Alfa Technology: From celebrity magician to startup founder

From performing magic for prime ministers and billionaires to gracing stages on shows like Britain's Got Talent. Alfie Whattam shares his unorthodox journey from entertainment to launching his own recruitment startup, Alfa Technology. Alfa builds software engineering teams for businesses operating in cutting-edge technologies like AI and Web3. 
 
Uncover Alfie's game-changing insights on cultivating a bulletproof mindset, building effective content strategies, and disrupting outdated industries ripe for innovation. 

The recruitment industry is broken. Hear how Alfie is challenging the status quo, taking on the incumbent ‘dinosaurs’, questioning unethical practices, and doing things differently. 
 
Alfie's insights delve into pressing issues, like the ethical implications of AI, and the exponential speed of development, which could soon reach an irreversible tipping point. Alfie emphasises the need for genuine community-driven approaches in recruitment. 

Key takeaways

- How to build a winning Content Strategy – Alfie shares his blueprint so you can drive inbound demand for your business. He stresses the importance of consistency and a clear strategy to make content work effectively for your goals. 

- Delegation and Automation - Alfie emphasises the significance of delegating tasks, systematising, and automating to avoid burnout and maximise productivity. 

- The potential and dangers of AI and Web3 technologies. Hear the immense potential for transforming entire industries and creating new business opportunities. But the rapid evolution also poses ethical and existential questions that we explore

Have questions about this episode? Ask our hosts, chat now via our website

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

When

Alfie Whattam: 0:09

the recruitment industry is broken, and it comes right from the top. It's these old school legacy directors that haven't done the job in foot here as

Dr Becky Sage: 0:24

you're listening to founded and grounded with Ollie collard, and Dr. Becky sage, the podcast brings you the honest realities of startup life. If you're a founder or aspiring entrepreneur, this is for you. We know running a business can be lonely and tough at times. And we want to help you get ahead with simple tips and sound advice. Every fortnight we hear inspiring stories from an early stage business owner, who's only a couple of steps ahead of you, talking about what they've learned. And as your hosts, we share our insights and experiences as founders, so you can apply this to your own business. Hello, I'm Dr. Becky sage. I'm co host of founded and grounded, and I'm here today with Ali. Hi, Ali, how are things going for you? Really good. Thank

Ollie Collard: 1:17

you. How's it feeling myself?

Dr Becky Sage: 1:18

Yeah, things are great. I've actually just been reflecting back on several of our guests that we've had this season. And I just it's so amazing how many things we can learn how much energy there is in each one of these founders, all the things they're doing to make an impact in the world. And so, yeah, that can feel very energising and motivating and positive. So feeling really good.

Ollie Collard: 1:41

We've actually been doing a bit of work looking back at the entire back catalogue of founded and grounded because, as our regular listeners will know, at the end of every episode, we ask our featured entrepreneurs for one piece of advice. And now we've actually nearly clocked up 99 founders who've been on the podcast, and we're actually going to be putting out a special episode featuring all of that advice in one episode, which will be available for an audio download. And we're also going to be doing a fun video to help promote the nice nine founders piece as well. Yeah,

Dr Becky Sage: 2:16

I'm looking forward to everybody getting to see that I've seen the props, and that's all I'm gonna say there's props. So we still have another founder for this season. So who are we talking to this episode?

Ollie Collard: 2:31

I was speaking to Alfie bottom, who is founder of alpha Technologies, a recruitment company, but Alfie has got a very interesting background. And he's also over a young entrepreneur as well. He

Dr Becky Sage: 2:45

really does have an interesting background. And I'm actually very intrigued how somebody can turn from a celebrity magician into a successful founder. Well,

Ollie Collard: 2:55

we're about to find out. Okay, good afternoon. How you doing?

Alfie Whattam: 3:01

Ali? Thank you for having me.

Ollie Collard: 3:02

It's gonna be an absolute pleasure chatting with you. I've seen lots of stuff that you're doing online, an author, podcast, angel investor, serial business owner, very impressed all at the age of 27.

Alfie Whattam: 3:14

Well, thank you. It's, I mean, it's mostly happened in the past couple of years. But that's, that's like the thing about compounding, right? You know, it starts off slow, it goes kind of, it doesn't go 12345 It goes 124 816. And by the time you're 30, you're at billions. So it goes very, very slow to begin with. And then it goes very,

Ollie Collard: 3:32

very quick. That's why we call it the seventh wonder of the world. Right? Yeah.

Alfie Whattam: 3:35

Compound Interest, seeking what Warren Buffett or Einstein said.

Ollie Collard: 3:39

Yeah. Can you tell me about your journey from celebrity magician to becoming a tech entrepreneur and investor?

Alfie Whattam: 3:48

That's a weird line, isn't it? I was like, I'll give you a very short version of the story. I was born in New York, a lovely place, not too much to do there. Though. I grew up as a kid and a teenager got into magic and performing magic tricks just as you do as a kid, I really fell in love with it, the idea of being able to do the impossible, or at least the illusion of it was very, very cool. And then started to get good and performed shows and parties all around the world for Prime Ministers, billionaires, world leaders, was on TV shows like Britain's Got Talent and had my own show for a while. And that was a lot of fun. To be honest, I really enjoyed the business side of show business a little bit more than the show side. I mean, I still do podcasts and stuff. So I must have a an element of the show left in me skill but enjoyed the business side. So I went into like talent management, not necessarily managing magicians, so I did that for a little while, but there wasn't a lot of money in it and magician management, right? I went into like tech, you know, talent management and recruitment, a lot more scalable and a lot more easier to grow. And to be honest, Tech was my other main passion. I always use tech and digital platforms and social media before it was you know, taking over the world to build the magic might as well so did that for a while and moved to New Zealand, and spent five years working for a big footsie. 250 recruitment agency, started as a trainee and then worked our way up until I was leading a huge team of 50 people across the UK and Ireland and India, and then move back to London. And then a year ago, I a year and a half ago, I left and set up my own agency, which does a similar thing. We build software engineering teams across AI and web three, and, you know, cutting edge technologies. So we help businesses that are using artificial intelligence to discover you know, cancer treatments, we help companies that are building technology to help life go, you know, multiplanetary and get onto Mars and other, you know, cool industry. So this is something I'm really, really passionate about helping to build the future, and scaling tech teams that allows people to do it. And that's my day job. That's what I spend 90% of my time doing. And then I have a podcast, wrote a book, do a newsletter, do speaking, a little bit of investing. And then when I have a few minutes to myself, I've a new dad and a husband. So yeah, there's a few different hats, but it's all those centred around building out tech and business.

Ollie Collard: 6:15

I'm really interested actually, cuz my dad's a kiwi, and I've been there many times. And I think the pace of life is very different over there. Coming back to the UK, was there a culture shock when you came back?

