Down Round

OK Fine, We'll Talk About Hubbl

07 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anyone who lives in Australia would be aware of Foxtel's new streaming box Hubbl, thanks to an absolutely overwhelming ad campaign pitching it. We tal...

TikTok Ban Watch 2024: The Final Chapter (?)

30 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Well, it happened: the US passed legislation to force ByteDance to divest TikTok in the country. Now, the company technically has 12 months to make it...

Now It's Meta's Turn To Go All In On AI

23 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Everything is chatbots now. Every company must become a purveyor of bespoke chatbots.The latest cab off the rank is Meta, which just unveiled Llama 3,...

Have We Replaced The Smartphone Yet? (PREVIEW)

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here. As Downies will know well, one of the them...

The Coming Tsunami Of AI Music

16 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past few weeks, there has been a surprising amount of movement in the AI music space. Suno and Udio are two lavishly funded AI music generati...

Capital Inferno Heaven (feat. Kyle Harrison)

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we're joined by Kyle Harrison, who is General Partner at Contrary, a US venture capital fund. As well as investing, Kyle writes the newslet...

The Worst Tech Acquisitions Of All Time (PREVIEW)

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here. Sometimes a company merges with or acquire...

Vapes: Smoking, but less cool and more illegal

02 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One of the great turnarounds in 21st century was the tobacco industry's shift toward a so-called 'smokeless' future – agreeing that cigs are pretty ...

Apple Takes A Sideways Step On AI (PREVIEW)

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here. This week, we're back on Apple. There are ...

Neuralink: No monkeys were harmed in the production of this episode

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, it was reported that Elon Musk's Neuralink had successfully allowed a patient to play chess with his mind. It represents a small – and ma...

Dropbox: What's going on up there? (PREVIEW)

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here. Dropbox. There's a name you probably haven...

BYD: How hard can a battery and four wheels be?

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're looking at BYD, the Chinese battery maker turned electric vehicle behemoth, which is now the world's biggest EV maker. Following on fr...

TikTok Ban Watch 2024

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Well folks, it's happening again. The US is threatening to ban TikTok. A bill is currently worming its way through Congress which would ban the app un...

Why Apple Scrapped Its Car (PREVIEW)

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here. The fabled Apple car – also known as Pro...

The AI Girlfriend Experience (feat. Tom Cashman)

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One less discussed angle of the rise of AI and widely available LLMs is the relationship dimension. From ChatGPT's personalisation features to AI chat...

The Nvidia Earnings Blowout (PREVIEW)

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here. Nvidia, the graphics card company turned i...

Unpacking the Reddit IPO

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reddit is going public. After a false start a couple of years ago, the online message board is undergoing the IPO process, setting markets up for the ...

The Great Xbox Surrender (PREVIEW)

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premium and get access, head here. The gaming world was ablaze over the past ...

Sora: Watch out, Hollyweird!

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, OpenAI announced Sora, its text-to-video model. Only a few people have their hands on it, so all we have to go off are example videos provi...

Why Is OpenAI's Sam Altman Raising $7 Trillion? (PREVIEW)

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To subscribe to Down Round Premiun and get access, head here. The word on the street is that Sam Altman,...

23andme: 30% Irish, 30% English, 30% Scottish, 100% cringe

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One of the big crazes of the last few years was consumer genetic testing. Through services like 23andme and AncestryDNA, regular punters could find ou...

Google Search: Why it sucks now, and what's coming next (PREVIEW)

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode. We're currently running a sale on Down Round Premium – head here to score an annual membership for $49 inste...

What's Going On In Australian VC? (feat. Damian Fox)

06 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hey! Down Round is still running a sale on premium membership until Friday February 9. Sign up using this link, and you can get an annual membership ...

Apple vs The EU: Brussels goes sicko mode (PREVIEW)

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode. We're currently running a sale on Down Round Premium – head here to score an annual membership for $49 inste...

Ozempic: The biggest Danish hit since the Smørrebrød

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hey! Down Round is running a sale on premium membership. Sign up in the next week using this link, and you can get an annual membership for $49 inste...

Twitch: Give me $20, now (PREVIEW)

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode of Down Round. To subscribe and listen to this episode and our full archives, go here. Twitch, the venerable v...

