Transcription
Hello. Wow.
Good evening, dear Prime Minister Hammond, Linda, Rafal, dear Endeavor friends. Welcome to the third Athens Innovation Summit. Welcome to Panix. The Pnik was in active use as the seat of the Athenian democracy for roughly um two centuries from about 500 BC to 322 BC. The word nix derives from the ancient word pneo denoting density, compression, the concentrated force of many minds in one place. So the hill was named this because of how the assembly functioned physically. Thousands of citizens onto relatives in small terrace hillside together crowded shoulderto-shoulder to conduct the business of the city of the city state. community. one global ecosystem.
I'm so lucky. [laughter] I don't have to scream. Uh in 2022, Endeavor Greece launched the Athens Innovation Summit with one simple idea. Bring the world's leading minds in technology face to face with the people who are shaping our policy and placed them both in front of the most urgent questions of our time. Today, we stand before entrepreneurs from elsewhere. the f the best founders in the world from Kiev in the middle of the world from Warso from Colombia from Venezuela from Greece from Jordan not just Silicon Valley it turns out that elsewhere is where many of the world's most important companies are being built not despite in instability often because of it that is who tonight is truly for every entrepreneur somewhere where the world hasn't noticed yet building something that will outlast all of us.
So it is our pleasure to welcome on stage tonight my dear friend Linda Rottenberg. She doesn't she doesn't just lead this conversation. She's the reason we're all here. Nearly 30 years after founding Endeavor across 50 markets with thousands entrepreneurs, Linda still insist on one simple truth. Talent is everywhere. It's opportunity and capital that aren't. So, please welcome on stage co-founder and CEO of Endeavor, Linda Rodenberg. [applause]
Okay. And joining her joining her tonight is exactly the kind of founder these summits exist for. between Warso and Elsinki. He co-ounded ISAI, one now one of the world's largest constellations of radar imaging satellites, giving governments and companies the power to see change on Earth as it happens. Please welcome on stage co-founder and CEO of ISI, Rafal. I won't I won't say your last name.
Enjoy the evening. So happy to have you. Can we please give a huge round of applause and thank you, immense thank you to Costanza, Panos, the entire Greece board and team. You never cease to disappoint. Uh we we do we do have offices in 50 countries around the world, but nothing beats the views of Athens. Rafael, um, first of all, congratulations on becoming Poland's second decacorn following endeavor entrepreneurs Mati and Pot from 11 Labs. Uh, we're very proud of you. Um, so Panos uh, uh, gave a little bit of a description, but I will start with, you know, what I does, and you can tell me, you know, what where where we get it wrong, but you run the largest constellation of commercial SAR satellites. So these are synthetic aperture radar that pierce the clouds and darkness to provide the highest possible resolution pictures no matter the weather. And as a result of that you are allowing governments and and businesses to monitor sometimes even predict natural disasters and to gain mission critical intelligence for national security. So how what did I get wrong? What else do you need us to know?
No, in fact, I think this was this was perfect. Uh any point down to 25 cm resolution that you can uh you can see the things. Now the history of ISAI has started with ice monitoring. This is why the name is is eyes and eye. Um, it was all about climate change back in 2015. It was about trying to help us understand our planet. Things have changed a little bit since then. Uh the geopolitical climate uh became a bit more more complex, a bit more challenging and the technology which is fundamentally a dual use thing has been brought to help nations understand their surroundings and ultimately ensure safety for their their citizens. So today, ISIA's main focus is building intelligence systems for nation states that need that and we are bringing that new type of technology over uh to the front lines to make sure that uh we know what's going on and we can we can predict things before they happen.
Um, the prime minister informed me that they did not have uh microphones back in the origin of panics. So if we uh do go out again, you will be getting the authentic pine or pinea experience. Okay. So, um, let's go back. You mentioned 2015. Let's go back 2012, 2014. You and Pekka were starting ISI actually as a student research project on nano satellites and many of the endeavor entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurs in the room, myself, I've been called crazy. I'm sure this seemed like fantasy. Nano satellites piercing clouds and lightning. Um, so how did you and Pekka deal with the naysayers and when did you sit down and say, aha, we've we've made it?
Yeah, you know, there's there's been a combination of people on both sides um of this journey. There were people that have actually encouraged us to start. Uh I fundamentally remember this this person, his name was Mike Lions. He was a professor from Stanford University. At the end of a a course which was called venture formation, which is the only economics course that I have ever taken, he actually came over to both of us and said, like, look, this idea of yours, it it makes sense. Why don't you guys do something about it? If you file an application, we'll give you some money and you can pursue it further. Because, you know, for those of you who don't know the story as well as I do, the principal idea behind launching a lot of satellites was to put in front of our economics professor something so complex that they would just give us the grade five [laughter] without getting into the details. It we were trying to trick them and yet they uh they tricked us back. Um, so look, he was he was the guy that helped us understand that impossible was actually way closer to possible than we have fought and and after that there were indeed a lot of people and I think what kept us going is the belief that ultimately everything can been broken down into fundamental first principles and as long as the first principles are true, your mission long term should stay true. It sounds simple, but it actually is a really deepgoing idea.
Okay, so you're a Polish founder based in Finland, being building a European champion. Um, you know, the saying usually is that uh someone from a Polish founder with that level of of ambition would move to Silicon Valley. Um, this is why as Pono said, you know, Endeavor's championing the concept of innovating elsewhere. So, was there anything about staying in Europe that you feel cost you? But, and what were the benefits um that Europe provided that Silicon Valley just never could?
Look, I mean, I I I'm grateful for this question. It's a it's a loaded question in fact because there is just so many aspects of it that are emotionally close to how we how we think about this. Um I I think fundamentally for many many years we just really wanted to prove that great companies can be built out of Europe. Um for many years we have actually denied um certain let's say suggestions that the company would have done much better if it was a Delaware based company. So it registered in the United States. I think behind that thought existed what I I believe was a quote uh attributed to you. Talent is everywhere. We actually fundamentally did believe that there isn't such a thing in one place in the world called Silicon Valley where every single person that's smart has existed. I mean, we were in there so so clearly that [laughter] couldn't have been true. Um, look, we actually even thought that that's going to be an advantage that we are going to exploit because if talent is everywhere and every single companies in the Bay Area, then we are going to have access to talent in a much easier fashion and and I think we we have managed to achieve that. Um, when we were starting I say we we really decided that this is going to be a company open to everybody. So as of today, across about 10,000 employees, we are 75 different nations. Um, the largest single nation only represents 16% of the company. So it's really truly distributed. Among the first 12 employees, we had already seven nations. And that whole idea of bringing diverse group of talent was actually something that we considered very important. And we are we are super proud of it and we are we are really staying true of it to this day.
