Full transcription: may contain unintentionally confusing, inaccurate and/or amusing transcription errors

Welcome to Episode 0

Origin story  (1:26)

Nuno: As it is always the case, there is an origin story to Tech Deciphered. Bertrand and I have had weekly discussions in different forms around the latest news, opinion pieces, and research for some time.

We’ve also taken it to Twitter. As part of those discussions, in many cases, we’ve gone underneath the surface. And while doing that, we really tried to understand what goes beyond the snapshots that the journalists are portraying.

What we are trying to bring is an entrepreneur, an investor view of big tech, VCs and startups, to help understand what’s truly happening behind the surface.

And it’s usually pretty far from the caricatural view you can sometimes get, and both Nuno and I, we have spent quite some time living in Asia, living in the US, we are coming from Europe, and we believe we can have a more global best perspective versus what you usually get here in Silicon Valley.

So our objective is to decipher the meaning of these news, to decipher the meanings of these announcements, opinion pieces, and to really bring the no BS view of what’s really happening in the world, while adding our own inside knowledge and context that is, we think, very valuable.

And also, also being both nerds, we couldn’t resist discussing gadgets and sometimes pop culture news.

Format (2:55)

Bertrand: This is our first season.

Typically, every episode will be split into two to four main segments on big tech VCs, and startups, and usually we’re ending with gadgets because we love gadgets. 

Once in a while we will bring amazing guests on topics they are experts.

Tone (3:16)

Nuno: Our tone will be a little bit like us. Passionate, irreverent, nerdy. We will be strong, but convey informed opinions. We will always be trying to aim for the truth and that means there will be no BS allowed.

We won’t be afraid to disagree, but we will be having quite a lot of fun in the process.

Nuno Bio (3:39)

Nuno: I am your co-host, Nuno Goncalves Pedro, investor, co-founder and managing partner of Strive Capital.

I have been in Tech for almost 25 years as a computer engineer, product manager, operator and investor. I have worked in over 35 countries spanning Europe, Asia and North America and have lived in Lisbon, London, Beijing and the San Francisco Bay area. 

I am an ex McKinsey senior expert and member of the Asia-Pacific Technology, Media and Telecom leadership team, as well as an operator , including senior roles with the GSM Association. I developed and product managed software products and custom systems at the beginning of my career and some of them are shockingly still in use today. 

More importantly, I have been an entrepreneur in Venture Capital, having co-founded Strive Capital and having had senior roles with other VC firms in Silicon Valley. I have been an executive, independent and investor board member on start-ups in the US, Asia and Europe, having worked with other investors in the 3 continents. I am passionate about entrepreneurs and have been an advisor, mentor and coach consultant to several companies and individuals. I am an alum of Stanford and London Business School, and studied Computer Engineering at IST at the University of Lisbon. 

Last, but not least, I am a nerd…the kind that goes to Comic-Con in San Diego; I consume mass amounts of tv and movies, am a gamer and I collect gadgets. In a nutshell, Silicon Valley is my candy store.

Bertrand Bio (5:14)

Bertrand: I am your co-host, Bertrand Schmitt, Tech Entrepreneur, co-Founder & Chairman at App Annie.

I have more than 20 years exec experience in Tech across US, Europe and Asia, and I have lived in Paris, my hometown, Philadelphia, Beijing, Shanghai and now the San Francisco Bay area. 

I co-founded App Annie in Beijing in 2010, and as CEO during 8 years, I led its huge growth to become a global company now headquartered in San Francisco. As Chairman, I am now focused on the long term view of the business.

App Annie is the mobile performance standard, our mobile market data and analytics platform is used by industry leaders all over the world as we now reached more than $100M in Annual Recurring Revenues. We have over 450 employees across 12 offices worldwide, and we raised $150M in VC-backed financing from: IDG Capital, Greycroft, e-Ventures, Infinity Ventures, Strive Capital, Sequoia Capital, IVP, Greenspring and others. 

I am also an active business angel, and advisor to multiple startups and VC funds.

Previously, I was VP Mobile for Gomez, a web analytics company, acquired by Compuware in 2009 for around $300M. Before that I was COO and VP Marketing at the French mobile analytics company Zandan, acquired by Keynote Systems. I started my career as co-founder and CEO/CTO of the French startup “Arkadia Netsystems”. 

I have an MBA from The Wharton School, and a Masters in Computer Networks from ISEP in France. 

Outside of my work in tech, I am usually playing with all the latest gadgets, from 3d printing, cameras, robots, to consoles, phones and headsets. And I guess one day I will be a pure mind living on the Internet – but that will be for another episode of the show 😉