The Vision Pro Developer Revolt

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Apple is releasing its Vision Pro mixed reality headset in the US next month. But some of the biggest platforms in the world – from Netflix to Spoti...

Rabbit R1: Another screen for you to look at -- but with AI!

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The age of the AI device is upon us. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the undisputed star was the Rabbit R1, a standalone AI companion device...

The New York Times vs OpenAI: Whoever wins, we lose

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the Xmas break, the New York Times announced it would be suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, alleging that its GPT platform is trained on co...

The Down Round Experience Pt. 4: Happy New Year

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year! We trust you're all well. Today, we're looking back on the 2023 that was – diving into some of the episodes we recorded and checking...

The Down Round Experience Pt. 3: Enter the Shark Tank (ft. Joyride)

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is part 3 of Down Round's Christmas and New Years production, all recorded in one session. To get every part, sign up to Premium here. The Down R...

The Down Round Experience Pt. 2: Hack the planet (PREVIEW)

27 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is part two of our marathon holiday record. This is a preview – the full episode is available for premium subs. Sign up here. The Down Round ho...

The Down Round Experience Pt. 1 - Bird, Figma/Adobe, and how we make this damned thing

23 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to our holiday special. We have recorded a marathon 4 hour podcast with much holiday spirit (we got drunk), and will be dropping it in parts t...

The 10 Biggest Companies In The World

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We had it all planned out. A huge Xmas bonanza episode featuring guests, fun, laughs and all you could ever want from a Down Round variety show. But t...

iMessage: Visiting the green bubble leper colony (PREVIEW)

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium post. To subscribe and get the full episode, go here. For many years, Apple has enforced iPhone dominance by refusing t...

Google Has Another Red Hot Go At AI

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Poor Google. What used to be possibly the best business in human history has taken a few heavy body blows after the rise of generative AI, with the fo...

The X Advertising Apocalypse (PREVIEW)

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium post. To subscribe and get the full episode, go here. You probably know the story by now. Elon Musk replied positively ...

The Return of Sam Altman

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We last updated you on the OpenAI drama a couple of weeks ago, right in the middle of it. Back when it looked like Sam Altman was gone, and the future...

It's Another Down Round Q&A

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome...to the silly season. We answer a bunch of your questions which allows us to prognosticate about the future with less constraints than the fe...

🚨EMERGENCY POD🚨 Sam Altman Boned from OpenAI

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The day James left for honeymoon, the unthinkable happened; Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, got boned by his board of directors like a dog. H...

The Great Airbnb Crying Tour (PREVIEW)

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium post. To become a member and get access to more episodes plus our lovely Discord server, go here. Since the last time w...

Grok, OpenAI and Humane: OK, it’s getting stupid now

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Once again we’re brought back to the world of AI. Sorry, there’s simply no escape. A few things have happened over the past week: Elon Musk annou...

Online Marketplaces: 2 podcast mics, poor condition, free to a good home (PREVIEW)

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the very first things people realised they could do online was sell their crap. Since that realisation, e-commerce has gotten a little more adv...

The SBF Trial: Confessions of a spreadsheet criminal

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's official: Sam Bankman-Fried is GUILTY of committing fraud while running his doomed crypto empire at FTX. The crazy-haired freak took down the cre...

Twitter/X: Checking in on the world's best website (PREVIEW)

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode. To become a member and get access, go here.   It's been a minute since we've checked in on Twitter/X, which...

Snitch Tech: You haven't been talking to the cops have ya mate?

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Snitch Tech. One of the weirdest trends in tech over the last decade has been the spread of surveillance tech for consumers. Everything from Ring door...

Nintendo: Oh yeah, that Italian fella (PREVIEW)

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode. To become a member of Down Round Premium, head here. Nintendo has made some of the most popular consumer produ...

iPad: The optimal device for concert photography

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first iPad was released over a decade ago and pitched as a bold new frontier for consumer computing. It helped kill the netbook and spawned genera...

OpenAI: I'm sorry, I can't help with that request

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Wow! We're checking in on OpenAI again. Reporting over the weekend confirmed that the company is on track to book over $1 billion of revenue this year...

SpaceX: Two idiots go to Mars

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk may be a complete weirdo these days, but SpaceX is still a pretty cool company. Started to assist mankind in its journey to Mars, it has bee...