Alfie Whattam: 6:27

Yeah, I would say so I went straight from New York to New Zealand, New Zealand is a lovely place, like beautiful beaches, much better weather than London. And really nice people as well. It's definitely a lot more relaxed in some areas, and London. So I get what you're saying is like a little bit of a cultural difference going straight into the city, and then into the thick of it. But I do love that I have that sort of DNA within me. I think if I sit too long on a beach, I start to go a little bit crazy. I'm always wanting to build I'm always wanting to do I'm always wanting to share. And yeah, just being alone, relaxing, I can't do it for that long, to be honest. So I love New Zealand, I'd love to go back at some point in the future. But for now that the city life and London is a little bit more what I what I'm wanting to do with my 20s, I guess,

Ollie Collard: 7:14

great answer. So I'm really interested to know about what really inspired you to launch Alpha technology and what your ultimate vision is.

Alfie Whattam: 7:23

I mean, spending five years working for a big, big corporate is a great experience, you can learn lots of different aspects of the job, however, you are a small cog in a big machine at the end of the day. And it's very difficult to have impact when you're working for a business, which turns over billions and 10s of 1000s of people. So I wanted just to have a little bit more creativity, I wanted to have a little bit more freedom, I wanted to be able to make higher level decisions without having to get approval from 25 people, right, half of them around the world and different places you never been to. So I started my agency, you know, really to have that more lifestyle, I had a kid at the time that was just born. And yeah, wanted, wanted to be there didn't want to be slaving away. And you know, in an office nine to five. And I really wanted the saying that when you have a startup, it's not nine to five, it's 24/7 really, so maybe I shot myself in the foot there a little bit but it's more flexible, isn't

Ollie Collard: 8:21

it less apparent,

Alfie Whattam: 8:22

I'm my own boss, I can decide when I want to work and and and that sort of thing. It's been great for the first year, you know, we're fully bootstrapped, haven't raised any money, I just put my own cash into it profitable from basically day one. And, you know, being able to make it into into a real business now got a small team in London. We're working with people overseas in Pakistan, in the Netherlands, in the Philippines, in Bangladesh. And we've been able to build something really, really cool on a shoestring budget. And and like I mentioned at the start of this part about compound growth, you know, we from a financial perspective, we're making more like this quarter than we made last year. So you know, it really, really, it starts to stack up once the ball gets rolling a little bit.

Ollie Collard: 9:02

So what makes you stand out from your competitors?

Alfie Whattam: 9:06

I think a lot of people in my industry in recruitment, they don't have a passion for the sector as much as I do. So I love software engineering, I can code myself in a bunch of different languages. Not not not great, but you know, I understand the fundamentals of it. I know more about AI and web three than then half of the AI experts and gurus that you see on online right. And I think that passion that that genuine interest. It really really does bleed into the work. You know, Steve Jobs said when you love what you do, it doesn't feel like work it feels like play and and it allows you to keep going when the times get hard in recruitment. It's a really really tough industry and I see so many people, you know, join they give it a try for a few weeks. They give it a try for a few months. They get hit in the head, they face rejection, they get criticised. They get hung up on the on the phone, and then they just call because they can't handle the pressure. But if you if you love what you do, and if you really enjoy building, you know, exciting, futuristic technology businesses, then that will allow you to keep going when it gets really, really hard Ollie. So I think that the thing that separates me is just, I'm a lot more passionate about the game than almost anybody that I know. And I'm willing to stick it out longer. You know, I did 100 episodes of my podcast, and nobody was watching. And then after about 100 episodes, people started paying attention. Most podcasters they give up on episode two, because they will listen to episode one. And of those people get to Episode 290 9% of them don't make it to Episode 10. I mean, imagine doing 100 episodes, and like, nobody watches it, and you spent 1000s on it, your time, your energy, your effort, the opportunity costs that comes with that. But if you stick it out, and if you're passionate about it, and if you love what you do, then that's your USP, talking

Ollie Collard: 10:53

about passion, I can definitely hear that coming through in your voice in terms of love for the industry. Talk to me a bit about the larger industry of recruitment, though, because sometimes it gets a bit of a bad reputation. So what do you see going on in the industry that needs to change? The

Alfie Whattam: 11:10

recruitment industry is broken, and it comes right from the top. It's these old school legacy directors that haven't done the job in 30 years. They're just in a in a training and strategy role. Whatever the fuck that means, basically, right? Can I swear? Yeah, go for it. Great. Okay. And they have no idea what they're doing the dinosaurs, right. And I saw that in my last business respectfully to those people who I won't say their names out of, you know, out of loyalty, I suppose. But there are some people that you hear what they say. And you just think, what fucking planet are you on? What are you talking about? And some of the stuff is highly unethical. Some of the stuff is borderline illegal. I've seen all kinds of crazy stuff over the years from recruiters calling up over recruiters pretending to be a candidate so they can learn about what jobs that recruiter is representing. I've had even more extreme examples. And I've seen this with my own eyes of recruiters, pretending to be a candidate and going through an interview process with a company to learn about what's happening with the with the business, they can gather that Intel, give it to a colleague, and then they can go and target that business with suitable CVS based on the information they've acquired. Right? The big recruitment companies out there, they are pulling these scams, and it's making them billions, right? With alpha, we wanted to be more genuine, we wanted to be more ethical. We wanted to change the sector, and really disrupt that really bad way of doing things. Recruiters have a bad name. And it's well deserved because of the amount of illegal and unethical shit that happens. Right? So I wanted to really come along and say, Look, we won't, we won't do anything unethical and break the law to get a short term win. We'd much rather play the long term. And that might mean slower growth to begin with. But it's a people business people buy from people that they like people buy from people that they know, and people buy from people that they trust. And if you can do great service for somebody, and they understand that you're doing it properly, they'll come back to you, they will refer you to other people. And ultimately, that is how you will win.

Ollie Collard: 13:14

And there's good people in every industry, undoubtedly, but how long do you think it will take for the industry to change its reputation and its spots?

Alfie Whattam: 13:24

Well, there are a lot of new, younger, exciting founders that are doing it properly. And they are adding value through events for the community through podcasts and building real relationships with the industry. And then they add so much value that the potential customer base almost feels guilty if they don't want to partner with them. And that's our approach and our content lead community led strategy rather than just having a list of the Yellow Pages and just calling through and spamming and spamming and spamming and sending out CDs and hoping if you throw enough shit at the wall for some of it will stick. Right. And thankfully, I do believe that as you know those older, more legacy mindset people, you know, fade away. The new generation will will replace those people but it's going to take a long time to be honest. Unless we have some cutting edge breakthrough in chat GBT seven or something that that replaces the need for for recruiters that replaces the need for podcasters. That replaces the need for people who knows where it's going, but I think it will take a while. I'm just I'm just excited that we can be part of that that change a shift in mindset.

Dr Becky Sage: 14:35

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Ollie Collard: 16:43

Yeah, it was really interesting to me Alfian person so seen a lot of his content online, sometimes you build up a perception about someone based on what you've seen. Now, I saw firsthand the kind of fire in his belly, that conviction in his eyes. And the determination was, quite frankly, scary, but also really encouraging to see in such a young person. I think Alfie is going to be definitely going places with his businesses. I think he is very driven. And he knows what he wants from life, which is which is important.

Dr Becky Sage: 17:16

And something that came out loud and clear in terms of what he wants is disruption. I think he's, as you said, that fire is very clear. I could always almost imagine him in the workplace as he was talking, imagine him in a more in a traditional workplace, and getting very frustrated by systems processes, seeing things being done in a certain way that perhaps don't appear to be effective. And thinking actually, I can go out and I can disrupt it, and I can do things better. And this is often the driving force for the founders that we know and that we talked to.

