstick Ventures (Minneapolis & Boulder) : “I liked the discussion around the adoption of AI by enterprises, and that we know they will be late adopters when it comes to any product they are building — but probably don’t know the extent to which their employees are already using it to improve productivity.”

John Gast, Piper Sandler (Minneapolis): “I enjoyed the discussion and appreciate how you moderated it, Graeme. It struck me that our collective remarks underscored how quickly this market is moving. We didn’t dwell on the fervor around LLMs in the last 12 to 24 months – instead, we had a rational discussion about the application of this technology to real problems.”

Really excellent panel! Thanks again, guys — and to all who attended and asked great questions.

I hope those of you reading this post can join us at our next Startup Showcase. Watch for an announcement in a future MinneAnalytics newsletter. If you aren’t on that list, please do sign up here. Join the almost 20,000 in the amazing MinneAnalytics community!

Hit the comments and let me know what you think, or if you have a question. Thanks!

Eight Up-and-Coming Healthcare & Medtech Startups I Hosted Recently

May 2, 2024 / Graeme / 3 Comments

Among many other things I do, I serve on the Board of a wonderful organization called MinneAnalytics, a community of some 20,000 data and business professionals. The seventh edition of our Healthcare Data Science Conference took place Friday, April 19, 2024 at the Best Buy headquarters campus in suburban Minneapolis. More than 1000 attended.

In my role as Startup Showcase Organizer, I hosted yet another session of startup pitches at this conference. It was the 15th such session we’ve had over the past decade. (We do them at all our major conferences, not just the events we do focused in healthcare.) Not counting this session, we’ve now featured a total of 114 startups, which collectively have raised hundreds of millions in capital and created thousands of jobs. About 10% of them have had successful exits via acquisition so far.

Big Crowd

The startup session at the recent conference had what I think was the largest attendance of any we’ve ever done. It was standing room only throughout the two and half hours. I attribute that both to the quality of the startups, and to the amazing medtech ecosystem we have here in Minnesota.

The startup presenters and their companies were as follows. I encourage you to visit their websites to learn more the amazing work each is doing!

• Mark Summers, Dosentrx

• Tony Hyk, TheraTec

• Jeremiah Scholl, AESOP Technology

• Keith Kallmes, Nested Knowledge

• Lia Butler, NeoPrediX

• Laura Stoltenberg, Cryosa

• Ping Yeh, Vocxi Health

• Chris Darland, Peerbridge Health

A VC Panel Discusses Funding Issues

A panel I organized took place after the startup pitches. It packed the room even further — very little standing room was left! The topic was, “The Current Funding Environment for Healthcare and Medtech Startups.”

I asked each panelist, What was the single best insight or comment you would cite from the discussion?

Frank Jaskulke, Medical Alley Association: “Having heard Stephanie Rich share that they may see 2500 companies in a year to invest in 3 or 4 — that really highlights the competition startups face. But it also speaks to the importance of engaging the right investors, not just any investors. A startup can waste a lot of time chasing the wrong targets.”

Stephanie Rich, Bread & Butter Ventures: “The biggest thing I was struck by was the interest in venture and healthcare by our ecosystem and attendees! The attendance and questions were amazing.” [Stephanie sat in for her colleague Mary Grove, who called in at the last minute with a cold.]

Dave Dalvey, Brightstone Venture Capital: “The tracking and market implications of ‘overhang’ or ‘dry powder’ as it’s called in the venture capital industry are important to understand. Too much or too little un-invested capital held by active venture managers, at a time when a new company is in the market for funding, has a significant impact on the pricing, terms, and general receptiveness of a fund manager to a new opportunity.”

Greg Banker, Vensana Capital: “I liked Dave’s comment about making sure to research VCs before you go out to fundraise, to ensure you’re a match for their criteria — or that you’re similar to other investments they’ve made in the past. For example, if you’re raising a seed investment and the fund you’re trying to talk with has never done anything but Series B and beyond — well, not likely a fit.”

We had some great questions after each pitch, and after the panel. Thanks again to all who participated and attended!