YouTube: Please, hit that like and subscribe

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

YouTube is indisputably the king of online video, and has been virtually since it launched in 2005. It's part of the infrastructure of the internet, a...

Audio & Video Production: Boops, bleeps, etc (PREVIEW)

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode. To subscribe and get an extra episode every week, go here. These days it seems just about everyone can make pr...

AI Devices: Hitting the discotheque in your Facebook Ray-Bans

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Among the numerous announcements made at this year's Meta Connect was a new generation of its smart glasses, developed with Ray-Bans. Aside from the u...

Digital identity: Show us yer licence, guvna (PREVIEW)

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Digital identity references a simple idea: how much a computer system knows about you. But, just like everything else, it's a bit weird these days. Pe...

Phone Cameras: But like... what is a photo, man?

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The smartphone camera arms race seems to be a little less intense these days, but the quality of a phone camera remains one of the major reasons peopl...

Flexport: Container go on ship (PREVIEW)

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you pay any attention to tech or VC Twitter, Flexport will have crossed your radar. A freight forwarding business which wants to do for supply chai...

Unity: How to piss off developers with one simple trick

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Unity is one of the most popular game engines in the world, powering everything from a solid chunk of the mobile gaming universe to bigger console and...

Social Audio: Kicked out of the Clubhouse (PREVIEW)

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode. To sign up for Down Round Premium and get an extra episode every week, go here.  This week brought news that ...

Wikipedia: Leave your citations at the door (feat. Richard Cooke)

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites on earth, and an example of a quasi-utopian internet project which has kind of worked out in the end –...

Canva: Graphic designers, your terrible reign is over (PREVIEW)

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode. To sign up for Down Round Premium and get an extra episode a week, go here.  Canva is one of Australia's most...

MrBeast: Staring into the YouTube abyss (feat. Max Read)

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

MrBeast is the most popular individual YouTuber, with over 180 million subscribers. He makes a lot of sleekly produced videos where he gives away mone...

What's up with the anti-ageing vampire billionaire? (PREVIEW)

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode. To sign up for Down Round Premium and get an extra episode a week, go here.  A fun one for you this week. Ove...

Snap: We're bringing the dog ears filter back

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Snapchat was one of the major social media platforms of the 2010s, and still remains pretty popular with the kids. It helped create much of the modern...

Should Apple buy Disney? (PREVIEW)

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a preview of a premium episode. Sign up for Down Round Premium here. One of the most enduring rumours in tech markets and investing subreddits...

QR Code Menus: Parma Button Activated

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

QR code menus became popular during the pandemic, when everyone collectively decided it was much safer to have your beers delivered to the table at th...

WeWork: A pre-post-postmortem

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Big news, WeWork fans! The company has announced that it is hurtling towards bankruptcy, with serious doubts about its capacity to continue as a “go...

Press Button, Receive Pharmaceuticals (feat. Tim Doyle)

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Recent years have seen a surge in telehealth and online health delivery — from essential prescriptions to more discretionary health spending. Everyo...

Elon Musk, X and the promise of the 'everything app'

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter is no more. From the ashes rises X, Elon Musk’s cringely-named attempt to actualise one of his long term goals: building an everything app. ...

Down Round Q&A: Zero tolerance for stupid questions

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a while since we’ve done a Q&A episode, and we know your pressing questions have been accumulating for months. We’re sorry we let it g...

The Hollywood Strikes: Please help me budget, my streaming industry is dying

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hollywood actors and writers are both on strike for the first time since 1960. Two of the primary reasons they’re hitting the picket line are core D...

Drones: A threatening buzzing sound from 50 metres up

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a paid episode. Want to join? Sign up for Down Round Premium! The rise of the consumer-available drone over the past decade ...

Threads: Glory to Meta! Glory to Meta!

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of last week, Mark Zuckerberg decided to take advantage of the chaos over in Twitterland by surprise dropping Meta’s own text-based socia...

Twitter: You have exceeded your podcast rate limit

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. The ongoing freakout at Twitter culminated this week in the platfo...

Ticketing: The Swifties will see justice, in this life or the next

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The ticket industry is one of the most confusing online industries in 2023, a rentseeking behemoth which doesn’t seem to offer much for fans or arti...