Ollie Collard: 17:50

Yeah, I think in Alpheus case, you know, a short career in recruitment, obviously very successful running international teams building out millions of pounds as a top consultant, and he's just gone, well, why can't I do this for myself, and he's done it.

Dr Becky Sage: 18:07

I thought it was brilliant, because I do recognise those feelings. And particularly when I was younger, I guess, because that's when I was working in roles for other people. Having those feelings, having that frustration, feeling like you're working really, really hard. And you've got so much more you could do. And feeling like there's a ceiling on that or feeling like you're sort of being trapped, and you're not able to do what you want to do. And so definitely that that motivation was something that led me into entrepreneurship. But I should say as well, you don't have to be young to disrupt. And as somebody who's who's got more, not quite a couple of decades, older than Alfie, but certainly got a good good decade or so. on him. I think that I did want to also say that, just because we're a little older doesn't mean that everyone's a dinosaur.

Ollie Collard: 19:01

There are social and I think if you look at the research of, you know, founders and what age a successful entrepreneur usually is, is around 42, I believe, but I think that's a great thing about entrepreneurship, right? You can start at any point you can be retired, you have to look at, you know, KFC when that was started, other businesses, you know, people can be in their, their late 50s 60s. It can be people who have just left school at 16 with no qualifications like that is the barriers to entry in the world of entrepreneurship. Anyone can do it with the right mindset, the right beliefs, the right vision, and the drive within them, which obviously Alfie has got an abundance. And I think what's really good about what he's doing, he's building this whole content strategy around his business. And, you know, the world of recruitment has got a bit of a bad name for various reasons in terms of like, the way in which they conduct business. You obviously We'll get to that later in the podcast won't give too much away. But what I think he's doing is very powerful. And in terms of bringing people to him, he's creating that inbound demand, rather than doing that kind of cold, traditional outreach in terms of marketing.

Dr Becky Sage: 20:15

Yep, is something that several of the entrepreneurs that I work with, myself included, I think we really believe in the power of a content strategy and more of that inbound work. It's not always easy to do, though, right. And I, one thing I thought, again, was, it was very motivating, was when Alfie said that he did 100 episodes of his podcast and no one was listening, and it took to that point to kind of then get that traction and start to get more take up. And so I think there's something very motivating in that. But I also think there is sort of some words of caution here as well, in the sense of content is, as a strategy is all consuming, I think, if you're going to do it, and you expect to make that impact, you can't really let off. And this is where I definitely fall short is I've got so many things going on. And you know, maybe there's just excuses. But I definitely have times when I'm like yeah, content pushing loads out there, and then times when I'm doing a lot less of it. And of course, that then means that you sort of almost have to start again, in terms of like maybe putting in that work in order to suddenly get those bigger moments. But do you think that there's things people should be cautious of in terms of having a content strategy?

Ollie Collard: 21:38

I think it comes back to that consistency, as you say, they're like, if you're going to go for it, then you really do have to be consistent. I think we're, we're all guilty of it falling off the bandwagon and starting again. But to make that bigger impact, you do have to have that consistency. I think that's one of the hygiene factors, which you definitely have to have out there as a very minimum. And then obviously, you're talking about, you know, knowing your audience very well, what, what resonates with them, you know, what's trending? Can you jump on the back of anything that's in terms of newsjacking? Like, how are you positioning yourself, there's so many facets to it. And it's not easy to do, I think, if you're just looking at all these people who have gone viral, sometimes if you're not putting content out there yourself, you're kind of thinking, God, this looks really easy to have to create a couple of videos and go viral and they get my claim to fame. But it is it is not like,

Dr Becky Sage: 22:33

I find that you have to have or certainly I go through phases where I'm like, okay, my brain is kind of in content mode. But it has to have a certain amount of space, and I have to have a certain amount of momentum. And I have to have a strategy and a plan around it in order to be in that place. And then yeah, like I said, as soon as certain things have been very busy times happen with the other aspects of my work, and then it just, it just stops it. So I think, yeah, like you said, people need to be really aware that it takes a lot. But it can be a very useful strategy. And actually, you don't have to go viral in order for content to be something that is useful for you as a business owner. And I think that that's also so another thing to bear in mind is like, what is the purpose of that content? And if you aren't just kind of throwing stuff out there to see what sticks. That's not probably going to be as helpful as actually understanding what's the role that this is playing for your business.

Ollie Collard: 23:33

I think of his point of quantity, and being productive in terms of putting stuff out there is really important. I think if you're doing anything in life, like you should aim for that 100 mark, wherever it's doing your podcast, it's doing sales calls it speaking to investors, like, you can only get an objective response after you've done the work. Like and it's hard if you're getting a lot of nose stuff isn't sticking, like it's easy to just stop. But then that comes back to what we talked about time and time again on this podcast is that, that perseverance, getting knocked down, getting back up again, and going again. And I think you need that minimum of 100 of anything that you're doing in life. And the quicker you can get the quicker you can learn about what works and what doesn't. You're

Dr Becky Sage: 24:19

motivating me now to be like, let's have a streak of 100 on all of my different content pieces and see if that helps. It's certainly getting there and founded and grounded. Yeah,

Ollie Collard: 24:30

we are nearly there. And I think, as our listeners know, we do aim for very high production standard. So we do actually record our podcast in two separate recordings. So we have the interview of the guests, which is why you always hear me speaking to the founders, Becky goes away, analyses all those conversations, take some notes puts all of those thoughts and business learnings into our production notes, which are then reviewed by myself. We then go into the studio again, have another recording session. And then that's all edited together in a very seamless, free part podcast, which hopefully our listeners will appreciate. And yeah, so if we look at the number of podcast episodes, you can pretty much double that in terms of what we've actually done in terms of recording. And

Dr Becky Sage: 25:16

you've been there for everyone. So congratulations on doing that. And I only hope maybe I'll be with you for the next 100 or 99 episodes. Let's hope so. The other thing you just talked about there, which I think people can really take, take in terms of making that content easier, is you just described the process. And I think that's what makes this easier for us is we know what it is we're doing what we have to do for each episode, what our responsibilities are. And that's certainly what it means, I find that that makes it a lot easier as well, because there's this clear process, there's a clear shape and format that we're using. And then you just know you're replicating that all each time. So all we need to focus on is the the actual content. And that kind of what we're going to say around the content, rather than having to think about the process or the structure or the format every single time, which I think can make content very difficult. Yeah.

Ollie Collard: 26:18

And that ultimately becomes your intellectual property that that process of how you do things like you say, we've got a very slick process now. But that's been honed over five seasons with three different co hosts. I've been challenging times in between that. And I think that now we're very clear on how we record content, what the production looks like, what the process is, you know, we've mapped out our production dates at the start of season five, which goes out this episode on the 10th of June. And we knew that from the start of the season. And we've got people to be responsible to in terms of sponsors, and they're expecting certain standards in terms of those episodes, when they're going out, the guests that we're featuring. So you do have to become quite methodical in terms of content production. And what I think where the magic really happens is when that process turns into a habit, and you don't even have to think about it. It's like, you know, if you're a pilot and flying a plane, they've got a checklist of everything that they have to do. But that is their process, right. But that is clearly defined. And everyone is following the same rules.

