Hello and welcome!
My first episode of #OneStepCloser goes live today at 4pm UK time. You can find it here:
This episode was inspired by the time I spent this week with one of our start ups thinking about the difficulties of using AI to replace our behaviours and tasks. And how, particularly reluctant we are when these tasks are associated with our jobs, even it if will save us time, money, and frustration.
AI can already be applied in application specific setting where it significantly outperforms our own abilities. However, in healthcare, slow adoption is often associated with, “well what if it misses something?” Oxipit,the subject of the video, are working to a good model, not looking to replace diagnosis, but instead looking to reduce time spent reviewing healthy patients, currently shadowing radiologist as it learns the ropes and collects data across a number of locations. Oxipit is the very first diagnostic imaging technique certified by the EU, so we are definitely getting #onestepcloser…
What I did this week
This week was my first “proper” week out of post lockdown re-socialising. I spent Thursday in London under the banner of Science Angel Syndicate, speaking with some of our investor members and attending advisory sessions for one of our portfolio companies.
In the evening, we were lucky enough to be invited to an event run by Business Leader magazine, which had in attendance Touker Suleyman, Entrepreneur & Dragon on Dragons Den. Touker shared his start up experience and told us about a time when he had negotiated the buyout of IP, quickly remembering he was probably breaking an NDA by telling the story at all.
What’s always valuable to me is meeting with people at different points of the journey. Whether they’ve found success and have the war stories to share, or are just getting started and help you re-examine the fundamentals, that cross pollination of ideas is really important.
What I learned this week
I’m try to consume a book or two each week. “Consume” because it’s usually via audiobook as it lets me read and go on a run which feels at least twice as efficient. It also let’s me get through a book much faster than I otherwise would. I’ve found 1.35x speed works best.
To keep myself accountable and to share what I learn, I’m going to include a short update here each week.
This week I read “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy (amazon affiliate link) about how small but regular positive behaviours and investments compound over the long term. I liked pretty much everything about this book. It was preaching to the converted by it reawakened a part of me that I had originally honed during my time rowing between 2006-2016. Where the mentality had always been every “hour of training put in the bank now, could be drawn down on during the race.” Any you never know when success will come down to the wire, where hour committed starts to pay dividends.
And importantly, a reminder of a healthy attitude that success in anything isn’t built over night, but instead through a set of small and gradual committed actions. My personal expression of this idea is “Sustained Obsession.” If you can reliably remain committed to a goal or task over a long time period, the odds are in your favour that you’ll achieve something.
Thanks for reading. Catch you next week.
Ben