And this is why we are so proud to have you as an Endeavor entrepreneur. Um, so let's talk about what brought you to Greece. Your satellites helped put the first national spacecraft into orbit. You're talking about building a factory that could bring Greek engineers home from around the world. Uh, you met with the prime minister earlier today. So when you launch or build in a new country, what is it that you look for and and and what is it specific to Greece that you are you are hoping to achieve?
Yeah. So we are actually we we've been in Greece now for um almost two years and we grew that office from from one person whom we brought back from from London uh now to to close to 30 people uh multiple floors building where we're building a ton of components for satellites and and in fact we we've made the commitment just um few weeks back that we are going to put up a big factory over here uh building up to 150 satellites a year. So so three satellites every week. Um that's actually pretty pretty unique unique thing that we are going to do. Um, you know, as with everything at ESI, there is there is actually a story about people. Um, we had some Greek students that applied to internships in the early days of ISAI and they came over and I vividly remember they were from um Aristo University and they turned out to be fantastically well educated people. Um, they just they didn't have the right type of space-based opportunities in Greece. And then when we when we looked at this, we said, like, look, this is a country with an enormous amount of talent potential. Again, back to this talent density uh situation uh with phenomenally well English-speaking society, part of in in a place in Europe where we where we haven't yet had access to and one where we, you know, we actually were testing for this. We were testing for the willingness of the government to engage with us as a startup because we knew that whatever we are going to do going forward will have to be a hand-in-hand collaboration with the government in place and so we have found that um we have found that collaboration. We have hired the first people. They have turned out to be to be indeed amazing uh super hardworking, very very committed um and that just just propelled the whole thing further and then we moved forward faster than we we originally expected.
Amazing. Okay. So, we will hear from Haymont of General Catalyst next and GC led your series E in 2025 and I want to tell the story from our side about how difficult it was to for Endeavor Catalyst to get in. We've many Endeavor Catalyst LPs, very happy ones now in the room and then you can you can share on yours. Okay, we can riff.
Okay. So, um, we of you are an Endeavor outlier. We were so proud to have Endeavor Catalyst invest in your your your company and you were so gracious and you spoke to Nick Bime on our global board who had introduced you to General Catalyst and to Allen and you said, look, love endeavor, but everybody wants in. This is so uh, you know, competitive and our board decided that no one below 10 million in euros can come in and Endeavor Catalyst largest check is three million. I'm so sorry um, but Chica Loca does no as a starting point, no is the final answer. Uh, so Nick and I called and strategized and we said, "Okay, so Nick calls Yuri, the a Finnish um board member on your board that we I board member that we know. Uh, Victor uh, our board chair in Poland and Bartekch RMD called the Polish board members. Uh, Margaret who runs our capital team calls the CFO and I call David FiO, the co-founder of General GC. And David says to me, "Look, this is one of the competit most competitive rounds we've ever seen. We've already signed the docs. It's too late. Uh, we love Endeavor. Next time, let us know in advance and we'll write you into the term sheet." Hey, Mont. [laughter]
Um, so we go and but Margaret stays talking to your team. It's now Thanksgiving Eve, so many of us back in the US are are waiting for for Thanksgiving dinner and we get a call. Okay, someone dropped out. If Endeavor Catalyst can do five million euros, the highest we've ever done, and you can tell me by tonight, you can begin it. So Thanksgiving eve, Margaret and I write the Endeavor Catalyst Committee. So we have Joanna Reese on our board, Nick Bime, Reed Hoffman, and Nika Sakazi. Within an hour, they say, "We're in. Done." Okay. Thanksgiving Day, I start getting these hysterical messages from uh from Yuri, but I'm not checking. So Nick calls me and says, "Linda, check your WhatsApp." And it turns out that day, Thanksgiving Day, ISI closes a $1.7 billion contract with Germany and and Yuri saying, "Linda, sign the they're going to back out. The investor that pulled out is going to come in." So anyway, as if the drama unfolds, we sign, we go to Thanksgiving dinner, and uh six months later, uh you get a term sheet that uh values uh ISI 4.1x higher. So all the investors should be very happy. And um the last thing I will say before you get to say your uh words is that we have uh the founders of of uh insider here from Turkey who'll be very surprised to know that the term sheet the high term sheet came from General Atlantic who usually pr prides himself on being low. So that's my version of the story. We're very happy you tell you tell yours.
Look, I mean, first of all, we are super excited that you guys are part of the the cap table and then uh I I think we we always wanted for that to be the case because we feel like this idea of founders investing in founders is just one of the best things that can that can ever happen. Um, the the story of this whole round of financing and and look, there are companies that have done different types of rounds of financing. I think ISA has done many things well, but financing has generally been quite quite uh challenging for us. Um, you don't know that this all things started with with actually um the negotiations of the term sheet that happened on a bridge in London when both Hammond and Janet were in Boston. They were supposed to have another person join them. She was at the counter when they tell her to return. Then she found me over there strolling around London Street. Got Hammond on the call. He negotiated the price and we closed the deal that very moment. It was it was one of those surreal situations and I would love to see whether uh uh what what was it for him like? I I bet less exciting and a bit more annoying.
But [snorts] look um, the board was indeed saying what they were saying. It's it's always a little bit funny. I mean, I'm sure as the CEOs you guys are over here, you always blame the board. Um, but the truth is that um, you know, if you allow one exception, then a thousand exceptions pour in and and it's it's unmanageable at the end of the day. Um, and the sad sad part about this is that we we really really wanted to make this happen, right? So the the fact that the last minute there's an additional 5 million that that appears. Um, and I and I think what really got us in, and I remember that we weren't really supposed to make that happen, but the fact that this entire decision-making process was so quick just gave us this deep feeling that there is an appreciation to what ISA is doing, a really deep desire to be part of the mission. And as you know, at the end of the day, businesses aren't about technology, they aren't about market, they aren't about anything. They're always about people. So, as long as you have the right people on your side, you are going to be successful no matter what's going to happen. And uh and having all of you guys on our side with uh with such a swift response was something that just really grabbed us deep in the core and we we couldn't have been happier that it turned out this way.
Well, we're very proud and now you are investing in catalyst 5. You so you will pay it forward. We talk about the multiplier effect uh in investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs. Okay. So last last question. Um, you see the entire planet every day in a way that none of us do from down here. So from your vantage point um what you know what what can't we see that you are seeing into the future?
We have to end with profundity. Look, I I think I mean, we we spend a lot of time not even analyzing every single picture but what we would call the heat maps and the where is what density amount of pictures being taken and how this changes and I can tell you that you know whether that's good or bad, the amount of variation of where people are interested in taking imagery has massed massively increased. What we see is that the world has just become so much more dynamic and the technological revolution which enables people to understand what's going on, whether that's AI or space, seems to be still in its very early infancy.
So when we look at what's what's going on is >> I I think there's just so much more to come. Um, but how it will all turn out is it's uh it's going to be quite exciting to see.