Dr Becky Sage: 27:24

Absolutely. And I think that applies across a whole business route as well. I mean, we're talking about content, but the more you can get to that point, I mean, doing it once you know what the business is, and, and what it is it's trying to achieve. But the more you can get to that process, the operationalization, the easier it's going to be to show up the other factors that make content really easy. Or if you have energy and confidence. And those are two things that I feel like Alfie has in abundance. So I'd love to hear more about the network that he's got around him that allows him to then show up with this energy and confidence.

Alfie Whattam: 28:05

I like to surround myself with people that are doing 10 times better than I am, right, I always want to be the most stupid person in the room. Because it's a great thing for your ego, if you're like, you know, the God of the room, but it's not a great thing for your future. Because you are, you know, the cliche is true, you are the average of the five people that you surround yourself with. And for a lot of people listening to that, for a lot of people hearing that, that's challenging, because, you know, I was a kid growing up in New York, and I didn't know anybody around me that was doing anything remotely interesting. You know, my friends, were working in Tesco or, or whatever. And that's cool. But it wasn't what I wanted to do. So initially, I would read books and biographies about people like Steve Jobs, people like Elon Musk, and listen to podcasts, you know, Tim Ferriss, or, you know, the all in podcast is one that I love at the moment. And if you surround yourself by that virtual network, if you surround yourself by people through those books, it's almost like having that community around you. But it's not quite as good. But it's almost there. So that's a good starting point for people to follow. But for me, personally, I love going to different events for founders, different events for leaders, different CEO meetings and networking groups, and just people in my sector of tech in my sectors of content that that want to push and want to challenge and I always want to be the most stupid person in that room so I can I can learn and not being afraid to ask super, super basic questions. You know, how, what do you mean by that? Can you tell me more about this? Does that make sense? Like super vague, open ended questions and then just shutting up letting them speak? You know, two ears, one mouth like I do not have all the answers. I don't have 1% of the answers, but somebody out there does. And I will find that taken see and I will find you

Ollie Collard: 29:58

agree to have there Have a and I'm interested to hear about one of your favourite failures so far, and what were the lessons that you took from it?

Alfie Whattam: 30:07

I think in the early days of building my company, I tried to do everything myself. And I mean, everything I went pure micromanagement, a thumbnail needed designed, I was a guy, right? Every customer support email, right, that was my job. And I was burning myself out working 100 hours a week, and, and running on a hamster treadmill. And I really had to kind of escape that, that that mindset. And that's when I started to delegate more. That's what I started to automate. That's when I started to systematise. And really build out a team. So it was definitely a failure. Not necessarily some huge thing that I that I failed and had to recover from, but it would have been if I didn't quickly change it. So I think it's an important lesson for any founder, really, don't try to do everything yourself. Look at the schedule, look at your calendar, write out your to do list, and immediately start crossing off things that somebody else could do, whether that's a person, or whether that's technology, and then start delegating, you know, you need to work out what your time is worth per hour. And you know, work out how much money you're making in a month, divided by the amount of hours that you're working. That's your hourly salary. And if you can afford to hire somebody for less than that money, and if you don't, you're literally leaving money on the table, or throwing it away. And when I when I started to realise this, everything changed. And I was like, Alright, I'm never ever again, am I cleaning my apartment? No, never ever again, am I you know, copywriting for LinkedIn content or whatever. There's somebody out there that's better than that than I am. And they can do it for a lower price than it would take me to do it myself. And all that money that I can save, I can reinvest it back into the business, I can spend it on having a great life with my wife, and my kids and all of that stuff. So I think the failure was was ego, the failure was, was thinking I was the best at everything. And in reality, the only thing that I was the best that was was was was none of that really, I really needed to just start spreading the load a little bit. But as soon as I did, everything changed.

Ollie Collard: 32:13

I completely agree with that. And I think, yeah, once you get to that point where you do delegate, the returns are exponential, as you say. But I also do agree with the fact that you learn how to do everything for yourself. So when you did outsource it, you knew exactly what you wanted from that third party.

Alfie Whattam: 32:32

Yeah, a lot of the time, people tried to delegate, and they don't know what the person needs to do. So they're gonna get ripped off, they're gonna get scammed, they're gonna get lied to. I've seen it happen 100 times. And now when people try and do it to me, I'm like, Look, I can't do this task myself. I'm not hiring you to do it because of your skill or because of your expertise is because of time. So you know, either you see what you do all day, every single day, you're a specialist in this area. So if you can't do it better than me, and if you can't do it faster than me, then then what are you doing? So yeah, I completely agree. So

Ollie Collard: 33:07

Alfie, for founders who are actively growing their teams, what is one recruitment mistake that they must avoid?

Alfie Whattam: 33:15

The most common mistake people make when recruiting is that they think that they're going to get the best people on the market. By having this weird seven stage process which involves video interview, a face to face interview, a team's meeting, a technical tester, a psychometric assessment, 10 reference calls, and I don't know looking at their birth certificate. It's the most weird thing in the world. And the best companies, the most successful companies, the fastest growing companies, the most exciting businesses, they all have one thing in common. And that's that they move quickly. Look at the whole Sam Altman thing with open AI the other weekend, in a weekend, he was fired from open AI hired to Microsoft, and then hired back to open AI and like 24 or 48 hours or something, right? Good talent gets snapped up fast. If you have some weird five stage process, because you're trying to get the best people, the only thing that's going to happen is you're going to get the worst people because all the best people are going to be snapped up after the second stage. And the people that you're left with at the end of that process, are gonna be the people that nobody else wanted. So unlike saying blanket statements like that, look, again, like you know, it's not a solid rule for everything. I'm just talking for the vast majority of people, right? And the vast majority of situations, good talent gets snapped up really, really quickly. And they don't need to apply for jobs. They don't need to be going through indeed they don't need to be on LinkedIn clicking apply, apply, apply the best people. I've got over recruiters over people going after them trying to convince them so if you try to build the best tech team or whatever team possible, don't just put up an advert and and hope and pray that the the AES players are going to come and run to your doors. It's not going to happen. You need to hire a specialist, you need to hire a headhunter somebody that understands the market, somebody that's got 1000s of connections and relationships and you know, deep, deep, deep network in that space that they can go, Okay, you need to hire this, you can pay this this location, you know, this, this criteria, these are the top three skills, instantly, I can tell you who the top five people are in that city, I can tell you these two are not interesting, because I'm not looking right now this person is asking for too much money. But these are the two that you need to speak to. And it looks like the recruiter has done 10 minutes of work. But in reality, they've done years of work of relationship building to get it to that point, and you're paying for the speed, you're paying for the for the efficiency, or you can try your best to do it your yourself and you can spend a long time going for a five stage interview process, you're left with somebody average, and then the cost that that person would then bring your business by the negative cost is, is so much more than the fee that you would pay for a recruiter or a specialist to do that task for you. Not to mention on top, the opportunity cost because if you're spending all your time doing the job of a recruiter, it goes back to what I was saying a second ago how you know you're doing something which isn't in your skill set, and you could hire somebody else and, and save money in the grand scheme of things. So that's the biggest mistake, people think I shouldn't use a recruiter because it's going to cost me money. In reality, not not using a recruiter that's going to cost you a lot more money. What

Ollie Collard: 36:25

are the other objections you hear aside from budget and costing a business money?