AI Update: ChatGPT please generate a mid joke for this subtitle

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. It’s been a hot minute since we’ve checked in on the world of ...

LinkedIn: 2 executives at Down Round viewed your profile

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Let’s face it: LinkedIn is one of the most annoying websites ever to exist. Terrible emails, armies of recruiters, and some of the worst posts you’...

Reddit Blackout: Understanding the twisted mind of a mod

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. Reddit, one of the internet’s last largely functional online com...

Vision Pro: Wearing VR goggles to a funeral

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a couple of weeks since Apple announced the Vision Pro, the ‘spatial computing’ headset it believes is the future of going on the comp...

Sport Streaming: Bringing back the biff

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. Despite the fact the entertainment world at large is — for bette...

#90 - Swimply: The Way Of Water (ft. Becky Lucas)

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

James is in the US this week, so we're digging an episode from the deep and forgotten archives.Swimply is, to put it simply, Airbnb but for pools. As ...

#89 - Yahoo!: Pouring one out for the OG

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. At every major juncture of internet development since 1994, you’...

#88 - Esports: This is our application to join FaZe Clan

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Esports was one of the weirdest hype cycles of the last tech boom. A surge of venture capital and investment led to a frothy market which somehow conv...

#87 - Netflix: Stranger Things season 1-4 recap [AD-SUPPORTED]

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. Netflix was once the golden child of the tech industry, with its s...

#86 - Nvidia: From sexy elves to a $1 trillion company

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, GPU maker Nvidia was briefly valued at $1 trillion, which is pretty wild for a company founded to cater to the whims of one of God’s most...

#85 - AR/VR Headsets: Yet more exciting ways to play Beat Saber

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. Apple’s developer conference is in a couple of weeks, and all si...

#84 - Text: This one is for the posters

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Despite the fact the social web seems inexorably on the march towards TikTok-style video feeds, there’s still a happy home on the web for big-braine...

#83 - Meta: Checking in on Casa de Zuck

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. It’s been a hot minute since we’ve taken a look at what Meta i...

#82 - Fitness: Lifting a 1kg weight while the Rocky theme blares

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The worlds of fitness and tech have been converging for years thanks to innovations in wearables, apps and subscriptions. If you’re the kind of pers...

BuzzFeed News/Vice: Remembering the clicks era

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. Over the past few weeks , BuzzFeed News shuttered its doors and Vi...

#80 - AI Jobpocalypse: Computer took my job

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In March, we tackled the AI doom prophets who argue that rapidly advancing artificial intelligence will kill everyone on its journey to sentience.That...

Activision Blizzard: Antitrust, but for gamers

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. Last year, Microsoft announced it would buy video game publisher A...

#78 - Dropshipping & Affiliate Marketing: How to become richer than the devil himself

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anyone who spent any time online over the past few years will be intimately familiar with the constellation of cool ways to get rich online. Youtube g...

#77- It's yet another Down Round Q&A!

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. It's been a little while since we opened the dusty Down Round mail...

#76 - Cars: Car goes vroom vroom, computer goes beep boop

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most underrated battles currently emerging in the tech world is the fight over who will control your in-car experience.Apple and Google hav...

#75 - Instagram: Down Round liked this and 56 other photos

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Instagram was undeniably the most influential social network of the 2010s, and certaibnly one of the most important generators of 2010s culture.But it...

#74 - Discord: 350 million sweaty gamers can’t be wrong

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Discord has gone from being an ultra low latency voice platform for League of Legends heads into one of the major social platforms of 2023.We talk abo...

Microchips, Pt. 2: One weird trick to solve the global supply chain crisis

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a premium episode. To hear more, join Down Round Premium. In the second part of this week’s topic, we talk about the curre...

#72 - Microchips, Pt. 1: A walk down memory lane

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Microchips. They’re extremely tiny and very cool. (You can quote us on that.) This week, we’re doing a two-parter on the modern world’s most imp...

#71 - Twitter & AI: Blue ticks for all!

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit downround.substack.comThis week we’re tackling not one but two topics. And they’re b...

#70 - TikTok Ban Watch: This podcast has been approved by the Central Committee of the CCP

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the past few years we’ve had to listen to Western governments repeatedly threaten to ban TikTok and then ultimately not do much about it. But it...