What you can learn from Elon Musk in growing your company

Starting off with some good news. January is almost over, and that means we can almost say goodbye to the winterblues as well. But apparently Sam Altman never heard of those January blues. He’s been busy trying to solve the AI chip shortage himself.

Each month we’ll share interesting tech stuff, take you along in our entrepreneurial journey, and give a brief overview of what happened at we are this month. In this episode: interesting take aways from the Elon Musk biography, how WI-FI routers can be used as security systems and how bottum-up evaluation conversations help us grow.

Stuff we’ve liked

• AB InBev has a new colleague! A bit like an office dog, but instead of distracting you this one actually provides significant efficiency gains. Spot, a robot dog from Boston Dynamics, now roams around the brewery. There, it inspects packaging lines for technical issues.
• Volkswagen is integrating the model behind ChatGPT into its vehicles to enable 'more natural and intuitive conversations' with the vehicle. Instead of only using pre-programmed commands, soon you can simply ask your car, 'where can I get the best lasagna on the way back home?'
• New year, new cyber attack? No thanks. Small businesses are increasingly becoming the target of cyber attacks and therefore must be more aware than ever of security measures. Here’s a handy checklist!
• Sam altman is said to be in talks with investors to raise funds for a network of chip manufacturers. They want to be able to produce their own AI chips.

Talk entrepreneurial to me

In this section, we're delving deeper into the world of entrepreneurship every month. We'll be discussing the insights we've gained, debunking entrepreneurial myths, sharing success stories, and even opening up about the mistakes we've made and the valuable lessons we've learned from them. This time: why we would recommend a bottom-up feedback round in every team.

Every company has different terms for them: growth meeting, evaluation, development talk, feedback meeting… Employees are being evaluated on their performances and results, and get feedback so they can keep growing. It’s a very valuable conversation, when done properly.

But what about the people that give the feedback? They’re not perfect. They don’t know everything. That’s why last week we held a co-founder growth meeting. As founders, we also need to evolve. The team had the chance to follow the same protocol used in their growth meetings. Involving topics about teamwork, technical knowledge, leadership and so on. The goal was the same as always: get better insights in what you’re good at and what your working points are.

What did we learn? First of all, a lot about ourselves. Second, if you want to do a bottom-up evaluation, make time for it. Motivate your team to do it properly and give them the tools to do so. Provide enough time and space so they can reflect. It will lead to valuable feedback. You should all try it too!

Interesting read: Elon Musk's biography

Manu recently finished reading the biography on Elon Musk, written by Walter Isaacson. A must-read if you ask him! But, of course, not everyone has the time or desire to dive into it, so we'll share some of his favourite takeaways.

A question that is very often brought up: is he a genius, or a villain? After reading the book I’ve started to switch from Elon being a villain to him being a crazy genius with an often evil tendency. Once you understand his greater purpose, and the drive he brings up for it, you instantly gain a lot of respect for him. To bring us humans to Mars to save our planet from dying, to disrupt the automobile industry by elevating the electrification and autonomous driving capabilities to a new standard, and safeguarding the human race from possible threats AI could bring.

It’s a way to understand the brilliant mind he is, but it also is confronting how his words and actions hugely impact(ed) others in moments of stress and urgency.

However, next to getting to know and understand Elon Musk, there were a lot of interesting take-aways we could all benefit from in our daily lives. I've listed 5 of them below.

For those that read or will read the book, note that I over-simplified some take-aways because they’re too complex and long to grasp without reading the book.

1. The Musk-algorithm. Engineers tend to over-engineer. We should question every step in a process, or every piece of a product. Strip everything that is deemed useless or that no one can give a meaningful explanation for. If you don’t have to revert 10%, you didn’t remove enough in the first place.
2. Teams with the right mindset achieve more than teams with the right skillset. Skills can always be learnt, a change in mindset requires a brain transplant. No need for an explanation here, right?
3. Sometimes, inconvenient approaches, deadlines or requests will push us humans from thinking in the conventional way. Experimenting and daring to ask “but, why?” allows us to find unconventional solutions that could bring new and better ways of doing things. Cf. Elon Musk setting nearly impossible deadlines for his teams, leading to the disruptive innovations that are delivered.
4. Managers should use 20% of their time to do work themselves. As a lead or a manager, you could easily forget the ins- and outs of the job you’re managing. By committing yourself to doing the work itself for 20% of your time, you’ll get a better understanding which will change the way you’ll manage.
5. Engineers need to get their hands dirty. Engineers are a special race. To really understand what we’re building, to really grasp the problems and limitations we need to understand the people using our products/solutions. There’s only one way to do this: by using your product/solution yourself, by getting your hands dirty instead of just staying behind your desk.

A lot more can be learnt from the book, but I strongly recommend you should just read it ??. Especially if you want to understand how the brain of such a crazy genius as Elon works, and where this maniacal feel of urgency and energy comes from.

Wi-Fi routers can detect human presence and movements within a room

Source

According to recent research, it’s not just a gossip but it’s true! Researchers have developed a unique approach to leverage Wi-Fi signals emitted by routers for detecting and tracking human presence and poses within a room. They do this by using the signals’ reflections to create a three-dimensional map of the room. This helps the system understand where people are located and how they are moving.

There are various potential applications of this system. For instance, it can be used in security systems to detect unusual or unauthorized activities. Additionally, it can also be utilized in the healthcare sector to detect movements of patients, enabling a response to ensure their safety and necessary care. A final example is that this technology could contribute to the creation of more advanced smart home systems.

However, there are also some worries about privacy and ethics. Using Wi-Fi signals to track people brings up concerns about (unintentional) surveillance. It's really important to find a balance between innovative uses of this system, and making sure people's privacy and ethical standards are respected.

What happened at we are this month?

• We needed 35 liters of paint to paint the first layer of our new office.
• After 3 months of development the first version of EstateBridge.io’s platform is almost ready for public!
• We launched 4 new projects together with MindCapture, Permekemuseum, Joule and Upgrade Estate.
• On January 23, Het Laatste Nieuws wrote another article we popped in!
• 0 bones were broken during the team building on the ski slope, although it was a close call.

• A thousand thanks to all the helpers who came to clean, sand, paint, and putty in the new office this month.