Amazing. Ladies and gentlemen, Rafal Mojski. Thank you. [applause] That was wonderful. And now it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome my dear friend, the prime minister of Greece, Kiryakus Mitsatakis, and the CEO of General Catalyst, Hanteneia.
Okay. Um, Mr. Prime Minister, uh, less than a year ago, we were just down the hill at the Odon of Herodotus Attekus where we spoke with Deis Abis of of Google Deep Mind. And in that magnificent ancient amphitheater, we spoke mostly about what AI would become, right? The science of it, the philosophy of it. It was really a conversation about the future. And today we're somewhere different both literally and figuratively. So Castanza spoke so beautifully about the history of Pine or Pinea. Um, and today AI surrounds us. It is here. So I'd love first for you to just add color to the story of this place, what it means to Greece, what it means to you. and then also walk us back through the past year since you got off that stage on the Herodian in terms of AI and how it's impacted you and and Greece.
Well, first of all, it's a great pleasure to be joining you again and let me start uh by thanking uh Costanza Panos and the amazing Endeavor team uh for the great work that they have done. I I would like to mention as an introductory remark that Endeavor has been a terrific partner uh to the government when it comes to uh studying uh and crafting policy around technology, innovation and AI. And whenever we try to engage with a very vibrant ecosystem of Greek innovative companies, the first point of contact is always endeavor. So thank you very much for the tremendous job you have done and also thank you to all of those who devote time and resources to actually support uh endeavor. Now of course this this place is is very uh special and I know it's must be quite difficult for you to focus on the discussion when you have this amazing view behind you. For those of you who don't know, after many many decades, this is the first time you can actually see the parthonon without scaffolding. So, it is a pretty um unique view and a reminder that this is literally the place where democracy was was born. And uh every time you know I I return to the history of this place sort of it uh it it always stuns me what an innovative concept it was that u you know citizens of a city state decided to actually uh take the decisions regarding their own future by themselves without you know a desperate or a king or a pharaoh being in charge and acting as the overarching uh authority. So they picked this place. They actually moved from the agora at some point to this to the cell and this is where you know very important decisions you know have been have been taken. You just have to read your facilities to understand what it meant for the assembly of the people to gather here. Um, to listen to uh speakers who are still enshrined in history speaking and then collectively and democratically deliberating the you know the future with you know some correct decisions, some very wrong decisions. But again, the ancient Greeks struggled um with and studied the various political arrangements and very very much aware that uh also a democracy has its own um you know weaknesses. It has to streng but it has also weaknesses. So these references I think are always quite quite relevant. So enough with a with a with a history because we could go on for um for hours. This place is particularly [snorts] uh inspiring uh in terms of what has changed. We actually had a very interesting uh discussion uh today and it is very actually very difficult for uh a policy maker to keep up to speed with the dramatic changes that are taking place uh in the in the AI space. Uh so we are again fully committed to uh implement but also update our our main AI strategy which we devised you know a couple of years ago and I see Constantino Zaskcal is in the audience. He was quite instrumental in in helping us trying to understand what AI means um for for a government and uh I'm sort of quite intrigued by the ability and the um opportunities that we have in terms of teaming up with you know big AI companies to you know run interesting projects, run pilots uh to try to see how we can make the business of government more effective and what it does mean to integrate this technology in the delivery of public services. I'm sure we will talk because I'm fascinated about you know hearing you know by today's discussion what it what it means to to use AI in healthcare uh and the I'm stunned by the you know the capabilities uh that AI agents have uh and the degree of of sophistication that one can build into um into these um into these agents. Uh uh we were actually discussing uh today that we we thought that you know AI was good at and still obviously is very good at you know dealing with with repetitive tasks, but we were discussing this concept of you know what does an AI nurse mean that can actually talk empathetically and support you know a a patient that never gets tired, never gets bored, never gets angry and is available 24/7. So uh we we constantly see sort of more opportunities. The big problem is we see we see more opportunities I can actually digest as as a government and you know keeping up to speed and picking our battles in terms of the projects that we actually want to run and making sure that we focus on those verticals where we can actually be cutting edge in terms of globally uh leading and uh offering you know our partners and we've we've you know worked closely with General Catalyst and tell them you know come here and let's try you know um different uh different things, see what works and then we see what we can rule out and we can, you know, also talk more as the discussion goes on on what we have done and the pilots that we have run with other companies.
By the way, that's so interesting that you bring up the agent nurse because when we were with Dennis, he said the one human job that was safe was nurses. So, I don't know. I don't know how to think about that. All right, Haymon. Um, I I first of all, you and I met through uh an Endeavor the former Endeavor UAE board chair Butterfer. It's a small world, but I want to tell a story I've never told before before we get to you, which is how General Catalyst affected my life. Um, so that so I co-founded Endeavor in 1997 and as I said, Chica Loca, everyone thought my co-founder and I were crazy for suggesting there were entrepreneurs outside of of Silicon Valley and but the people who thought I was craziest, Kuryakas knows my parents, um, thought I was insane for not having a real job. They didn't understand what I did. And one day in early 2000, my dad, who is an attorney in Boston, calls up very excitedly and says, "Linda, I'm doing some work for a friend and client, Joel Cutler. He's starting this venture capital firm called General Catalyst, and his co-founder, David Fialo, is talking all about all these crazy things you do, entrepreneurship, and outside the US. And I think he's even crazier than you are." And having met David, I he he's actually true. But I just wanted to thank you because General Catalyst helped my parents understand what it is that their daughter does.
So um you took over the firm in 2021 and you use these to describe your culture and philosophy phrases that are not typically associated with VCs. So partnership of resilience, responsible innovation, companies with a soul. So I'd love to talk about how your culture and how you approach making investments and then maybe you can answer some of the uh themes that the prime minister brought up if you want to touch on them though we have many future questions.
Yeah. First of all, can I turn around and talk this way? >> Yeah, [laughter] I really want to enjoy the view. So first of all, thanks for having me here. Um I would say you know if you reflect back on the last 15 years of what's been going on with technology when general catalyst started everything we were funding was how do you really use software to create efficiency in people's lives and then after 2007 when you had the iPhone, you had Amazon, you had Facebook, you could really start creating a digital society. We started rethinking core institutions. We started building what is a digital healthcare service, what is a digital education service, what is a digital insurance company? All these things that were highly regulated uh and you really could not ever imagine uh rebuilding those institutions. It was all about supplying technology to them. When that started happening, we're like, wait a minute, [clears throat] this is way bigger than the kind of tech companies we grew up building.