Alfie Whattam: 36:30

You know, a lot of people, they have an internal recruitment team as well. And that's, that's cool. Sometimes you can have a really, you know, excellent motivated team of recruiters internally. The challenge with that a lot of the time, is they're only representing one business all day, every day. So they don't have access to certain different candidates that perhaps would only be interested in other companies. You know, if you're, if you're working for a health tech business, and people you're advertising for, for jobs, and people are coming your way that are interested in working in the medical field, they're interested in working in life sciences, whatever, you might not get access to some incredible AI talent that only wants that industry, but because I understand various sectors, I can then move people around, convince them about why your company is, you know, is something that they'll be appealing to that person. So, you know, I guess it's just not limiting yourself to a specific poll, you know, opening up your reach, not getting the best candidate on the market, but getting the best candidate in the market, if that makes sense.

Ollie Collard: 37:33

100%. So after you became a parent recently, so firstly, congratulations. Secondly, I want to know how this has changed your outlook on life and approach to business. Yeah,

Alfie Whattam: 37:47

it's, it's wild, right? You got two kids. I got a one year old, I got a puppy as well, I thought that would be actually it's not a puppy anymore. He's almost free now. But you know, you, you think that's like training to be for the kids. But it's completely different. But it's, it's so much work. Like, if you think building a company is hard. Building a family is is you know, a completely different set of challenges, right. But also the most rewarding thing that you can do in the world. I know, it's a cliche, it's what everybody's gonna say people with kids are like, yeah, like, I gotta get people without kids. Like, you know, I've heard this a million times, it's impossible until you've actually got a living, breathing life form in front of you which which came from you. And if you don't feed it, if you don't look after it, it's kind of like that, how you have to keep it going, you have to keep it happy. You have to keep it alive and healthy. It's so much work. So having kids is probably the hardest thing that you can do. But also the best thing, I think, I would love to have more. I'm hoping we can have another one this year, maybe next year. And then potentially more after that. I think for a while I was like, let's let's keep it at one, maybe two. But now I think the more the better man hips like, it's like pure love. So why not?

Ollie Collard: 39:00

I'll come back to you in five years and see where you are on that answer.

Alfie Whattam: 39:04

30 Alphys around the world.

Ollie Collard: 39:07

Excellent. So building a business can be all consuming. I want to know what's a sacrifice that you've made, either consciously or unconsciously. That's something

Alfie Whattam: 39:17

that people don't understand that they think that you can start a company, and that you can still go out every Friday and Saturday night and have fun with the boys. They think that you can still play video games when you're tired. You know, they think that you can still watch movies and TV shows and binge Netflix. Like if you think you're going to build a company that's going to be successful. And if you think you're gonna be have to do all those things that you did before, then you are like fucking deluded, like you are completely full of shit. Like you have to sacrifice things to build a company because you have to work harder than the next person. Like somebody else is working on probably the exact same thing that you're working on. And they are trying to take away your lunch. They are trying to steal the money from your children basically Right. So you have to work harder than than the other people in the room. People don't like to talk about like hustle culture or whatever. But I mean, there is a, there's a bit of reality to the fact that if you want to work like three or four days a week, and you want to build a company, like good luck, like, you might be able to do it, I can, like, I have no idea how you'd be able to do that. Like I, you know, it's not uncommon for me to work six, seven days a week, and, you know, like, crazy, crazy hours. But I do it because I want to not because I have to, and goes back to what I mentioned earlier about loving what you do. But yeah, like, there's so many things that I've sacrificed so many things I've given up, I used to live like chilling out and playing video games, or whatever it is, I don't have time for anymore, but it you know, the what I want to build and what I want to become, and what I want to share, to me is more valuable than than the other stuff. So, you know, it's a question that you need to ask yourself before you go on that journey, like, like, Am I really, really willing to give those things up? And if you're not, then you shouldn't start because you will fail?

Ollie Collard: 41:03

What are you afraid of?

Alfie Whattam: 41:06

I'd probably say dying, really. Like, I went through this really weird period of time when I was like a teenager, when I was like studying how to, like, live forever, I'm still really interested in that sort of stuff I love, like ag one and I meditate every single day and begin to like gratitude journals and visualisation. And, you know, mental health is just as important as a physical health, right. So, you know, I work out every day, but you're working out on the body is only one thing working out on the mind. And like the soul is like, just as important, really. So, you know, I was afraid of like, of like dying and, and dying without achieved anything without, like, fulfilled anything. And it's a bit of a weird thing for like a 15 year old or a 16 year old to think about, but that like existential crisis of like, like, like, why am I here? Like, what is the meaning of life? And, you know, nobody knows, really elite like, it's, it's like one of those things where people can say that they've got all the answers, and it's just religion, or it's that philosophy or whatever. But in reality, it's impossible to really, really give you like a definite answer on why we're here. You know, what is reality? Like? What the fuck is this? Like? What are we doing right now we like to advance monkeys speaking through mics, with technology with invisible signals going into the the space into satellites, beaming down onto people's phones that they've got stuck in their pockets all day. And it's showing my face right now on a screen in some in a different country. Like, wait, what is this, like? We are extreme bacteria on a huge circular spaceship called Earth flying through the universe, which is infinite, and nobody has any idea what's going on? Right? So, like, my biggest fear is like, what is that? Like? What are we doing? Like? Like, what happens when you die? Is it just nothingness? Is it to to go somewhere else? Is it the next, you know, plane of reality? Who knows? I think the fact that you don't know, it's beautiful, because knowing that you're going to die is like, it allows you to appreciate life. But at the same time, I just started want to know what happens next. I'm like, like, there's probably quite a deep answer. But you might be my biggest fear. I mean, like, you know, I think a failing company, of course, you know, having some crisis with my family. Of course, that will be terrible. But, you know, you know, on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? Like the willingness to feel important and understand what's happening that's like the pier and then the tip of the iceberg.

Ollie Collard: 43:33

So it's talking about that self actualization at the top of the triangle that's fast forwards to your funeral. What would it legacy mean to you leaving a mark on this world?

Alfie Whattam: 43:46

Well, if you can really, really work out the radical life extension stuff, then you wouldn't have a funeral? Or do he has it figured out a way to reverse ageing? Or trans you know, like, transfer your consciousness into some AGI machine or something? So, I don't know, maybe, maybe won't be there. But, but yeah, but realistically, everybody else that's ever been born has died. So statistically speaking, it's going to happen. I don't know. I mean, like, the argument could be that if it's your funeral and and you're experiencing nothingness, then then who gives a shit because you're not going to be there to experience it. Right? I guess you just want to make sure that the people that that you love and that you care for a happy and supported and you know, and they don't have to think about money or, or stress or experience the challenges that you experience, you know, a lot along the way. So, I guess, you know, the most important titles really are a dad and father and you know, Granddad or whatever, hopefully at that point, great granddad or something, you know, entrepreneur, investor, speaker, podcast, host author, all of that falls away in the, in the face of what's truly important. And you know, I trade All business that, you know, I give all that away for family if I needed to at any day of the week.

