Maurice de Rochemont

In the past week we've seen OpenAI release GPT-4o and Google release a new version of Gemini Pro 1.5, together with their new Gemini Flash model. The big news about these announcements is efficiency, speed and cost. Yay! 🐢 The challenge with GPT-4 has been its slowness - whilst it's a great model, it's so slow that I've had to rule out using it in several situations. If you need to make multiple calls to the model (very common) and you have a user sitting waiting on a response, GPT-4 is not viable. Why is it slow? Because it's a large model and larger models use more compute and take longer to respond. 🏎️ Enter GPT-4o, which is much, much faster. Why is it faster? Because it's a better optimised model that uses less compute and is able to respond quicker. And it's cheaper - 50% of the cost of GPT-4-turbo. When you make lots of calls to a model, a 50% cost reduction is a big deal. ⚡️ Now let's look at Google. Gemini 1.5 Pro and its stablemate 1.5 Flash both bring significant optimisations: "1.5 Pro, despite using significantly less training compute, surpasses 1.0 Ultra, a state-of-the-art model, on text capabilities like math, science and reasoning, code, multilinguality and instruction following. Similarly, 1.5 Flash outperforms 1.0 Pro, despite being more lightweight and efficient." 💸 Emphasising the importance of faster, more efficient, cheaper models, Gemini Flash is a new class of model explicitly designed to address these requirements. Because often we need something that responds quickly and costs less. When I say costs less, Gemini Flash is around 1/10th the cost of Gemini Pro. 🔥 But Google's not done with Flash as a smaller, more efficient model. The Gemini Technical Report also talks about a further model, Flash-8B, which is still under development. It's an even smaller model, optimised for uses such as large-scale data labelling and high-throughput agents, where speed and cost are major drivers. Of course Flash-8B is smaller and not as good as 1.5 Pro, but it's probably *good enough* for a whole class of uses. Not everything requires the most sophisticated AI available. 👉 These new models may not have set the world on fire with dramatic new capability leaps, but they do set *my* world on fire with faster, cheaper, more efficient models. They use less energy, they generate less CO2 (remember, we have a climate emergency), they cost less to use and they respond faster. If you need high-end capability then GPT-4o and Gemini Pro 1.5 both push the envelope on capability. This feels like the advancement we need - the option to pay more for better models, or pay less for more optimised and faster models.

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This time, we don’t ask. We state. DePIN is indeed an opportunity for Web3 to throw down the gauntlet to such players as Google or Amazon ⚔️ To back up this thesis, together with the Onchain Foundation Research Team, we: - Created an overview of business models used by DePIN projects. - Evaluated their efficiency and indicated the best practices. - Designed the recommended business models entrepreneurs can use to build proper Web3 ventures. Then, can Akash Network fight with AWS and Azure? Will NATIX Network compete with Google Maps? And may Livepeer become the first choice for everyone who wants to leverage the generative AI video? It’s all possible, but… ➡️ … you need to check the entire piece to understand how DePIN projects can cross the mythical chasm and attract the masses: https://lnkd.in/epnHX6Vc Many thanks to the entire Research team: Dr. Ananya Shrivastava, Arin Soleymani, Ambreen Khral, Boris Agatić, and the Content and Design masterminds: Ruth M. Trucks, Lucas De Melo, Chris Braithwaite, and Sven Kamieth, for contributing to the piece. Also, a huge shoutout to our partners, Alireza Ghods, Ph.D. from NATIX Network, Greg Osuri from Akash, Alex Rawitz from DIMO, and the entire DFINITY Team, who provided a ton of valuable insights. It’s been a pleasure to collaborate with all of you! 🤝

