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Transcript

September 2025 Recap Show · Going Direct Conversations

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the Going Direct September Recap Show.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: As always, I'm joined by my AI co-host, Tiny.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: You forgot the RoboCat part.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, Tiny is a RoboCat.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: So this month,
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  we're talking about the three main blockers that's stopping us
• 0:22
  from going direct at
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: scale.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: Number one, convenience.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: We must make going direct as convenient as ordering something on Amazon.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: My groceries, phone, and vape pen will all be delivered later today.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: Number two, going direct must be price competitive.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: If it's cheap, I'm generally in.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: I don't read labels.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: I read prices.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Radioactive corn syrup, microplastics, whatever.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: What are you smoking there, tiny?
• 0:50
  the good stuff number three awareness most people don't even
• 0:54
  know when going direct
• 0:55
  options exist this is a pretty tall order i have no idea where
• 0:59
  any of this stuff
• 1:00
  comes from for all i know the phone was mined by orphans in a
• 1:03
  lithium mine whatever
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: people say they care about their things being more local sustainable and
• 1:08
  transparent but the reality is when it comes down to the
• 1:10
  purchase decision and it's
• 1:11
  time to take that credit card out two things reign supreme
• 1:14
  price and convenience
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: And if we want to go direct at scale,
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  we need to compete on those two items if we want to win in the
• 1:20
  marketplace.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're all activists until the sale starts.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: On to this month's conversations.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: First up,
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  SPEAKER_02: Dimitri from Enduring Planet is on a mission to prove that capitalism can
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: accelerate new climate technologies.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: His company provides non-dilutive funding to early-stage entrepreneurs.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: If you're building in the real economy,
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: like actually making stuff,
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: you better learn how debt works so you can control your own destiny.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: We exist in capitalism, right?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Capitalism is not going away.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: This system that we've created is what drives a lot of the deployment of
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: technology,
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: adoption of technology.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: This is the model we've chosen for now.
• 2:03
  If you look at all the analysis,
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  like $5 to $10 trillion a year of investment required,
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  SPEAKER_03: to get our society to a future that is actually sustainable.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: And depending on who you ask, 20 to 40% of that is debt.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: Most founders don't understand the cost of financing,
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: or if they do,
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: their perspective on it is rooted in
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: past that no longer exist.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Kuba from Kubz literally 3D prints entire shoes in one go.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: The dude is trying to bring footwear manufacturing back to the U.S.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: with 3D printing farms.
• 2:38
  We're printing this shoe in disorientation,
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  like vertically like that,
• 2:41
  layer by layer like that.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's no glowing, no stitching.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: It just goes layer by layer.
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  SPEAKER_01: Only 1% of what U.S.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: consumes comes from domestic manufacturing in terms of footwear.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: And you overlay that with the fact that
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: even combat goods for U.S.
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  SPEAKER_01: military is made overseas.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's not great.
• 3:02
  Our mission is to bring back food for manufacturing into the
• 3:07
  United States with
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: advanced manufacturing techniques.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: At Inside Going Direct,
• 3:12
  my co-host Jordan and Rhys Jones chop it up about how
• 3:15
  capitalism works in the U.S.
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  SPEAKER_02: versus Europe.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: In America, it's get rich or die trying.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: In Europe, it's we tried.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Now let's have a glass of wine with lunch.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: The idea of government-led capitalism versus consumer-led capitalism.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say, you know, the U.S.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: is much more consumer-led and Europe is probably more government-led.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Founders in Europe,
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  they tend to be so values-aligned that they forget that
• 3:41
  capitalism exists,
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  SPEAKER_00: right?
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  SPEAKER_00: And capitalism ends up being the great filter.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: It says,
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  SPEAKER_00: actually,
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: no,
• 3:46
  you can't build this product that's beneficial for climate
• 3:49
  change because,
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: unfortunately,
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  SPEAKER_00: you've not developed a product that customers want.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Jamie just launched an early stage deep tech VC fund investing in energy,
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: rockets,
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  SPEAKER_02: robots,
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  SPEAKER_02: anything that might save us or finish the job.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: This ex-SpaceX engineer is going all in on the techno-industrialist wave,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: the newest muse in Silicon Valley.
• 4:10
  The push towards globalization made sense from a pure dollars
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  and cents point of
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  SPEAKER_03: view,
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  but it also is predicated on the notion that the world will
• 4:17
  forever be happy,
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: go lucky,
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  SPEAKER_03: friendly with each other.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Not even counting hollowing out your own working class.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: I just go over to energy.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: Energy is actually the number one thing I'm looking at right now.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: Why?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: Why?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: We're just so far behind.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: You've got to be a fantastic storyteller.
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  And it's really hard when you have an engineer that's an
• 4:38
  amazing engineer.
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  SPEAKER_03: It's the right technology at the right time.
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  But I don't know if they can tell the story to get through the
• 4:45
  first number of years.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: And finally,
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  Jordan and Rhys are back at Inside Going Direct talking about
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  Gen Z's war with the
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  SPEAKER_02: gatekeepers.
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  SPEAKER_02: Housing, food, dating apps.
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  SPEAKER_02: There's a middleman for everything.
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  SPEAKER_02: But decentralization could give them a chance to flip the script.
• 5:00
  Do you feel the cards are stacked against you in the ways that
• 5:03
  we've discussed?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard for me, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because I've not lived your life.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't, from my perspective...
• 5:09
  emotionally compare that right but for me it definitely feels
• 5:13
  hard it's you know
• 5:15
  things like buying a house i just see well i'll preach yeah
• 5:18
  period right i think
• 5:20
  i'll rent until the day i die you can't get true
• 5:23
  decentralization unless the
• 5:24
  decentralized alternative has profits in it for people to
• 5:29
  actually continue to
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  operate the thing and improve the thing to compete in the
• 5:34
  marketplace that's just
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_03: the reality
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not the technology itself that drives change.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Technology can enable something else that can try to change.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's it for September's Roundup.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Remember, build with love.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: For all of the middlemen out there, we're coming for your cut.
• 5:52
  You can find the full conversations with Dimitri,
• 5:54
  Kuba,
• 5:55
  Reese and Jamie at the links below.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: And remember to subscribe to our sub stack.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_03: We're putting out the written monthly roundup out each month.
• 6:03
  And you can also subscribe to either Spotify or YouTube if you
• 6:06
  want to stay up to
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: date on the conversations that we release each week.
• 6:10
  I hope you all enjoy the rest of the beautiful fall and
• 6:12
  remember to go direct.