Dr Becky Sage: 45:09

Wow, listening to our 30, I get the sense of something that we talk about with all entrepreneurs and leaders, which is this idea of contradictions and different tensions that exist within us. I mean, that conversation that you just had, that we just listened to, was absolutely fascinating and went in many, many different directions. I think that there's this whole mixture of things from kind of wanting things to be big or wanting to leave a legacy do something meaningful. At the same time is kind of saying, if once you're dead, you're nothing so does it really matter to but then also saying, well, family is all that matters, and, and so there's like, all these different things that were going on? What seemingly kind of inside Alfie's head as you were having that conversation conversation, and it was almost like we were listening in on a conversation that he was having with himself. So this notion of being able to kind of carry these different contradictions and to become more self aware and to explore those things. We're all a Pitzer. Matt is doing what we just listened to, I think, did you get that sense when you were talking to him? I

Ollie Collard: 46:18

said, it was nice to hear his kind of internal monologue there of his thoughts and feelings. And you know, your priorities do undoubtedly change throughout the course of your life. I know he's recently had a baby. And obviously, that is a massive milestone. And, you know, that probably completely changed his focus on what does really matter. But is it business? Is it whatever it is, is it content, but ultimately, it's now refocused on his family, the takeaway that I took from it is that we've all got limited time like you, you've got to achieve what you want to achieve, right? Otherwise, ultimately, what is the point? I mean, there's a deep, probably philosophical question to be answered there. But I think, you know, Alfie's fought about it, which is the main thing

Dr Becky Sage: 47:03

when I was listening to him, and he was talking about existential crises. And, again, I mentioned this just now when we were talking, but he really reminded me a lot of a lot of the things I felt previously, all of the time, and that I feel kind of less now, which is kind of interesting, because as you get older, you'd think that you kind of feel like you're more in a race, but I kind of don't feel like that so much now. But I did get this sense of this kind of like, we how do we do something meaningful? And I think with so many entrepreneurs are driven by this, this is the engine inside us of like, things aren't enough right now? And how do I, you know, go about creating more impact? How do I go about creating meaning for my life, and actually, things feeling quite meaningless some of the time. And this is actually something that's come up for me. Again, recently, like I said, this happened less and less as I've got older. And I think that comes from being more and more in alignment and knowing yourself better, and being able to create your life in such a way that it kind of is fulfilling the things that that are important to you, and perhaps even just understanding better, what's important to you. But as a human, I think we're always gonna go through these phases where we really do question, what am I here for? And, and what is this all about? What's the meaning of life was so just but you're gonna, and I actually do believe that the meaning of life is to essentially kind of listen to yourself, know yourself, and figure out how you, you aren't going to make an impact in the world leave it a little bit better than you found it, if possible. And recently, I definitely have been finding that, I think, because I'm quite busy. And this is the ebbs and flows that we've talked about in previous episodes as well. Sometimes you find yourself so busy that all you're doing is the like, day to day productivity, getting stuff done. And you sort of forget to step back and just go hang on a second, who am I like, what do I need? What do I want? Am I dreaming anymore? You know, and and I've recognised that in myself recently. The I don't know, is this things that you experienced as well?

Ollie Collard: 49:20

Well, you definitely got to take that time to obviously reflect on how far you've come already, because I think that's mightily important. But also having a clear understanding of what the end goal actually is like, what does success really look like for you? Because if you don't define that, then how are you going to know when you get there? Because lots of business owners will, you know, it might be an exit or it might be growing to a certain size of the business, whatever that is. But ultimately, you will end up with a feeling of wanting more and more and more. If you're not clearly defining what success looks like on your own terms.

Dr Becky Sage: 49:57

It's something that I've found is that I often might hit certain success criteria. And certainly Yeah, like you said, if you look back and say, Where was I a year ago? Where did I want to be now? Or where was I 10 years ago? Where did I want to be now? And you can look at that and go, Oh, yeah, I like that I did this, this, and this, isn't that great, I'm getting to do all of these different things, look at the work, I get to do look at the people I get to work with, etc. Look at the money, your business is bringing in, whatever, whatever it might be. And I think that some of these moments of existential crisis, or you know, perhaps not that extreme, but some of those moments are about also reevaluating your success criteria. Because that's, that's definitely something that I realise is, and sometimes our goals are around those hygiene factors, and just the things that we need in our life. And sometimes our goals are about something bigger, something, you know, a bigger dream, a bigger goal that you want to hit. And I think that sometimes those things need to interplay. And you're not always able to kind of go for those really big things, even though I know that we talk about you always kind of going back and thinking about how you can get back to those bigger goals. So bigger dreams, thinking, big thinking, big impact. So I think that there's having these conversations and sort of almost like Alfie allowed us into in this podcast, is something we sort of always need to come back to within ourselves. I

Ollie Collard: 51:31

think what you said Diabelli, about constantly re evaluating them as well as is critically important. And I think we talked about in the previous episode, but like, What is happiness, like, it's the pursuit of working towards your your goals and trying to enjoy the journey. And I think as long as you're enjoying it, you're happy. You've got your goals in place, then that's, that's what matters. Yeah.

Dr Becky Sage: 51:56

So one way that you can get to your goals. And certainly we've heard this from many of the founders that we've talked to, is to think big, and then not to do everything yourself. And Alfie gave us a bit of a checklist really here around how you can do it. So if you wanted to go back to that, and say, this idea of write everything down that needs to be done, and cross off those things that you can get somebody else to do. And whether that be a machine, whether that be a human so that that automation, prioritisation, delegation, simplification as well, all of these things are really going to help you. And actually maybe that gives you a bit of headspace to do some of the other thinking we were just talking about as well. Alfie

Ollie Collard: 52:43

is right here. Like if you want to grow, there is a ceiling limit on what you can do. So it is about delegation and outsourcing and getting people to do stuff for you if you want this exponential growth, because otherwise it isn't, isn't possible. He gave it actually a funny example of, he recently employed a cleaner in his house, and he's got all of these fake plants, and she was going round and watering them, which I thought was quite funny. But it is true in life, like, you've got to put a price on your time, I think every entrepreneur should be doing that. And if you've got the resources at your disposal, then knowing what that time is worth. And then if it's not worth your time, and you can do it, then it is best to outsource it. But the critical point is you should be aware of how to do it in the first place. So if you're talking about doing some video editing, and then working with a media agency, like you should know the basics yourself, first of how the process works, in order to outsource otherwise, if you're doing these things and outsourcing stuff, then you're probably going to be taken for a bit of a ride. Yeah, I

