Welcome back to Giant Ideas! Happy new year. We return to normal scheduling next week, but this week we are sharing an exclusive conversation with some of the best television writers in the world right now: Succession writer Lucy Prebble, and the creators of the HBO hit Industry, Micky Down and Konrad Kay.

This was conversation was recorded last year - chaired by the legendary Henry Mance, the FT's chief features writer - and was one of my favourites from our Giant Ideas event in London last year.

In this conversation they get to the core of the 'character of bad business’ - what it's like to write about the worst characters in business? What draws them to these people? Is there is an inevitability to the moral descent of business leaders with too much power? And - perhaps most importantly - how can you, our audience, avoid becoming the next Kendall Roy?

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Immad Akhund is the Co-founder & CEO at Mercury - one of the most widely used business banking platforms globally. He is also an active investor in Silicon Valley - as an active investor in 350 startups at their earliest stages including Airtable, Substack, and Rappi.

In this episode we talk about the three photographs that define Immad's life so far, the fateful weekend of the Silicon Valley Bank failure, and his leadership lessons learnt in a time of crisis.

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Immad Akhund is the Co-founder and CEO at Mercury - one of the most widely used business banking platforms globally. He is also an active investor in Silicon Valley - as an active investor in 350 startups at their earliest stages including Airtable, Substack, and Rappi.

This year he announced that Mercury raised $300 million at $3.5 billion valuation. He also announced his $26 million fund to back early-stage startups.

In this episode we talk about why founders make the best venture investors, his experience with investors at Mercury, and what it takes to scale a unicorn.

Stay tuned next week to hear episode 2 about Immad's life so far and how he dealt with the panic of the weekend Silicon Valley Bank failed.

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today on the Giant Ideas podcast we welcome back visionary architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of @BIGSOLUTIONS (Bjarke Ingels Group), whose work includes Google’s Silicon Valley campus, the Danish Maritime Museum, and 2 World Trade Center.

In this episode, Bjarke shares his philosophy on how your home should be a portrait of who you are. He also reflects on the three photographs that have defined his life, how his early love of drawing shaped his path to becoming an architect, and his unique design philosophy: embracing challenges and diverse demands (“Yes, is more”) to create innovative architecture.

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today on the Giant Ideas podcast we welcome visionary architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), whose work includes Google’s Silicon Valley campus, the Danish Maritime Museum, and 2 World Trade Center.

In this episode, Bjarke shares his philosophy of “utopian pragmatism,” the inseparable link between form and function in architecture, and his thoughts on why architecture matters.

Bjarke also discusses collaborations with fellow visionary Thomas Heatherwick, the economic and societal forces shaping our built environment. We discuss his ambitious “Mindfulness City” project in Bhutan, his concept of “hedonic sustainability”: designing cities and spaces that are irresistible and joyful.

Tune in for a fascinating exploration of how architecture can shape a better world, insight into the Danish approach to design and sustainability, and why balancing contradictions is needed more than ever.

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Doug Bernauer, founder of Radiant (one of Giant’s most exciting growth investments) joins us again on the Giant Ideas podcast. We backed Radiant in their Series C round to mass produce portable nuclear reactors.

The founder, Doug, worked with Elon Musk for 12 years at SpaceX - including their reusable rocket prototype and the Mars Colonisation project. In this episode, he shares the 3 photographs that define his life, what he learnt from SpaceX, and why good companies need 'unreasonable' leaders.

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Today we are joined by Doug Bernauer, founder of Radiant – one of Giant’s most exciting growth investments. We backed Radiant in their Series C round. Their vision is to mass produce portable nuclear reactors. But their vision goes far beyond that.

They want to first manufacture nuclear reactors for Earth - giving clean energy to remote areas. And they then want to use this profit to develop a reactor for Mars, to send it on a Starship to power the potential future civilisation of Mars. It’s a giant idea - both on this planet, and beyond.

The founder, Doug, worked with Elon Musk for 12 years at SpaceX - including their reusable rocket prototype and the Mars Colonization project.

In this episode, we talk about why nuclear power’s time has finally come, how Radiant’s approach is unique, and his long term vision to deploy nuclear power on Mars.

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

What are the moments that defined you?

Last week we had an in depth conversation with star investor Halle Tecco about creating massively better healthcare in the US.

Today, she joins us to talk about the 3 moments that defined her and the wisdom gained so far in life. From choosing a life partner, to deciding whether to have children, to choosing to leave your home town and prioritise adventure.

About Halle Tecco:
Halle Tecco is an entrepreneur and investor passionate about fixing the healthcare system.

She is the co-founder of Co-fertility - a company rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. She is also the founder of Natalist and Rock Health, one of the pioneering digital health early-stage venture funds.

Now, as Course Director at Harvard Medical School and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, she supports future healthcare leaders through teaching.

She is also the creator of The Heart of Healthcare Podcast, the #1 podcast in health tech, and is about to release a book, “Massively Better Healthcare: The Innovator's Guide to Tackling Healthcare's Biggest Challenges”.

Building a purpose driven company? Read more about Giant Ventures at www.Giant.vc.

Music credits: Bubble King written and produced by Cameron McLain and Stevan Cablayan aka Vector_XING.

Please note: The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or investment advice. Always consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.