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🦄 Are you following Survival to Thrival on Linkedin? We’ll be sharing excerpts (like the one below) from 𝙎𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙤 𝙏𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡 and 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝘽𝙚 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙙 that you won't want to miss out on. "Building an enterprise startup from an idea on a whiteboard into a sustainable industry-leading business is every entrepreneur's dream. The Survival to Thrival series delves into the critical stages of building a successful enterprise, mirroring the journey depicted in the graphic above. Every startup journey goes through distinct stages - from figuring out the Founding Idea and early product, to figuring out Go-To-Market and driving growth, all hoping to build a sustainable valuable business that fulfills the mission. Yet, it’s insanely hard. It requires the right idea, the right people, painful setbacks, intense learning— and an immense amount of work and a good dose of luck. Book one’s four main themes: • 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁: For enterprise entrepreneurs maniacally focused on their current major startup milestone, practical advice from the battlefield to help win now and anticipate what’s next along the path from initial startup idea to sustainable industry leader. • 𝗧𝗵𝗲 “𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸” 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵: Go-ToMarket Fit. Product-Market Fit is a well-known and incredibly important milestone for enterprise startups, but for enterprise startups, PMF doesn’t unlock growth. There is a missing link that doesn’t really have an identity, yet it’s very real and very important. We call it Go-To-Market Fit. • 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴: Once a startup achieves GTM Fit, it’s no longer about Survival; it’s about Thrival. Everything changes. Execution changes. Mindset changes. Investors change. It’s maddening and really hard. Much of what used to work no longer works. The very things that used to work for the startup now hold it back. • 𝗗𝗮𝗺𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼, 𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁: The enterprise startup journey is fraught with painful situations, difficult changes, and situations for which there is just no good answer." Want all the info now? Both books are available for FREE download here: https://lnkd.in/gCWWH48 #EnterpriseStartup #GoToMarketFit #Entrepreneurship #StartupJourney #BusinessGrowth

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The trend is picking up. Investing in #deterrance & #defence to further support competitiveness and resilience of #European countries. This time Netherlands Ministerie van Defensie is joining other #EU MoDs and national development agencies to facilitate access to funding for #defence #DualUse and #security innovations. Our fund Coinvest Capital was the first in the region, fully authorised to invest in pure #defense already back in March 2023, shortly joined in April by Baltic Sandbox Ventures with #DeepTech focus and the launch of dual-use accelerators by ScaleWolf in October. Just our fund alone already coinvested 6.8mEUR in #aerospace and #defense, including one of the largest regional #VC rounds in Unmanned Defense Systems. Today we will be watching and supporting two teams from #Lithuania - winners of our joint prizes with DEPO Ventures - pitching on stage at #DefSec innovation challenge hosted by Dr. Kristina Soukupova with their solutions for #cyber #security and #drone enhancement, that enables all drone makers to get faster time-to-market. Wishing the best of luck and a solid pitch to the teams of AI Drone.Tech with co-founders Laurynas Česūnas and Domantas Brucas, winners of our prize at the defence #hackathon The Flaming Shield of Lietuvos šaulių sąjunga , and CBRX with co-founder Kazimieras Sadauskas, winners of our prize at the Startup Lithuania annual event #StartupFair

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Dutch startup orq.ai is on a mission to make AI accessible for everyone! 🛠️ Their no-code platform empowers engineers, product teams, and even non-technical folks to build and ship amazing AI-powered features. With support from Google Cloud and the Google for Startups program, Orq.ai is accelerating the adoption of generative AI, helping businesses innovate faster than ever. 📈 Why Orq.ai is making waves: 🌊 Less than an hour to start developing AI apps 🌊 Secure, reliable deployment of AI solutions 🌊 Increased collaboration between teams Learn more here ↓

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#KLM #ZeroAvia KLM and electric aviation solutions startup ZeroAvia announced plans for a zero-emissions demonstration flight using hydrogen-electric engines powered by liquid hydrogen. The test flight plans come as a series of initiatives are underway to target rapid aviation sector decarbonization, such as electrified propulsion or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Hydrogen, however, is viewed by some in the industry as a more promising long-term solution, given its potential to be produced through carbon-free methods, and its energy attributes. https://lnkd.in/dSZtA6CF

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#KLM #ZeroAvia KLM and electric aviation solutions startup ZeroAvia announced plans for a zero-emissions demonstration flight using hydrogen-electric engines powered by liquid hydrogen. The test flight plans come as a series of initiatives are underway to target rapid aviation sector decarbonization, such as electrified propulsion or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Hydrogen, however, is viewed by some in the industry as a more promising long-term solution, given its potential to be produced through carbon-free methods, and its energy attributes. https://lnkd.in/dSZtA6CF