The next Startup Showcase will be held at the largest annual MinneAnalytics event of them all: Data Tech, to be held on June 7, 2024 at the same venue. It will draw 1200+ registrants and feature 40+ speakers, in addition to the startup pitch session.

If you’re able to attend, look me up!

A Great Way to ‘AI Enhance’ Your Headshots

February 11, 2024 / Graeme / 0 Comments

It’s no secret there are far too many really bad headshots all over LinkedIn, and everywhere else online for that matter. Wouldn’t it be great if something came along to help us normal people solve that problem? Talk about a huge market opportunity! Well, something did — and you can probably guess it would be… yes, we can thank our favorite new friend, AI.

Specifically, a startup called The Multiverse A I has brought us what they describe as an “AI Headshot Generator” that lets you “turn your selfies into professional headshots” to “boost your professional image.” Who can’t use some of that in this day and age of… yes, friends, I’m going to say it: Personal Branding. Some examples provided by The Multiverse AI are shown here (click the image to enlarge).

Actually, it doesn’t have to be just selfies you submit — it can be any photos that include you, by cropping into those images to show just your head and shoulders. I know, I got to test it, and I don’t think any of mine were selfies. I hardly ever shoot a selfie! But I have lots of photos that include me. (Those cropped sections, however, have to be a minimum of 512 x 512 pixels, which was a bit of a challenge for me.)

If you follow my blog, you’ve seen me write about this topic of headshots since AI became such a hot thing in 2022 — namely, in the following two posts.

Generative AI Made Me Do it

I Couldn’t Help Myself – I Did It Again

But that was about avatars, which was sort of a plaything for a while — and I created a bunch with an app called Lensa. I sure had fun with it! This new service from The Multiverse AI, however, is a big step up from that, because it produces photo-realistic images that don’t look fake, or created by… a bot?

How Good Is It?

Well, ta-dah — I’m debuting my favorite new headshot, courtesy of my experience with The Multiverse, right here on my blog today. It’s the one in the upper right under “About Graeme.” That image replaces the one I’ve had there for more years than I can remember. So, kudos to The Multiverse for finally getting me to update that old one!

And here’s a much larger image of all the best ones I got back after my submission, so you can see the variety their service produces. (Click to enlarge.)

So, What’s the Story on This Startup?

I learned it was launched on Product Hunt back in September 2023, with good success. Who’s behind it? Well, three cofounders you can see here. And a hat-tip to Tanya, who found me on LinkedIn and requested a connection. I thought it sounded interesting, so I took her up on it. Glad I did!

By the way, another interesting way to use The Multiverse — also a much-needed service — is to create AI-generated professional headshots for your team. There are so many startups — and for that matter, larger companies — who have horribly inconsistent headshots of their teams, or their executive lineup, Well, here’s a way to fix that. Yay! I’ll be recommending it — or using it myself for certain clients.

So… how’s your headshot?

I Have Some Good Stories About Private Equity, But This Is My Favorite

January 30, 2024 / Graeme / 0 Comments

Joel Thickins, head of Asia for TPG – Copyright, Australian Financial Review (click to enlarge)

I have this nephew who’s a big-time PE exec, based in Melbourne. His name is Joel Thickins, and he’s sure stirring up the Aussie private-equity scene. Such intrigue! The latest media attention he’s getting is from the Australian Financial Review in an article entitled, “‘Aggressive and Clever’: Inside Joel Thickins’ TPG.” (more on that below)

It’s a fascinating look inside the world of big dealmaking Down Under. And Joel continues to make a name for himself in that world, ruffling feathers in an otherwise somewhat stuffy business. He was always super-competitive, from his younger days in the finals of the Oregon State High School Championships, to getting a basketball scholarship to Northern Arizona University and playing in the NCAA Tournament. He soon left that world, where he felt smothered by the system of collegiate athletics, and soon moved on to MBA school at the University of Melbourne, after meeting and marrying an Australian girl. After graduation, he landed at an up-and-coming PE firm called CHAMP (aptly named for Joel!), later being hired to run Australia and New Zealand for the Melbourne office of TPG, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. His dealmaking prowess led to his being named head of the entire Asia market for the firm.