Dr Becky Sage: 53:50

thought that point, then you brought this up in the interview as well was really important. And I think by doing that, by by kind of getting your hands in first and having an understanding, it really helps several aspects of delegation. Not only does it give you that knowledge, but it also means that you can ask the right questions such that you can trust people more easily because of course, you want to be able to trust people when you're bringing them on board to help you out. But I think it also helps you to understand where your where your energy is best used, the things you enjoy the things where you can make a bigger impact and make a difference. And that might actually be in something that you haven't realised. And so there's almost this privilege of being a founder in the early days of sort of getting to get your hands into everything in every aspect of your business, try lots of different things. And then you realise Angeline on this stuff over here. I probably should keep hold of it, even though maybe it's something that you've only just developed a new skill and, and other people might be able to support you in that. But actually, you know, you've learned along the way that this gives me energy. It motivates me and I've got the skills to do it. So I think that is such an important point that you raise, do have an understanding of all the aspects of your business before you start to just shove it off to everybody else. And

Ollie Collard: 55:10

just the caveat that you're not going to be an expert on everything. So as an example, one of the things that I hated initially, when starting a business was like search engine optimization is a bit of a black arts, like it's not really known. So you do some reading on it about keywords and meta tags, and all these things. And it's, obviously a long strategy that you have to invest in over time, in terms of writing blogs, and content, stuff like that. And that was one of the things that actually, I was really happy to push away to somebody else, because it didn't excite me, it didn't make me happy, like, I just didn't enjoy it.

Dr Becky Sage: 55:46

Shout out to all those people out there who get excited by SEO, there are some that definitely awesome. So I'm really intrigued to find out more about where Alfie wants to go next, I honestly, I'm genuinely not sure what this is going to look like, in terms of what the next steps are for this business and, and where his thinking is. So let's go and have a listen to the next part of his story.

Alfie Whattam: 56:16

I think we have a scalable business, from the perspective that recruitment is very much a science, like the process is very, very simple. We build really strong relationships with the community, we find the best software developers on the market, across AI across FinTech, ad tech and beyond. And then we can connect them with the most exciting, fastest growing tech teams and companies across London and across the UK, right. And we can train recruiters bring them on board and allow them to do that. So it's very scalable asset. And it's something that we could grow and then have acquired by a much larger agency, you know, in a couple of years, and hopefully, join them and help change the way that the recruitment is done. Doing it on your own, like a David and Goliath situation is a bit tricky, but partnering with somebody else, it's really, really big and, and being able to have an exit to do that, that will be amazing. And then I have a moonshot visions in the future would need a little bit more cash to, to really go after them. So it will provide a nice nest egg for the next stuff. But yeah, I think I think in a couple of years, I would like to have the business, you know, in a much larger team, you know, you know, between, you know, close to 50 people give or take, you know, that will be a great outcome. And then that's the business that which is consistently profitable, which is helping the world and, you know, helping to transform different industries and change people's lives by getting them better careers, transformed businesses, by giving the best people that they need to serve their customers to provide the best products and services and help their economy and their markets more. And then if the big recruitment agency would like to partner with us to help us take that to the next level, then that's something that I'm definitely open to as well. I mean, a lot of businesses have started for the, for the purpose of have the end in mind the exits. And yeah, look at that. It's something that I'm definitely open to,

Ollie Collard: 58:14

how do you see AI and web three technologies evolving?

Alfie Whattam: 58:19

Well, those are two very different questions, you know, AI, is becoming scary, because AI will very soon be creating the next type of AI, which will create the next type of AI that it's unstoppable at that point, unless we start bombing data centres or something, right? Not that I'm advocating for that. But like, we could have a world of pure abundance where everything is, is done for us. But also we could have a nightmare situation where, you know, we become the apes and AI becomes a humans and we become subservient. Who knows if it's going to become conscious, self aware, sentient? And if it does, what's humanity's place on Earth? Web three, slightly different if we're talking about VR and AR those technologies are growing quickly they're always advancing I mean, I'm wearing smart glasses right now I can you know, got cameras and mics built into these I can look at a camera I can say hey, tell me about what what model this camera is. It captures it instantly. It uses a live language model to give me that information that will then give me audio for the for the stems. I mean, that's you know that that kind of smart technology is it's incredible right so we're using AI and and web three and merging them together to understand the world. VR with like the Apple vision Pro is starting to get more mainstream when Apple does something people start to go okay, Apple looked at it let's let's you know, let's pay attention. Apple vision Pro is still pretty primitive. In what in like a Ready Player One situation but when we get the app or vision 12 Or even like three or four, are we going to be spending the majority of our lives Living in a Metaverse type world, the yes might be the answer. And then if we're talking about the other elements of web three, like blockchain, I do believe blockchain technology will change the world, it's kind of gone through like, and with crypto, it's kind of gone up, it's gone down. And then if you look at any kind of hype trend, always has that initial burst, and then it goes crazy afterwards, I got into Bitcoin and Aetherium and Doge and hunt a bunch of other Kryptos super early. So I'm from a financial perspective, and I'm really, really hoping that they continue to grow, right, that could be like, in a retirement plan, backup, like confirmed and after think about that anymore. I do believe it's the future of money, I think governments will fight it and, and, and try to control it, because it's not in their interests to lose power over that, you know, fundamental part of of keeping the people in line. But with the blockchain, you know, even things like like NF T's kind of came and went. But what about if every receipt was an NF T and stored on the blockchain? What if like, in the world of recruitment, or reference checks can be verified on blockchain technology, there's so many, like amazing use cases, which we're going to see over the next couple of years, which will completely change the world. I mean, the future of AI is really, really, really exciting and could be incredible. It could also kill everybody on the planet, the future of web three is, you know, equally just as amazing. But it could also lead towards just being like in a Wally type situation where we're just staring at a screen and and, you know, we're not even like having conversations anymore. Like, why are we here on it while we're having a conversation in person? Because it's better than zoom? And I do feel that some of those web three technologies could make people forget about that. It's almost dystopian, to some degree. If

Ollie Collard: 1:01:48

you had to distil down just one piece of advice for an early stage founder, what would it be?

Alfie Whattam: 1:01:55

I think I'd really, really double down on what I mentioned earlier, in terms of my own personal failing, like, like, don't try to, you know, be the jack of all trades, try to be the specialist and, and know what you're doing and what your customers want. And do that specifically. Because you will very, very quickly make the money to pay for other people to do all the other stuff like you can get an accountant. And you can get a lawyer. You can get like even like if you're a small station it like fractional CTOs and did all that stuff. Like, do not try and do everything, you will pull your hair out, and you'll probably fail. Just just understand what your task is. Do that task better than anybody else, and the rest of the stuff will be sticking out.

Ollie Collard: 1:02:38

And now Fiona, you had a question for our listeners.

Alfie Whattam: 1:02:41

So we talked about AI, on this podcast, Ali? When do people believe AI will become sentient if ever, so if we do like a LinkedIn poll, you got like four options. Maybe we could say, this year, next year, the year after plus, or never, or something like that. Like, who knows, and the sentient is subjective. But to make it very, very clear, I would say that it can think for itself. So you know, you it can talk to you in a way that it's not programmed, it actually has an independent form. Because the ultimate question with AI? Is, is consciousness uniquely biological? Or can it be replicated by a machine if we give it enough computing power? And the answer to that probably is yes. And I know that it's hard to really agree to that if you are like, perhaps religious, or if you really, really believe in the soul or something, but Can a machine have a soul? I mean, what what is a soul? You know, it's an important question. And it's probably something that world leaders need to really start to debate and get around. Right. So when will AI become conscious? Is it this year? Is it next? Is it the year after plus? Or is it never?