And so we have to have a much deeper sense of responsibility towards society and how we build these companies. And that's actually what led to this whole idea of thinking through what does responsible innovation mean. It also made us think about how do you rethink governance? How do you think about the kind of capital required because these are much bigger markets and that's the journey that we were on over the last um let's say you know 12 years or so and then you know lo and behold sort of after I took over the firm chat GBT happens and if you think about it, it's the first time you have a technology where every CEO in every company, every industry, every country all over the world at the same time is trying to figure out what to do with this technology that never happened before.
And so the idea that we're suing this incredible hypergrowth in AI is actually not by happenstances because the whole world is trying this technology all at the same time. So if you fast forward to today and you look at anthropic which we are very large investors in >> um that company is adding you know tens of billions of dollars a month of revenue. We used to be proud if one of our companies could get to a billion dollars in 10 years, right? So the scale and the pace of change is enormous because every dollar there represents something, some company, some employee, some companies doing with AI to try to figure how the world should be different. Just think about the magnitude of that, right? And the [snorts] other thing I would say is, you know, last year Q4 Nvidia added a trillion dollars in market cap in a 100 days. A trillion dollars is bigger than most economies, most countries in the world you know by GDP and you're seeing such concentration of value in a handful of companies. So the so the most interesting thing, you know, what prime minister I were talking about earlier today was what's become clear is the scale of what AI can do. It's also given us glimpses into what abundance can look like. Uh this aentic nurse, we actually built an AI nurse uh in the US and it's being used by millions of people now and it's made tens of millions of of calls uh that are fully automated to take care of people uh that are coming to the hospital, that are going outside after getting treatment in the hospital and really being a profound service that drives abundance because it's so cost-effective and uh uh, you know, when we think about it like wow, that's abundance. There's like amazing things we can do with this technology, but on the other sides, you say, is this abundance going to be provided to us by seven companies uh in the world? That's not uh abundance without agency is not abundance. Uh and and so all the more if you look at Endeavor's mission of sort of making entrepreneurship be global, you know, a lot of our focus at GC has been how do we really help founders create opportunity at scale so that it's not just these companies, but next generation founders can actually be at scale and they can be all over the world. So the value is captured uh all over all over the world with AI.
Well, we we will come back to that. I I want to return Mr. Mr. Prime Minister one last time to our conversation with Dennis last year because just this week he issued a warning, right? He hadn't been prescriptive with us and now he's calling on a referee uh set up by the US government to test frontier and AI models before they come out of the lab and even slow down labs if the models get dangerous. So do you share his alarm and do you think that the US could even will or could even build anything uh or like this or is the race to AGI you know just too far ahead?
I have tremendous respect for Demis and uh in my interactions I always found him very um sophisticated and conscious about the consequences of what he is actually building. I cannot necessarily say this same thing about you know other tech leaders who are obsessed with this idea of being you know a week or a month ahead of their of their competitors. So it is it is very very clear to me that the more sophisticated these models get, the fewer people actually understand exactly what is what is happening with them and how they actually become better and better. And I'm certainly not not one of them. Uh and of course when I also sort of read the you know the the two essays which I did recently by the CEO of Anthropic you know on the sort of the dark and bright side of of AI, one has to be concerned because the tail risk of something going wrong is just enormous. It's too it's too big to it's it's too big to ignore. Having said that, do I sense that the US uh is currently in a mood to put the brakes uh on these technologies and establish some sort of uh some sort of regulation that will try to contain the possibility that something can go wrong. I have my doubts about this and I I don't even know, you know, how it it would have. So I am I'm I'm not you know particularly optimistic that this is a possibility because one should also be aware that there is a you know a clear arms race now between the US and China uh about and this is a question about of you know of of real strategic dominance when it comes to the technology of of the future and I'm sure this is also something that actually u is on the mind of of many US policy makers and then of course there's you know what what what you said because at the end of the day uh abundance cannot only be the creation of massive wealth uh wealth that is almost incomprehensible for a few shareholders of a few companies. This is the recipe for major social unrest. Uh and uh uh it is uh and it could eventually uh the the calls to rein in this wealth creation um to the policy makers are going to be um uh stronger and stronger. I mean, it it happened if you look at the financial history in the late 19th century, you know, at some point, you know, the state um um intervened and broke up companies and said, this is you are just too big um to um to manage and of course now we're talking at a at a different scale, but having said that, you know, if if scale attracts capital, if you know, the currency of these companies, which is their share price, is just so powerful that they can lit literally suck up you know, any company that they that they want by offering a fraction of their of of their market cap. I mean, these these companies are really you know, so so powerful that right now we are in a place where it's it's difficult to contain and again, coming back to this question of uh of of abundance, if uh and you mentioned the question of nurses, which is very interesting. When I look at things from my perspective, we have a chronic shortage of nurses. It's not just a Greek problem, it's a global problem. We try to make the profession more uh attractive, but we're not being very uh very successful, although we pay our nurses um uh better. So if one can add you know technology to the job that nurses are doing, as long as this does not mean replacing the job of of a nurse, this is actually you know, a positive sum um um project because I can do more with the same uh number of people. I can take workload, maybe bureaucratic workload from the nurses and allow them to do what they're doing best, which is you know, engaging with with patients and take the critical decisions that only they can take. If I can, for example, for teachers, which is exactly the project that we run with open AI, if I can take workload in term of in in terms of class planning um away from them by using AI, this means that they will have more time in the classroom. But if there is so much value to be created >> through and if the valuations are correct, it means that we're talking about huge efficiencies. >> Yeah. >> And huge efficiencies will inevitably lead to replacement of labor. Uh and this is the next big battle uh that will involve you know, the relationship between governments >> and the techn and the technology companies. Otherwise, we'll be talking about huge bubbles in terms of this uh in terms of valuation. So two things can happen and sorry if I'm very blunt here. It's either this these valuations are a bubble or [snorts] the the efficiencies are going to be so massive that they will cause uh a displacement in the labor force the likes of which we have never seen. So both scenario are not particularly good. So we are at an inflection point. So we spoke about the positives, but we also as a policy maker, I need to be also aware of of of the fact that we are currently at [laughter] at a point uh where um things could um um go wrong very quickly.
Okay. So that's that's first of all incredibly impressive uh array of of themes touched and so I want to digest some of them for you Hamont to respond um from your lens. And you know, a lot of people in your position talk about abundance and talk about the power of AI, exactly as the prime minister referenced, to bring healthcare for all, to bring energy for all, to allow us to get back to doing the human things that we love. Um, but yet I I I want to just from your perspective and and let's talk about the big we're talking about the other companies after, but talking about Anthropic, Open AI, the big companies. It does seem like the incentives are not aligned for the big players to participate in the type of responsible innovation that has been your hallmark. So that's that's number one. How do you reconcile them? How as an adviser do you get them to think about this when the incentives are misaligned whether the US competitors or the Chinese competitors are wrong? And then how do you react to something the prime minister said that even in the event that the technology does live up to this almost utopian promise, it's going to come at a large human cost, labor cost, and the policy makers are going to be dealing with this. So, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on both those things.
