Michael Jackson’s Post

Multiple countries have “prohibited the export of quantum computers with 34 or more quantum bits” but no one is really sure why the landed on 34 specifically. 🤷🏻♂️ Export controls can be arbitrary. One country adopts a stance, and others follow. There isn’t always logic in some of the specifics. And remember, just about all deeptech can be dual use. A fun example - and a blast from the past - the Playstation2 had export controls placed on it because of possible military usage: “Parts of the machine resemble a small supercomputer in their ability to process high-quality images quickly--a characteristic of missile guidance systems".* 🚀 https://lnkd.in/eJVgyNNw * https://lnkd.in/ejswvhtG

TTOs torch so much potential deeptech company value. I've seen many spinouts killed by TTO greed and incompetence. It's maddening and immoral. 🤬 They try justifying it by saying the university “invested” so they have a responsibility to try and make money. Except the university didn’t invest, they were just a middleman for mostly government funding. They're rent seekers. Sadly, rent seeking is very ingrained in academia. Universities use their position to gaslight younger scientists and researchers into thinking it's normal. It’s tragic. Good call out from Matt Wichrowski. 👍🏻 https://lnkd.in/eF3Zvww5 👩🔬

When a technical founder eventually settles into life as a respectable middle-aged CEO. 👨💼 🥁 🎸🎤 🤘🎾

This weekend, may we all do something where we look as fucking magnificent as Zuck here. 🇺🇸 🦅 In a tux. Barefoot. On a board. Finishing off a Coors Banquet tallboy. Old Glory in hand. Exhibiting total body control surfing the wake. Springsteen blasting. Dude put in the work. Haters are going to hate, but good on him. Live the dream. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! ❤️ 🤍 💙 TGIF!

"That is my dream for our country - a melting pot of different measurements that will make Europeans throw little tantrums. In short, a land of liberty!" Happy 4th of July to Americans everywhere!!! 💥 💥 🇺🇸 🦅 💥 💥 Fwiw, this SNL skit was one of their best in years. 👏🏻

A founder pitching VCs after their previous startups have all failed. 😉 "What can be, unburdened by what has been." 🤔 🤷🏼♂️ Oh USA, you deserve so much better than the two geriatrics running for President, and their sycophant entourages. Kamala sure ain't the answer btw. Happy 4th of July! 🇺🇸 💥 🦅

Good news about European venture performance is always welcome! 🇪🇺 🥳 But...and actually there are many "buts" on this one...these numbers are pretty meaningless. Where to start? - Apparently the European data is based on just 223 European VC funds spanning vintages from 1986 to 2023*. That's a low single digit percentage of the total number of European VC funds raised over that time. That's incredibly statistically insignificant. - It's IRR and not DPI. IRR can be more easily manipulated. It's done a lot. DPI matters way, waaay more than IRR. - The numbers are of unrealized performance. 😳 Which we all know you can't eat, and can also be rigged. Seriously, who gives a shit about unrealized gains? - Despite all that the numbers end up so close anyways that they're within any reasonable margin of error. So pretty neck and neck in an illiquid asset class. 🤷🏼♂️ - Also, let's be honest, averages don't matter in venture. It's a top decile driven asset class. It's all about outliers. That's way more important than geography. European VC is notoriously opaque. Academics often avoid including it in research on VC because of this. Much of European government LP data isn’t public, and government LPs make up a large chunk of LP commitments in Europe. Also, there have been examples of European government LPs selling underperforming fund stakes to other government buyers to prop up their numbers. Any report should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s adorable though that some quickly point to it having to be accurate simply because CA is involved, as if CA is infallible. CA has an agenda in doing this for a client (Invest Europe) which itself has an agenda to push. European venture has made great progress. It's a strong asset class that deserves more LP attention (much of the upside in European tech goes to North American LPs). Let the real numbers speak for themselves though. This ain't that. TLDR: These numbers are unrealized IRR based on a statistically insignificant dataset of funds. It's a nothingburger. https://lnkd.in/eytxpqpk * https://lnkd.in/eE3HTV5W

There’s more US pension fund money in UK tech than there is British pension fund money in UK tech. There's also more British pension fund money in US tech than in British tech. 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 Unless government mandates it, that won’t change anytime soon. To be fair though, major market reforms are needed, and it’s all connected - Europe's public markets are shallow and fragmented, European pensions are less focused on growth, Europe is a weak exit market overall for tech, etc. 📈📉 Money tends to find its way to potential good investments. European VC is no different. If performance is strong over an extended period, even conservative European LPs will eventually come around...someday...probably. 😉 Good stuff from Matt Clifford and Harry Stebbings. 👍🏻 https://lnkd.in/efmbcSY5

European fundraising calendar. More accurate than it has any right being. 🤣 There are some regional variations - northern Europeans go on summer holiday earlier than continental Europeans, the French have a lot of long weekends in May, etc. Many European entrepreneurs know this and plan accordingly (you may think this a joke, but I know European startups which have planned their runway between fundraisings to take into account not closing during the summer holiday period). What's nice though is Europe now fills up in summertime with US VCs on "working holidays" so European entrepreneurs can take advantage of them being here. Good stuff from Andrew Rea. https://lnkd.in/ea8TFwtG

"Britain also suffers from a dearth of 'true risk capital and there’s not a lot of managers who are comfortable taking the risk that is required to manage that capital. In the City of London there’s a lot of capital but it tends to be focused on low risk, low reward asset classes like gilts.'" And most of the rest of Europe is even more risk averse when it comes to investing. Value created by European innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship routinely flows out of Europe. The hard reality is that Europe is simply an extension of US capital and financial markets. European countries should lean into it and finally structure their systems accordingly. “Private equity has been the biggest driver of returns for our portfolio. I don’t think there’s extra risk — what you do give up is liquidity. Private markets work well when you have pooled assets with a long-term time horizon.” - John Graham European investors should take note. 📝 https://lnkd.in/eaDYkjig