If our last monthly AMA episode was about reacting to recent tech news, this episode of the BetaKit Podcast—where we answer listener-submitted questions—is all about making future tech predictions.
“If Canadian VCs weren’t allowed to talk to journalists anonymously, they would never say anything.”
That’s not to say there isn’t a lot going on in the news. For example, Meta’s stock tanked this week after missing on Q3 earnings with weak Q4 guidance. The drop was was part of a brutal week for Big Tech in general, but then again, Meta is the only company currently dropping $10 billion a year on the metaverse, and also the only company being openly mocked for it by other tech leaders.
All of this prompts a discussion about the prospects for Meta’s metaverse, VR, and metaverses as a whole, which we get into on the podcast. The quick answer: maybe the metaverse we all want will be built by the person who coined the term.
Meta wasn’t the only tech company to post earnings this week, and one might consider Q3 to be a bounce-back quarter for Shopify. You wouldn’t get that impression from Shopify employees themselves, mostly due to very public reactions to a well-written and well-reported feature laying out the conditions for the company’s share price dropping 75 percent from its peak over the last year.
But while Shopify employees are currently tweeting through it, attacking Canada’s apparent tall poppy syndrome (I may write about this in the future), it did produce this gem from the CEO:
I think people like podcasts so much because its the only media like thing that's actually run by builders
— tobi lutke (@tobi) October 28, 2022
Tobi, as a builder with a podcast, I couldn’t agree more. Come on the BetaKit Podcast and let’s discuss why I think Shopify is a better bet than crypto over the next five years (note: this podcast should not be considered financial advice—or advice of any kind, really).
Speaking of financial advice, Rob and I were tasked with predicting whether or not Wealthsimple will become a bank. This is well-worn ground, and prompts the counter question: does Wealthsimple need a banking licence to build a better bank? That question has been asked by CEO Mike Katchen himself, but Wealthsimple’s product roadmap does showcase the benefits of staying on the right side of regulators. Hmmm.
OK, so there’s one big piece of tech news noticeably absent from this week’s episode, featuring the world’s richest person and my favourite social network. Look, we’ve talked about this before and how no good will come from it. But if you want a stronger indication of how I feel, please note that it may not have entirely been a coincidence that we streamed this episode live on LinkedIn (which you can watch here. Sadly the community for business professionals doesn’t seem to allow you to embed video).
Let’s dig in.
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The BetaKit Podcast is hosted by Douglas Soltys & Rob Kenedi. Edited by Kattie Laur. Feature image courtesy Collision.