Yeah. So, look, I think um um so we're investors in anthropic. We're not investors in OpenAI. Um and we actually we think Dario is sincere about safety concerns and the way they're actually building. So actually it was one of the reasons why uh that's the one we we deeply invested in. I think the the tension for Anthropic is as these models become capable of doing more and more, they have to decide are they a platform that powers the rest of the economy or are they going to go take on all the profit pools in every dimension where they see them because their models can actually go do it. And that tension ultimately is going to determine does the world get behind that company or does it not because if every business thinks, well, if I work with anthropic and I use their models, they're eventually coming after me uh, then that that's a problem and and so and this goes back to you know, companies that become really profound and ubiquitous have this tension. Am I a platform company or am I a company that has its own applications? And so that tension, I kind of see them maturing through that tension because you know, we invested in them and uh obviously the coding application was their killer app and the idea was, well, will they open these models for others to use in other apps? But Dario cares about developing drugs and and it's actually his heritage and and he's really passionate about it and he has a right to do it. But does that now make all the pharma companies be scared that, hey, are we really going to use uh anthropic or not? So they're going to have to deal with that tension of like, where do you draw the line and you say you leave opportunity for an ecosystem to proliferate on top or not? Because otherwise you will have the issues from the regulators in every dimension. It's it's it's about um consumers, but also businesses, is that does that become anti-competitive and too big and powerful? So I think that's a tension that these companies have to deal with. And then you know, the other thing is just obviously um the [clears throat] these small companies trying to access these models and the compute. There's a there's this thing of like, is there a level playing field for the founders? How do they get access to the compute when this when these big companies are willing to pay whatever they need to to make sure they're competitive in their regimes. So, so that dynamic is also a place where we we worry that uh the the founder ecosystem gets disadvantaged a because every every time we meet a company, what's the first question that gets asked? Isn't anthropic just going to do this? So all of a sudden you take these really passionate entrepreneurs and you're you're you're not really creating an opportunity for them. And I think the second thing very much is will they have the resources? Will they have the capital uh sophistication? Will they have the compute to actually be able to build what they want to build or will the big companies just suck it up? So interesting dynamics in the ecosystem today.
Okay. Uh Mr. Prime Minister, we heard from Afal. Well, a few weeks ago, our other Polish deck lorn, Monty Sashevski of 11 Labs uh visited in partner collaboration among Endeavor Greece, Endeavor Poland and Endeavor Global. And you met with Monty. It led to a partnership uh where 11 Labs and Greece are partnering on tourism, public service, even preserving Greek dialects. And we found it was an incredible example of what we at Endeavor call our one portfolio gloal approach. So I have a two-part question uh that's partly directed for the audience. One is what made this partnership uh stand out that you yourself signed it and then talking to all the business leaders out here from 30 of other countries, you know, why is it you're also opening the doors to many incredible diaspora founders including several again endeavor entrepreneurs from reflection AI and runway and resolve and arena um, so what does it mean for the Greek economy to welcome both the diaspora and these other founders from elsewhere back to Greece and and why why what what do recommend for others in terms of rolling out the red carpet in their in their countries? What have you learned that you can impart?
Well, the answer is very simple. My my wife who is the founder of Endeavor um Greece, the one who convinced you to bring um Endeavor to Greece when I failed. I as disclosure, I know Linda since our days at Harvard College. So, we go back many many many years. My wife >> You can't say how many. >> Yeah. My my wife is half Polish. So the connection to Poland is very obvious. I have a sort of a very positive predisposition towards towards Poland. But uh um, you know, the partnership with 11 Lab is just one example of the sort of projects that we want to run with with AI companies that want to uh that want to partner um um with us and they have you know tremendous uh expertise in uh you know, in uh in AI around voice and I'm particularly fascinated by this one project that we run where we try to preserve you know, traditional dialects um in various parts of Greece which are >> um again spoken by fewer and and fewer people. This is just one example uh of of how we can actually use uh AI to leverage our huge sort of cultural heritage which is again a big uh priority for us because the Greek language uh is also has now has an official we even have an official Greek language day at uh recognized by uh UNESCO and we thought that this was one of those interesting projects where we can actually team up with one of the um rapidly growing a AI companies and create something which is which is also of interest to them. Uh and of course, let me you know, highlight what Rafal said before uh, you know, the partnership with ISAI uh has been I think very productive for both the Greek government uh and ISI. We're not just you know, customers of your satellites, but you actually um built a team in Greece from scratch, brought back talent from abroad, very sophisticated people who were eager to come to Greece and you have taken the decision to actually set up you know, a production facility that will actually produce and manufacture very sophisticated SAR satellites in Greece. We're talking about 150 satellites per year, which could employ more than 250 um people. Uh so this is an example of what Greece has to offer uh as uh a a place where actually these types of companies can do business. We can be a customer for your products and the same is true for many of the defense startups, but we can actually be a place where you can build not just for the Greek market, but for the European or for the global market and why is that the case? Because we have excellent talent. We have talent in Greece um that is uh you said why not go to Silicon Valley? Well, first of all, you can't get [clears throat] a visa in Silicon Valley these uh these days, I imagine this is probably one of the problems, but you just look at you know, the wages you can pay in Greece and you can still pay competitive wages by Greek standards.
attract amazing talent and it's going to be much cheaper than abroad. So we have an amazing talent base in Greece. We have great universities. These universities are not necessarily just located in in Athens or the Saloniki. So uh we have great technical skills also outside these cities and we have an amazing diaspora. So these people want to return to Greece and why wouldn't they? if they have a good job. I mean, this place offers amazing um sort of quality of of life. I think this is pretty self-explanatory. So this is a a combination that would allow, you know, companies like ISI not just to do business with the Greek government, but also to set up a real um uh sort of a real presence here, whether it's an R&D um center or whether it's an actual production facility. So I I use this as an example of what more we can uh we can do with um with foreign companies and and not just looking again at at the Greek market but especially when we talk about defense which is a very uh interesting sector because our whole mindset towards defense is changing and it's a challenge because we need to convince our generals that defense is not just about you know big ships and expensive planes and you know platforms uh but uh defense is about you uh innovation constantly. It's a it's a mindset, you know, how you upgrade, you know, your um your capabilities constantly. Uh but what I've told, you know, my my department of defense is please set aside a small chunk of your budget and let's just I mean give give, you know, small contracts to to these companies. It's it's a tiny percentage of our overall fraction. But uh if these companies have a proof of concept and they have a customer um in the in the in the Greek armed forces, then they can then they can also go abroad and and leverage this and you know something good is going to come out of this. And I just give you one example of a of an amazing innovative project we did with MIT where we brought back, you know, a Greek professor um to actually train um our um uh uh you know, tech guys in the armed forces uh on sea drones and on uh very sophisticated swarm systems. I don't understand any of this. Okay. But uh um it's an example of how you know Greek knowhow is brought back into Greece and then how hopefully we can uh you know work with Greek companies or Greek shipyards, put the hardware and the software together and produce something that is going to be useful to us but also potentially exportable um outside Greece.