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Got inspired by a dutch podcast that creates stories from wikipedia pages. I used gpt-4o and their text-to-speech model to build something that sounded human. Of course it's not as great as the original podcast but this tech works way better than expected! Try it yourself 👇 Huggingface Space: https://lnkd.in/eKdT3XBY How did I do it? - Use <break time="1s"/> tag on strategic places to create breaks. - The TTS model is smart enough to understand these tags! - Prompt to use colloquialism english. - Use filler words like "um", "well", ... Bonus: I also generated an intro song using facebooks "MusicGen" and tweaked it a bit with with online tool called "AudioMass" Tools I used: AudioMass: https://audiomass.co/ MusicGen: https://lnkd.in/eAfjHZzA If your dutch speaking; the original podcast is called "Nooit Geweten", I can highly recommend: https://lnkd.in/ex66X6_a #gpt-4o #text-to-speech #tts #huggingface #spaces #podcast

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✨ VERY SMALL PARTICLES ✨ That's what the three co-founders of VSPARTICLE – Aaike van Vugt, Tobias Pfeiffer, and Tobias Coppejans – have dedicated their last 10 years to. VSP is a once-in-a-generation Dutch company which has developed a unique nanoparticle printing technology to bring us high-performance materials for clean energy transformation. That's why together with my colleague Taiga Ueta, we at NordicNinja VC and in partnership with Sten Tamkivi and Plural Platform, are thrilled to fund this world-class founding team. In particular, VSP’s technology is enabling the mass production of catalyst-coated Porous Transport Layers (PTLs), which are the key components in electrolyzers and are essential to the production of green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is essential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and power a more sustainable future for industries such as shipping, transport, heating, and aviation, yet the process currently relies on using scarce resources including platinum and iridium. Combined with AI-powered material discovery and computational chemistry, VSParticle and their network of partners are able to create the most complete database of materials in the world, which can serve as an input for building an economically scalable and a sustainable clean energy future. VSParticle's technology is material agnostic and comes with high precision nanoparticle control (at nm level), requires no wet chemistry, and allows for quick experiments & production. Looking forward to working with the whole team at VSP to bring this new technology to the world!

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Generating $96bn. in value and minting 2 new unicorns. It is in essence great news that we are performing better than a year ago. However with future developments in the Dutch fiscal climate still casting their shadows, while it is also a worrying statistic that with a 13th place we are still the best performer from mainland Europe closely followed by Paris & Berlin at 14th and 15th place. “We are not blinded by this relative success because we see that we are falling behind in several crucial value chains due to a lack of money, people, electricity, and focus. To compete on a European and global scale and make a greater social and economic impact, our tech companies will have to grow faster.” says Constantijn Van Oranje-Nassau, special envoy of Techleap. The only better peer at European Scale is London with a tied 2nd place. It means that Europe has only one ecosystem in the top 10, which is an alarming signal. It also shows that we should take great inspiration from London, in order to really strive for improvement. 12th place next year is simply not good enough, and although we may or may not want to shoot for the moon, our ambition should be no less than a firm top 10 position. Our rich heritage as an entrepreneurial country should be cherished. Noblesse Oblige as they say. This is why we have launched Co:cubed Netherlands, an initiative to help Dutch corporates to effectively work together with startups to make impact and solve the biggest problems. Feel free to reach out and discuss. Very keen to help raising the bar and shoot for the moon for the Dutch ecosystem.