Ollie Collard: 1:04:05

Great question. There are three and we get some answers on socials for you. Where can people find out a bit more about Alpha technologies and new personally online, you

Alfie Whattam: 1:04:15

know, Rob, rather than giving you like 50 links, now to say alpha watson.com, I'm sure you can put like a link in the description or whatever. If you go there, you'll have links to everything that I do. That's my recruiting agency, you can check out my podcast, my newsletter, in my book, speaking, we got on every social media platform, we create daily content, YouTube, tik, Tok, LinkedIn, ex, Instagram, whatever. Even if I don't like that platform. We have somebody posting content every single day on there. And then we have a course coming out soon teaching people how to make more money, how to become more successful mindset, how to you know, go from nothing and start a company build something amazing. So that will be out in a few weeks. So probably similar to when when this drops. And yeah, all of those links will be available at Alfie bottom.com. Link below I imagine. Amazing.

Ollie Collard: 1:05:05

Alfie, thank you so much for your time and insights. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. Dawson. Thank you.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:05:14

Thank you, Alfie for that question. Definitely one with food for thought. So if you've got thoughts about when you think AI will become sentient? Do you go over and answer that question? On our socials? One thing this made me wonder, and especially with all the other things that Alfie was talking about, is, don't we talk a lot about this? When will AI become sentient? When will it become conscious? The flip side of it is, as humans, we're outsourcing everything to AI. So something I've been thinking about a lot recently is, when will humans actually lose their consciousness? Because we've outsourced everything to tech. And I think I come from this perhaps naive hypothesis of we actually do want humanity, we want human connection, we can tell when a robots written something. But can we really anymore and actually, especially on social media, are we in fact, more happy to read something that has been constructed by a robot by an AI, because it follows a format that we're now getting very comfortable with? And so we talked so much about, like, the robots, or the AI taking over. But in fact, is what's happening is like, we're allowing that to take over, and it means that we're stopping doing things that make us human. So some food for thought there.

Ollie Collard: 1:06:42

So very deep question back, I think, ultimately, that, you know, humans are always going to want to have that human to human contact. I think, you know, people are what makes the world a great place. You know, there are some, undoubtedly some dangers with AI, which, if we allow it, there could have some really bad consequences. And the technology is evolving so fast, we just don't know when these changes are going to affect our our lives on a day to day basis. So I think that yeah, we just as humans, we still have control of this. But there may be a tipping point. I don't know enough about technology to give you when that's going to happen. But there's some great people out there online if you look them up. Yeah,

Dr Becky Sage: 1:07:30

I think my approach is, was actually kind of reflected in the way that Alfie was talking about technology. And I thought it was very interesting, actually, as though as we delved into the future, really what was coming out for him was a lot of excitement about different technologies. And so I think there's three things that we can think about when we think about technology. And I think that we have to think about when we think about technology, I think one is the kind of tech for tech sake. So just getting excited by kind of what can potentially be done, and playing and being innovative and creative. And I think that's such a wonderful thing about technology. It's exciting, it's fun, and there's just so much scope, you know, is pretty much infinite. Then there's of course, the second thread being tech for impact. And I always think this is very important thinking about why are we actually using this? What's the point? How is this going to benefit us as a society, people plan it, you know, businesses, and of course, the the then the third strand, which kind of the flip side of this is about ethics and technology. And I guess kind of making sure that we're always thinking about what are the potential negative impacts here? Or what are the what are the things that we're doing? And again, kind of with AI, thinking about which datasets we're using, you know, thinking about diversity and representation, like, that's one obvious kind of example of where there can be issues in technology. But I think that that's as, as people actually, as humans in this world, we live in a technical world. And I really think that we have a responsibility to kind of look at all three of those threads and go, Okay, how can like technology as a creative thing, and not not just shunning it? Because that's not going to help anyone. Technology has a positive impact, but then technology ethics, and how can we ensure that we kind of continue to keep our humanity in this world that's technology driven? And so if we all kind of think about that, and take that lesson from Alfie way, and because he discussed all three of those things, I think that that then helps us and it makes the technological future exciting and impactful. And yes, still perhaps a little bit scary, but we're doing it mindfully. And

Ollie Collard: 1:09:53

I think that, you know, using AI for time saving is incredible. Like you're so much more productive and you You can focus on the things that you want to focus on. So I'd say that's the first thing. Second, I think, you know, we are living in a climate crisis right now, every month, for the last 12 months has been the hottest year on record. Like we're gonna see a massive rise in global temperatures, people are talking about anywhere from 2.5 3.5 above the target of 1.5. And, you know, I think technology is hopefully going to play a big part in solving that biggest crisis that we're staring at as human beings right now.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:10:35

I couldn't agree more Ollie is perhaps got us into this mess. And now we need to be thinking in a way where it can really help us to get out of this mess. So if you're interested in knowing more about Alfie and alphatech, make sure you go and check out their links. And Ollie, what are people saying about the last episode that we had from Roy connected? Roy Samuel,

Ollie Collard: 1:10:57

founder of connected OS a killer have a question for you, our listeners, he wants to know if there was just one thing you could bring into your business immediately. As a founder, what would it be? The options he gave were a funding, be talent or see revenue, the results in and 62% of you voted for revenue. Given the current climate, I'm not surprised. That was followed by 23% Going for funding, and the remaining 15% of you voting for Tyler. Thanks for such a crack of regression right.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:11:35

Now, this is a bit of a different question this week, which is tell us about our next guest. So

Ollie Collard: 1:11:40

the first thing to say is that we are going to be launching season six, which we're very, very excited about. I've actually recorded three interviews already that are in the can. So our first guest for season six is going to be a founder called Nick, who has founded a company called optimise a AI. Now they basically use data and AI to help buildings commercial buildings be more energy efficient, which links back nicely to our last point about carbon savings and saving the planet and being more environmental. So really interesting to hear Nick's story.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:12:17

And I'm so excited for season six, because hopefully we can hear about several more entrepreneurs, founders who are doing great things to build businesses and make a positive impact in this world. It's been a pleasure to be part of the whole of a season now. All of season five, can't wait for season six. So thank you for having me. Ali here on founded and grounded. Well,

Ollie Collard: 1:12:41

thank you for joining us, Becky, I know we had a conversation and there was just a connection there and you wanted to get back into podcasting. And I think the stars just aligned quite nicely. And within two weeks, we were recording episode one of season five and I can't believe we're at the end of it. But I'm delighted that you're gonna be joining us again on season six. I can't wait to dive into all these impactful entrepreneurs that are doing big things in this world.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:13:07

And thank you for everyone out there for listening to this episode and for the whole of season five. Don't forget if you like what you've heard, please leave us a review on Apple podcasts. And don't forget there's a big selection of previous episodes just search find it and granted on your favourite podcast player. Thank you for listening to find it and grounded with Ollie collard and Dr. Becky sage. Don't forget to press that follow button to help us to grow the show.