#founders-ball

#founders-ball

"I felt like that pseudonym gave me some freedom, like some permission to just be my authentic self."

Tim Cook described John Ternus as 'a brilliant engineer and thinker who has spent the past 25 years building the Apple products our users love so much, obsessed with every detail, focused on every possible way we can make something better, bolder, more beautiful, and more meaningful.'

The inaugural WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America will draw approximately 10,000 attendees to San Jose, establishing it as the permanent North American home for the annual congress.

The additional €3 million comes from the European Innovation Council Fund, the investment arm of the EU's EIC that backs European deep-tech ventures, extending total funding to €15 million.

Meta's recruitment of the founding team from Thinking Machines Lab follows a rejected $1 billion acquisition offer, marking a strategic pivot towards talent acquisition rather than outright purchase.

The CIOs I most want to work with are the ones who haven't abandoned either role. They're genuinely curious about how the infrastructure works, not just what it delivers.

I don't take founders here for exercise. I take them here because the controlled environment of a boardroom practically demands rehearsed answers. The trail does not. I don't prepare a script for these walks. In fact, that's the point. The pitch is already done; I know the metrics. Now I want to know the human.

Awards may be encouraging and occasionally useful for visibility, but they are weak indicators of validation and poor predictors of long-term success. In the longevity and healthspan industry, where timelines are long and claims are easy to overstate, venture capital ultimately follows alignment and evidence, not applause received at glitzy industry events.

In an era obsessed with shortcuts, overnight success, and polished social media profiles, adversity is often treated as something to avoid. Something unfortunate. Something that signals failure. That assumption is completely wrong. Adversity is not a flaw in the entrepreneurial journey; it is, in fact, the training ground, the pressure that sharpens one's judgment, accelerates their adaptability and forges the kind of resilience no accelerator, MBA or funding round can manufacture.