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My newest column in Quote Magazine: Dutch Dynamism 🇳🇱 💡 Inspired by Andreessen Horowitz’ “American Dynamism” and the Not Boring newsletters of Packy McCormick about why tech is going to be much bigger, I realized there is a momentum in the Netherlands to become one of the European leaders to lead this new industrial revolution - if we double down. 💻 Historically, the Netherlands was strong in trade and banking. However, the country now leads in technology with companies like ASML, Adyen, and NXP Semiconductors as the top 10 most valuable companies, replacing former giants like Shell, Unilever, ING and ABN AMRO Bank N.V 💶 Fueled by capital, according to the latest report of Techleap; 48% Venture Capital investments in 2023 the Netherlands went to deeptech companies. 🤖 While the latest AI innovations have enhanced office jobs, the fusion of software and hardware, like physical robots, is set to revolutionize all types of labor, making tasks scalable and more manageable and cheaper. Two great examples of Dutch robotics companies are Monumental and family business Lely, that are automating less attractive jobs, like bricklaying and milking cows. ⚡ The insight is that the world's largest tech companies of the next decade will likely surpass today’s giants, and for the first time in a long time, tech companies have the opportunity to rebuild the world’s industrial base and tap into huge, existing pools of revenue at higher margins than incumbents can. Assuming the same revenue but structurally higher margins will create more valuable companies than the incumbent comps. 🇳🇱 In the Netherlands, we have access to incredible research institutes, top technical universities like Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research & University of Twente, (which has its own Robotics Centre University of Twente) - incredible talent and more and more hardware friendly VC funds, (incl the support of Invest-NL) and recently the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) with an office in NL, so I don’t see why we can’t punch above our weight and become one of the leaders to reshape the industrial foundation in Europe. Curious to hear your thoughts, what's needed to make this happen? Dutch Dynamism 🇳🇱 , het bekt toch lekker (Thanks Salar :-)). Link to article (for translation) in the comments. #HardTech #AI #Robotics #Innovation #DutchDynamism #AIRevolution #DeepTech #FutureOfWork #Netherlands #Technology

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We're doubling down! Join us for the Re-Industrialize Europe Meetup 👩‍🏭 We’re bringing together leading minds in HardTech, TechBio, and DeepTech to discuss what it will take for Europe to lead the next wave of industrial innovation. Learn more about: ➡ Farmless’ fermentation platform that allows for local protein production independent from climate and agricultural land, increasing food security. 🎤 Adnan Oner ➡ Cradle’s design platform that uses generative AI to help biologists design improved proteins and accelerate research and development, making it easier, quicker and more cost effective to create bio-based products for human and planetary health. 🎤 Jelle Prins ➡ Monumental’s AI-driven electric construction robots that are capable of building walls autonomously, solving the labour, cost and sustainability challenges crippling the global construction industry. 🎤 Salar al Khafaji ➡ ASML's involvement in the European startup ecosystem and the biggest challenges we need to tackle. 🎤 Evelien de Vries Connect, collaborate, and be inspired by ambitious founders shaping the future. Sign up here: https://lu.ma/de2uprl2 NP-Hard Ventures #FoundryMeetups #HardTech #Deeptech #TechBio #Founders #Hiring #Startups #Europe

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✨ Breaking: ECFG Growth Ventures Announces New Fund.- ECFG Growth Ventures Netherlands Enterprise Agency invested into ECFG Growth Ventures seed fund focused on high-tech manufacturing and SMEs in B2B sectors. https://ecfg.nl/ Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups#Venturecapital

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This Monday, I kicked off a project to validate the Dutch market for Metris Energy, a London-based startup that’s reshaping solar asset management. Backed by VCs Octopus Ventures and AENU, Metris is building a powerful new platform that addresses a pain point in the solar industry. 🌞 Currently, many PPA funds and solar asset managers rely on Excel for tracking and reporting - a method that’s often slow, inefficient, and difficult to scale. 🐢💻 Metris is solving this problem with its software, automating key processes like monitoring, reporting, billing, and payments. Making solar asset management faster, easier and scalable. 📈⚡️ ️ With 240+ sites already live in the #UK, Metris is now looking to expand into new markets. And that’s where I come in. Over the next weeks, I’ll be: - Validating market demand - Assessing needs to support a potential entry 🇳🇱 Through targeted interviews and research, we aim to confirm a potential product-market fit and identify essential features for a potential launch. So, do you know anyone in the #solar asset management space? If so, tag them below or send me a DM - I’d love to connect! 💬