Back to that recent article. Here are some excerpts:

Those who know him well say he makes no secret of his disdain for investment bankers, who he sees as increasingly irrelevant as super funds and private capital firms forge more direct relationships….

“He’s not for the faint-hearted,” says Aidan Allen, the head of investment banking at Jarden, who later joined UBS as an adviser to TPG on the InvoCare deal. “I like dealing with him. He’s aggressive and clever.”

That combination of aggression and talent has kept TPG, one of the most prominent private equity firms in the country, in good stead over the last eight years…

In more than a dozen interviews – although Thickins and TPG declined to comment – friends, colleagues and critics paint a picture of an exacting man who can be hard to get hold of, someone who can be brusque but is often brilliant and more often decisive.

But don’t let me keep you from reading the entire article here — it’s a great read: ‘Aggressive and clever’: Inside Joel Thickins’ TPG.

On the topic of disdain for investment bankers, Joel didn’t hold back when I followed up with him on that and got this gem:

“Bankers are overpaid used car salesmen… their superpower is their ability to be indignant!”

Zing!

Another super-interesting piece on Joel that I found appeared back in 2018 in The Sydney Morning Herald, entitled TPG’s top man in the thick of it.

This one covers his earlier days at TPG and how he began making a name for himself. I find it all very fascinating! (And not just because he’s my nephew.)

—————–

Here’s more on Joel’s latest plans, detailed in a December 11, 2023 “Street Talk” column in the Australian Financial Review:

TPG seeks $1.5b-plus for new Asian growth fund

TPG deal-maker Joel Thickins has hit the fundraising trail for a new Asia-based fund, Street Talk understands.

Sources said the strategy is chasing $1.5 billion-plus to target growth investments, focusing on consumer, technology/software and healthcare companies with enterprises valued between $150 million and $400 million.

Potential investors were told the majority will be deployed in Australian and New Zealand companies (70 per cent), and the remainder in South Korea and South-East Asia.

‘‘With interest rates rising across the region, attractive valuations are beginning to emerge in the mid-cap space at the same time as earnings growth has become the key driver for investment returns,” TPG Capital said in a marketing pitch seen by Street Talk.

‘‘We believe this market backdrop provides a great point in time to launch our growth strategy in the region.”

Thickins will lead the fund from Australia. It is expected to write checks between $75 million and $150 million. On his hit list are developed, profitable, cash-flow-positive companies looking for funding to expand offshore or improve productivity through tech and operational upgrades.

The firm has had a good year, sweeping funeral services business InvoCare off the ASX and chasing a $4 billion payday at its clinical research organisation Novotech. However, its attempt to offload its pets and vets business Greencross to EBOS collapsed at the last minute after tepid investor support for funding the acquisition.

TPG is touting its strong track record in the region.

The new fund will see TPG compete with the likes of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, Crescent Point, BPEA EQT and Quadria Capital for Asian small-cap and middle-market companies.

——————–

Needless to say, I will continue to follow Joel’s progress! And, one day, I just might make the trip Down Under (where I was born) to see him.

Graeme Thickins on Tech

Stocking Up on Apple

A.I. Startups of Several Flavors Pitch Passionately in Minneapolis

Eight Up-and-Coming Healthcare & Medtech Startups I Hosted Recently

A Great Way to ‘AI Enhance’ Your Headshots

I Have Some Good Stories About Private Equity, But This Is My Favorite

About Graeme

Recent Posts

Post Categories

Post Archives

Top Analyst

Friends

Pages

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Graeme Thickins on Tech

Stocking Up on Apple

A.I. Startups of Several Flavors Pitch Passionately in Minneapolis

Eight Up-and-Coming Healthcare & Medtech Startups I Hosted Recently

A Great Way to ‘AI Enhance’ Your Headshots

I Have Some Good Stories About Private Equity, But This Is My Favorite

About Graeme

Get Social

Recent Posts

Post Categories

Post Archives

Top Analyst

Friends

Pages

Recent Posts

Recent Comments