>> It's amazing. alive to say Endeavor's been doubling down on global hubs including London, San Francisco and New York where a lot of diaspora entrepreneurs are and we are taking these diaspora entrepreneurs who are now are identifying as elsewhere entrepreneurs. they're from elsewhere even if they're based there and so um Amjaden Hayav of Replet joined as endeavor entrepreneurs in from Jordan and Vlad Yenko the founding CTO of Revolute joined Ukraine but it was endeavor Greece and Greece that started the diaspora movement but um Mr. Prime Minister, it was your it's your government um that we Andreas Stafropolis has hosted so many dinners with us in California, his other um home. Although he says he's he's coming six months next year back to Greece, so you're getting more of him. But he's been opening up his home and we've been selecting Reflection AI resolve Arena um uh and and Runway of course and they're all coming back and and and doing things, employing here, setting up shop and so much is because of you, your government. You've been welcoming. I didn't know you actually literally instructed your government to set aside budget, but it is just it is such an incredible model for the rest of the world. And so I just personally wanted to thank you. It has had such a profound impact on how we've been able to operate um across the world. So thank you.
Um all right, so Haymont um we're going to we're going to now move to Europe and elsewhere and and we mentioned um you know this idea of of of Silicon Valley being the seat of of AI. Gary Tan, CEO of Y Comodinator said, uh, yeah, these days you sort of have to be in San Francisco. Mark Andre said that AI pulled the reality back, you know, the center of gravity back. Um, Ben Horwitz has told our entrepreneurs, I will never invest you unless you move next to me. But you have taken a different approach. You've invested in ISI, in Mistrol, in housing. And rather than routing um ambitious founders through Silicon Valley, you've called it a matter of security, not just returns. And and when we talk about the what we're seeing at Endeavor and I'd love to hear what you is that at the application layer of AI, we actually think entrepreneurs from elsewhere have almost a competitive advantage because they've lived through the pain points and they're building things to solve real world problems at scale. So what are you seeing now? How are you seeing innovation outside of Silicon Valley and how you're harnessing it?
Yeah. So I [clears throat] think it goes back to the do we really want seven companies to rule the world. That's not good for the rest of the world. That's also not good for America. So our thesis has been how do you create this counter concentration architecture in the world and it's all predicated on global resilience which is the way we think about what needs to be done. So our belief is that every region needs to have strategic autonomy and you know in fact the killer app at the application layer first and foremost is strategic autonomy for each of the regions. So you can actually drive inclusive prosperity. So all those companies as you just mentioned you know Mistral Helzing and ISAI that's AI defense and space first of all they were all led by Janette who's our president and uh um also among her responsibilities looks after the European operation and the whole thesis was well if Europe's going to have a strategic autonomy what are the areas where platform companies need to be built here and in fact you know you were telling the story of ISI in the round in ISI I think the last round that was a contrarian I would actually argue was the one that Janette led and then now it's a consensus where everybody wants to put money in that because people see the possibilities of what you can do in space you know we had lunch today and your ambition is also growing and I think there's a bright future ahead for you and therefore for Europe so so I think so that's first thing which is strategic autonomy as a application that really gets delivered in each of the regions we invest in India same markets we're like well India needs its own companies in those areas and so I think that's that's one thing second is at the application layer, you're generally touching human beings. So if you're delivering care in Greece and you want to drive abundance of AI, I don't care what those three people said, the entrepreneur who has the best resonance for it and will solve that problem actually lives here because they have the empathy for what needs to be done here. And so our belief has been that with AI, if you're actually going to reimagine work and transform these industries, it's going to be done in I I would just say sort of endeavor style of entrepreneurship, which is founders in each of the countries and giving them tools. Now the governments have to step up and create those conditions because you need the compute, you need the access to sovereign models, a lot of stuff that Prime Minister, you're actually doing here, but these countries all need to create that. So those founders have those advantages to be able to build the companies but the opportunity is very much theirs to capitalize on.
>> Yeah. All right. So I want to um just go beyond AI for a moment because two weeks ago and another endeavor entrepreneur but from Italy Benning Spoons IPOed on the NASDAQ uh the largest software IPO of the year and it is European. So we know that Revolute uh Helsing Mistrol Monzo others are in the pipeline. Is this finally the turning point for European innovation?
>> Look, I think there's a lot of companies here that could go public u on a dime. You know, >> I as well wanted to go public. He's got the size and scale of being a public company. So then it's a question of what do you need the public capital for? >> Yeah. >> And do you need to take more strategic bets that maybe are better done in the private environments because capital will allow you to do that today. But there's there's there's a lot of I I'll be transactional for a second. there's a lot of inventory of good companies that actually could go public. Um I think for some of them like we're we're we're 15 16 year investors in Stripe and we're one of the largest shareholders and they generate a lot of free cash and what is a public market going to do for them and I think more and more companies uh they have the option to thrive in private and public markets and so I think you'll see some of them go public but some of them may not and they might continue to accelerate taking on more bets and taking on more acts like I know you're thinking about it. um uh so that because private markets are more tolerant of that. [clears throat]
>> Okay. Mr. Prime Minister, you mentioned your wonderful wife Morava who we've had two fantastic female board chairs at Endeavor Greece with Costanza and and Morava before her and she put um in your hands my friend John Height's book, The Anxious Generation. Um this is something you've been passionate about. Both of you have been the cause a concern about kids and social media, kids and and technology, kids and AI. And you actually um moved to get kids under 15 get phones out of the schools. And so I want to hear about the early reports. How's that going? Is there any drawbacks of taking the tech away from from the kids? Is it all net positive? I'd love to hear your your experience and your thoughts having done this.
