#153 – Communication Skills & Nico Rosberg

Good morning everyone,

Hope you’re having a great week!

Here are 5 things I found interesting over the past few days.

Let’s jump in.

read online on my website

read time 3 minutes

#153 – The Rundown:

• Quote: Speech & thought.

• Podcast: DOAC x Vinh Giang.

• Article: Nico Rosberg’s venture capital play.

• Resource: What can Australia build?

• Tweet: Even Stanford computer scientists can’t land a job.

Quote:

Podcast:

The Diary Of A CEO: Vinh Giang

Vinh Giang is an award-winning entrepreneur and communication coach.

You might have seen his viral videos on Instagram (@askvinh) where he has helped millions of people improve their communication and vocal skills.

I seriously cannot recommend this episode highly enough for anyone who wants to improve any aspect of their speaking skills.

My biggest takeaways:

1) Relive a story, don’t report it. Add VAKS (visual, audio, kinetic, smell) details to make story-telling more compelling.

2) Record and review: take 5 minutes each week and record yourself speaking off the cuff about a topic or in response to a ‘conversation-starter’ style question. Conduct three separate reviews: an auditory review, a visual review, and a transcript review. Pick one flaw you identify to work on in the upcoming week.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

[Duration: 2 hours 27 minutes]

P.S. I made a Spotify playlist with every podcast I’ve ever recommended. Hope they bring you as much value as they’ve brought me.

Article:

Nico Rosberg’s Venture Capital Play

A brilliant article by Edwin Smith in Spear’s Magazine covering a sit-down interview with former Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg at the Bvlgari Hotel on a rainy afternoon in London.

After famously retiring from the sport in 2016 just five days after winning his maiden Drivers’ World Championship against team mate and rival Lewis Hamilton, Rosberg sure has kept a fairly busy schedule in his years away from the cockpit.

Perhaps most visibly, his time is occupied as an occasional pundit for Sky Sports at some of the highest profile F1 races on the calendar. Think: Monaco, Silverstone, Monza, Abu Dhabi, Miami, Las Vegas.

However, alongside those commitments, Nico is also the CEO of Rosberg Ventures, a US$200m venture capital investment vehicle for family offices and high-net-worth individuals across Europe.

I know right, pretty cool.

I was particularly intrigued to learn about Rosberg Ventures’ three-pronged investment strategy:

(i) investing directly into private companies and startups like ChargePoint, Vay, Codeium, and Ivy;

(ii) creating a ‘fund of funds’ by deploying capital into leading venture capital funds like Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins; and

(iii) doubling down on breakout companies via special purpose vehicles (SPVs).

In essence, he’s leveraging the reputation he earned during his F1 career to now open doors to both Europe’s most renowned family offices, as well as unique and compelling investment opportunities.

Such a clever play IMO.

Not only are high-net-worths more likely to at the very least take his call due to his reputation, but companies and funds alike are more inclined to accept his capital instead of someone else’s due to the inherent marketability of such a transaction.

I mean, what carries more allure when announcing who participated in your Series B investment round: “Incognito Rich Person XYZ” or “Former F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg”.

But despite this status, I was surprised to learn that even Rosberg is not immune from unanswered cold emails when reaching out to certain companies or investors.

One of the examples he gave was that he made at least five unsuccessful attempts to get into Andreessen Horowitz funds…

Really curious to see how this trend of business-savvy retired athletes continues to play out.

{h/t Mr Family Office}

Resource:

What Can Australia Build?

Came across this really cool resource from an incredibly fascinating non-partisan organisation known as ‘Build Australia’.

Their vision is powerful:

As part of their website, they have developed a series of Projects, one of which is a searchable database tool that lets people discover what goods are manufactured in Australia, with manufacturer links and context.

For example, this is the one they have built out for solar panels:

And each category is interactive with links, descriptions, and company names.

Some other supply chains they cover include houses, batteries, and steel.

Their movement and ‘Build Australia’ stands for is very exciting to me.

Keen to follow closely.

Check out their website for more details.

{h/t Jordy Stoj}

Tweet:

Even Stanford Computer Scientists Can’t Find A Job

This is absolutely wild to me.

A 5.8% placement rate from the most prestigious computer science program in the world…

Although I’m sure there is a meaningful difference between the skillset possessed by a software developer and that of a computer scientist, those statistics seem incongruent with the following graph taken from Redpoint’s AI market update that I shared last week…

{h/t Lulu Ghattas}

Thanks for reading! Grateful for your support.

Stay hungry, stay humble, stay curious. ⚡

In case you missed it, last week’s newsletter covered how Toto Wolff made billions in Formula 1, a note to all beginners, an AI market update & more.

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See you in the next one,

Dimi

(P.S. the best ways to get in touch with me are via email or LinkedIn).