Dominic

They're Ehrlich Bachman.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The only thing – I totally agree with you that we could have a second – I don't even know how you say it right. Another wave of this frothiness. I do wonder though if one big thing is going to change and that's will hiring be a vanity metric again like it was before? I have this sick feeling that the metric is going to be how few people you hire and how much you can leverage AI.

The only thing – I totally agree with you that we could have a second – I don't even know how you say it right. Another wave of this frothiness. I do wonder though if one big thing is going to change and that's will hiring be a vanity metric again like it was before? I have this sick feeling that the metric is going to be how few people you hire and how much you can leverage AI.

And that's going to be the flex that you can make in your investor meetings. I could be totally wrong about this.

And that's going to be the flex that you can make in your investor meetings. I could be totally wrong about this.

Exactly, exactly.

Exactly, exactly.

I mean, it would make them more like regular businesses. Now, the problem is the goal of – a startup has to get such outsized returns that they're really not like regular businesses, right? They can't make a solid couple hundred thousand, couple million dollars of profit, depending on scale, and be happy. They have to –

I mean, it would make them more like regular businesses. Now, the problem is the goal of – a startup has to get such outsized returns that they're really not like regular businesses, right? They can't make a solid couple hundred thousand, couple million dollars of profit, depending on scale, and be happy. They have to –

either go public and become one of the big big five which it doesn't seem like it's going to happen anytime soon or they have to get acquired by the big five for like a stupid amount of funny money so yeah so that's sort of dystopian because if you got if you got like the the financials that don't seem to work and then you have the staff that don't seem to want to work there as much then we're just sort of left with big tech I think that's where we're going for I think at least five years

either go public and become one of the big big five which it doesn't seem like it's going to happen anytime soon or they have to get acquired by the big five for like a stupid amount of funny money so yeah so that's sort of dystopian because if you got if you got like the the financials that don't seem to work and then you have the staff that don't seem to want to work there as much then we're just sort of left with big tech I think that's where we're going for I think at least five years

I mean, it's where we've been. It's not new. We just had this drunk money period. But even I would argue, the drunk money, everybody's sobered up by being acquired by big tech. And now look at the layoffs. We don't have it in the show notes, but there's yet another Microsoft layoff coming. So it's Zuckerberg, right? He attends the inauguration and is laying how many people off?

I mean, it's where we've been. It's not new. We just had this drunk money period. But even I would argue, the drunk money, everybody's sobered up by being acquired by big tech. And now look at the layoffs. We don't have it in the show notes, but there's yet another Microsoft layoff coming. So it's Zuckerberg, right? He attends the inauguration and is laying how many people off?

It's a pretty substantial number. I think it's a thousand.

It's a pretty substantial number. I think it's a thousand.

And Zuck credited AI, right? He pulled, I guess he saw Mark Benioff on CNBC and was like, that bastard, I got to get in on this.

And Zuck credited AI, right? He pulled, I guess he saw Mark Benioff on CNBC and was like, that bastard, I got to get in on this.

Yeah, we should move on from this because it's getting depressing.