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🚀 57% of our investments are certified B Corp! We just added 2 to the mix: #Untamed | B Corp™ and #KoRo! At Five Seasons Ventures, we do as we preach, so we are also B Corp certified ourselves. Even though the label is far from perfect, it certainly has its advantages: - Fast growing community: from 1.2k certified companies 10 years ago to over 9k today. - Trusted and recognized by consumers and investors - Holistic approach: B Corp offers a comprehensive framework, recognizing companies that prioritize ESG, but also giving companies extra points if their products "promote the health and wellness of individuals" or "reduce toxins or pollution" for example (aka impact) According to our head of Impact Gaetan Kerloc'h: 'there is a strong correlation between certified companies and my own evaluation of their sustainability practices. With the new framework currently in development, I believe this alignment will only grow stronger.' 💚

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The journey from startup to scale-up isn’t always straightforward. However, explosive growth is often seen as the secret to startup success... The trouble is far too many promising startups 'grow themselves to death'. That is where extrapolation comes in — a critical stage often overlooked in the venture growth stages. Typically, businesses operate between two modes: // Exploration mode to find PMF // Exploitation mode to optimize business model for steady growth and profits. However, extrapolation is a distinct stage bridging the gap between the two. During extrapolation, you want to achieve two goals: // Confirming PMF demand // Achieving PMF Successfully demonstrating demand and profitability. Key steps in the extrapolation process: → Setting clear, achievable goals → Defining critical assumptions and factors needed for growth → Identifying and fixing limitations in the business model → Repeating until all issues are resolved But to truly succeed in this stage, you must build an ambidextrous team. Remain nimble — within the organization, in looking for promising opportunities, and in growing market reach. Only then can you achieve sustainable growth. Join our newsletter —- We break down acquisition strategies, deal analysis, value creation playbooks, operating concepts +++ For the love of the game // https://lnkd.in/e7C6yZE2 Source: Harvard Business Review #Startups #Innovation #Success #Business #Strategy

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We are excited to welcome TRACT to the Working Capital Fund portfolio! Fragmented sustainability data is a chronic pain point for corporations seeking to operate ethical and sustainable supply chains and Tract offers a unique opportunity to influence sustainability reporting at scale across commodities with well documented risks of labor exploitation. Historically siloed data has obfuscated visibility into labor and environmental conditions of upstream suppliers and forced suppliers to allocate an extensive amount of time filling in redundant forms.  Tract is positioned to help solve this problem as a platform designed by and for industry leaders to align around standardized methodologies, metrics, and schemas. Under the expert leadership of CEO Allison Kopf, Tract will aim to unlock customers' ability to navigate, oversee, and share sustainability data. We are pleased to join Rabo Investments along with existing investors Cargill, Louis Dreyfus Company, ADM and Olam in the effort to drive supply chain transformation in key agricultural commodities. 

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💥 𝟵𝟬% 𝗣𝗢𝗖 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 That was achieved by Dutch energy corporate Alliander, and it's way higher than typical rates of corporate POC programs. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗣𝗢𝗖𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿? Running POCs is an efficient way for corporations to try external technologies before deciding whether to invest further resources into a new business. However, the challenges lie in coordinating internal corporate department such as legal, procurement and compliance. In this Masterclass, we will explore how we could overcome such challenges.  𝗥𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗣𝗢𝗖𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀  Date: 5 Dec 2025 Time: 12pm-1pm Singapore time Format: Online only 𝗧𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 💡 How to stage POCs across a series of derisking steps 💡 POC Canvas - a tool for iterate POC design 💡 Case studies - past successful projects 💡 Discussions 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗚 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 12.00pm-12.05pm: Welcome 12.05pm-12.30pm: Background materials on corporate POCs and case studies 12.30pm-12.50pm: Discussions 12.50pm-1.00pm: Closing and Next Steps 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 Enterprise Singapore is sponsoring TradeSpark, a Startupbootcamp-powered POC program for multinational corporations to collaborate with global technologies in supply chain innovation.  Please visit https://lnkd.in/gS-VMwvB to contact us

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What an extraordinary Venture Capital Conference. I gained powerful insights of the investment and entrepreneurial ecosystem in the netherlands and europe. 🚀🍀 It is also great to be member of the Financial Study association Rotterdam (FSR). #Slinghot #FinchCapital #NosuchVentures #venturecapital

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