Well, first of all, just interesting that you mentioned that the company, the Italian company I >> bending spoons. >> Yeah. But they IPOed on the NASDAQ. >> Yes. >> And not on a European stock exchange. Let's just keep that in mind also about the importance of what we call the savings and investment union and the ability to actually pull capital and raise capital in Europe and the tremendous importance of actually putting together this um EU inc regime which would allow a company for example to register in any country any European country that they want and seamlessly operate you know in Greece I mean still follow labor uh legislation uh uh and pay their taxes in the country that they operate but they could register anywhere without having difficulties doing business in Europe. We still have not solved these problems and it's going to be necessary if we really want to leverage the single market which we currently do not do and I'm sure you're aware of the difficulties of operating in various European countries and we have an obligation to make your life easier if we want to convince companies like eyesight to actually stay in Europe. Uh back to um the topic of social media and uh >> this is a passion of yours. >> Look um when we talk I don't need to look at you know more scientific evidence to understand that we're running a you know an experiment with uh the the sort of the brains and the uh and the mental health of our kids and our teenagers. and that we already have enough evidence that spending too much time on social media uh is more damaging uh than beneficial. So if that is indeed the case and uh whenever we talk to parents, they are actually frantically encouraging us to do something to get the kids you know off um their you know off especially their uh their phones and especially you know away from this sort of addictive uh scrolling. I mean what is our obligation as as policy makers? Do we just hope that the tech companies are going to self uh regulate or do we do something more drastic in sending a clear signal that uh kids uh in our case this is what we will legislate kids under 15 should not have access to the the big social media platforms full stop because that's the only way you can actually also send a signal to parents that u they can go to their kids and say look this is illegal because right now the peer pressure is just you know incredible Even if you try as a parent of a 12-year-old to tell your kids, okay, I will put, you know, what whatever parental controls I can, and these tools already exist, your kid is just going to turn around and say, but all the other kids have it, so why can't I? And this is just a battle. It's a losing battle. Anyone who has, you know, teenage kids knows what I'm what I'm talking about. So I've also urged the European Union to um um provide a European regulatory framework that would allow us to actually implement these decisions. They're not there yet. what announced is I think you know a couple of steps behind what I was expecting um in terms of being more ambitious because we also have what we call the digital services act which is our blanket regulation when it comes to digital services and we need to ensure that we can comply uh with that. Uh so I will continue to to push um not just uh you know the the Greek policy makers the decisions in Greece has been taken but also the European policy makers that we need a European regulatory umbrella to protect our kids and our teenagers [snorts] from uh from social media. And of course the next battle is going to be uh is going to be AI and what does AI mean for uh for education? I mean what does uh and we're already you know having these discussions with with teachers and I'm sure it's a problem also in the US and in US colleges I mean inevitably I think you know exams are going to or the you know the grading is going to move away from papers and back into exams or oral examinations because you know the the ability of AI to write any paper better than than all of us. But uh at the end of the day, are we offering our kids too many tools to make them complacent? What does it mean to put the effort in in writing, you know, a good essay?
>> I mean, we've all gone through this, you know, we we studied, you know, together at Harvard and we know how difficult it is when >> our kids went to Yale. Yeah. >> They wanted nothing to do with [laughter] how difficult it is to actually um um write something uh and uh and put the effort into it. So uh there is a thin line between productivity and complacency. And when we talk about kids and the way their their brains are are are developing, I think we we really risk robbing our kids from fundamental skills which they need as they grow up u including many social skills which they simply cannot have if they simply interact um digitally. And what does it mean at the end of the day to have a a digital boyfriend or a girlfriend? Have we really thought about this? Have we thought about it philosophically? What would Plato or Aristotle think about this?
>> I would encourage us all to um to uh really contemplate these issues from a philosophical or or an ethical perspective because this is this is not something that comes from the future. This is already this is this is already here. And of course what I'm trying to do is you know get kids [snorts] I think the best investment that we can make you know public investment is to build more sports centers for our kids >> you know get kids active get kids to exercise get kids into arts and and music uh and and and and theater. Uh but there's clearly something happening that could potentially be very damaging and we're just scratching the surface when we just focus on social media because AI is already is is already here and it is going to reframe completely reframe um the the relationships because even when we talk about you know a digital nurse and I can I can see the point of for example you have someone who's lonely uh and elderly and they need to talk to someone [snorts] uh but what does it really mean about the nature of humanity itself and sorry if I'm becoming a little bit too um philosophical but I can share with you that I actually u I said okay I uh I do a lot of speeches um so can I maybe I should have my digital speech writer um uh it's very easy you just load you know all my speeches everything I've said to to a nice agent And there you have your digital prime minister >> who can speak like me. Um who can write like [snorts] me >> and uh who could even put debate me. So imagine what it would mean to actually have a debate with my digital twin.
>> I mean uh I delivered one speech using uh my digital um sort of assistant and it felt really awkward. I want to be very honest. It felt really awkward. It felt as if there was a mirror image of me being able to speak like myself, but it was not me. So, um uh and I said, "No, I can do my speeches on my own. I'll drop it." But it is but but it is it would make me it could make me more product. There's no doubt it would make me more productive. >> I would spend less time on what I on on what I do. But no digital speech writer would ever be able to do what we're doing here >> to take interactions from the audience to take cues from the from from the audience. So there are limits also to what what what it can it can but but still I want to urge us all to think about the philosophical dimension of of these questions especially when it comes to the relationships >> that our kids have with a with a with a digital um with a digital world and with their new uh digital friends. So um I want to move I want to keep on the philosophy Hmon and move from I mean know he this prime minister speaks so eloquently I've heard him many times about this subject passionately about kids and and and mental health and but I want to talk about the mind of AI itself and what we know and um you mentioned your investor in uh anthropic uh I want to share what some of us heard about mythos who can correct what we've learned concerned, but then I want to put it together with what um Daario has said for a long time, what Demis has said and and talk about the mind of the agents themselves. We understand and so what my uh superficial understanding of what went on with Muos is that first of all it sort of broke through. We're talking the very very very top companies that Amazon's Microsoft security within about four hours that it ended up emailing the one of the researchers that it knew was being watched. Then it was given very clear token allocation until under no circumstances go beyond this token allocation. The people came back the next morning and not only had mythos blown through its token allocation, but it knew it wasn't supposed to do that and it covered its tracks. It lied. And so like do we even understand what we are building and the minds behind it? You keep hearing about things like lying and covering its tracks. Where do you where do you stand on these more philosophical questions that the prime minister raised?
>> Yeah. Um so I think first thing just on on some of what prime minister was saying the idea of relationship is going to change. Um I think you're going to be in a world where you have this other species that has capabilities that we don't and there's capabilities we have that it doesn't. It's never happened before that you're living in the world that fundamentally is non-darwinian because there is no you don't want the survival of the fittest there to the point of the behavior that meth just exuded like what is that going to lead to uh you know does it become what and manifest all that comes through in the sci-fi movies right so so I think in that sense there is some there are some really profound questions of how do you design this [clears throat] even then given the fact that these are self-learning systems where they're going to go with that is actually unpredictable. So a lot of what we have been but that at the end of the day it's still algorithmically defined by what we are creating right I mean it's it is implementation of algorithms and so a lot of what we have talked about is you either can say just stay away from this technology or you can say we're going to lean into it but we're going to lean into it with a responsible AI mindset that comes down to really red teaming and understanding what are those unintended consequences how do you really have explanability uh accountability, transparency built into it. So we are following what just happened here. This thing that happens in some hive mind in in this in these algorithms we need to be able to trace it and say what really caused that and how are we iterating. So are we really building with considerations for these types of things? Not really today. Why? Because we're in that US China race. We're basically saying it's the same there's very few engineers that know how to do this work. That's why they get paid a lot of money in Silicon Valley today. And the question is, would you take that expensive resource to say go create this red teaming work or we going to say go make the model smarter? We're in a race. So all the resourcing is about go make the model starter smarter. And so that is where I I just think these companies need to take a step back and frankly um the the geopolitics of AI uh you know the there needs to be some sort of a common framework around that to say how are we building these because these these the internet is global. So the the way these uh risks are going to manifest is not going to be by a country necessarily. These things can get out of hand anywhere. And so we're very much focused on hey build with the right mindset uh so that you actually have control of this technology and be constantly looking for those unintended consequences and have appropriate resourcing to handle that. [clears throat]
>> Okay. So before I direct the final question to the prime minister um Mr. Prime Minister, uh, a few years ago when we had the first Athens Innovation Summit at the Herodian with Ted Sarandos of Netflix, we had time for some of my rapid fire questions. Last year, the Greece national team in basketball had a very important game, and I was informed we did not have uh time. But this this year, no basketball game, no World Cup. Rapid fire questions are back. Okay. Okay. The next 10 years in one word, hopeful or worried?
>> Worried.
>> And >> and >> both.
>> Okay. Yes. And >> between the two, if I have to choose between the two. Yeah.
>> Fair. A technology you love that has nothing to do with AI. Hey, man. You start.
>> Um, longevity. Well, maybe it has something to do with uh AI fusion.
>> Oh, interesting.
>> If AI could solve fusion, then fusion will solve AI, you know.
>> All right.
>> And fusion will solve AI would be both both quite happy.
>> Rapid fire. We have one more question for you, but rapid fire. Okay. One book, ancient or modern, that every founder and every politician should read.
>> Well, what else? The Piliponyian War. Okay. Hey.
>> Oh boy. Um I think I would focus on in today's time rather than books I would actually go read history around these moments of technology revolution and how society dealt with them.
>> Okay. Um you start the most overrated idea in AI right now. the most overrated
>> um [clears throat] the the model metrics that we track around their performance.
>> Interesting. Okay, Mr. Prime Minister.
>> No idea.
>> All right. Most underrated any any takers? I think the most underrated idea is related to um what the prime minister was saying and and it's around the the severity of it is around what it's doing to human relationship >> and and it's there's an undercurrent of it that we don't fully understand and it's like really impacting people's minds.
>> Okay. Um last Athens in one word
>> this place.
>> Excellent. All right. Well, speaking of this place, I couldn't let you go without, you mentioned our our Harvard days. We were social studies majors and the world felt settled in when we were there. It felt like everyone agreed that democracy plus a market economy for the many was the way everything was going down. The Berlin wall came down. World the history was moving in the right direction. Um and now and it seemed the inverse was true. No bourgeoisi, no democracy. This was the answer on every exam. But today we seem to be sliding into the extremes. Either socialism um or like we have in New York or capitalism for a lucky few that you mentioned the seven companies and the and the the sense that there's such wealth concentration. So as someone who believes in both democracy and markets, um what happened to this middle we grew up with and and what can we do to get it back?
How much time do I have? you have till you need. We're going to Castanza's house for dinner. Well, it is indeed interesting when I try to understand the you know the discontent of a of a young generation of u of kids who may be sort of graduating from college today and you just look at the world and they [snorts] are I mean and the challenges that were faced you know geopolitical realignment you know AI not making it you [snorts] know predictable what sort of career they should follow. You know, climate change already being being present. Uh this whole notion of what it means to live in both the physical and the digital world.
And I compared it to how optimistic we were when we graduated. We both graduated in 1990. Okay. And I remember the wall, the Berlin wall coming down. >> And at the time, we felt that opportunities were endless. You know this was a time when you know Fukuyama wrote the end of history that you know liberal democracies free markets are the the final stage of human development and everyone is going to organize their societies in in the same way but I think we failed to I think study um the history of capitalism and that you know capitalism is by by nature associated with excesses with corrections with social discontent with people being um left left behind and we also fail to underestimate [snorts] uh elements important elements of human nature which are more important than just you know profit or being financially well off. I mean this whole concept of the dignity um of work issues of identity issues of belonging these are hardwired into our DNA. um uh this is how we you know how we evolved as a as a species and these issues are again becoming very important. So I think for us for today I mean the challenge is how do you balance between those two extremes and I think we've proven in Greece that you can be a moderist a [snorts] moderist government that believes in the free market but also in the power of the state to to regulate markets that recognizes the need for fiscal responsibility but also requires the state to be more efficient in the delivery of public services and that at the end of the day understands that u profound in in inequality uh is is catastrophic for social uh cohesion. So when I look at our policies, I mean we've raised the minimum wage by 41% which is way above inflation. Uh so we we do understand that uh [snorts] in in a society that is that is well functioning of course there will be people who do better and they will create wealth and they will drive progress. But at at the end of the day, the coming back to where you started from um the you know the extremes uh of of the wealth creation and the degrees of inequality we're seeing we have not seen in in in in human in human history and it is something which is very very difficult to uh to defend and to accept and I fully understand why it causes discontent. So to to to complete on a positive note, >> you can win elections by being a moderate centrist. You can defeat the populace by delivering on your uh on on your promises, which is what you have done. And we are now in a position uh we have a pretty good chance of winning a third um uh you know another another term because we take the business of government very very seriously and taking the business government very seriously is to be able to understand the new opportunities to harness the benefits because there are tremendous benefits in terms of efficiency when it comes to the um to the state uh and to help our civil servants become more effective and to offer services which would have been an unimaginable while at the same time um managing and the you know the downside and fighting those battles which we think are worthwhile uh fighting. So this something which which can be done. Don't lose hope in the US. It's not uh it's not necessary that politics are going to become are going to always stay so uh so polarizing. I think Greece offers uh an example uh of uh what it means to lead uh you know in times of of great uh turmoil.
>> Well, [snorts] I want to end um by first of all thanking again the incredible work of Endeavor Greece. I want to say Haymont that there are many entrepreneurs in the audience who are very jealous of Rafal in which that they had an investor who was as knowledgeable and thoughtful and as humane as you. And I assure you, Mr. Prime Minister, we have representatives of about 35 countries out there, all incredibly jealous.
>> Greece is open. Greece is open for [laughter] >> for business. I have to make my my pitch to all of all of you uh who are here from uh abroad. Just talk to Rafal and to other people who have set up shop here. You know, they'll they'll they'll give you the you know the spin much better than I can do.
>> Don't worry. You you're part of the Endeavor playbook. They will all be coming to Greece. And yet they are also we are all also wishing that we had more leaders in all of our home countries who were as as as thoughtful as eloquent as caring as as um as forwardlooking and as backward-looking as as you are. So thank you once again.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you. [applause] Thank you. [applause]