Show Notes
This week on Mr. Beacon, Mark Jacobstein—Co-Founder of Near Horizon and former colleague of Sam Altman—joins us to unpack the evolving venture landscape. We discuss AI’s impact, fundraising challenges, and how his venture builder model helps startups go from idea to execution. Mark shares personal lessons from Silicon Valley, career advice for the next generation, and why staying curious is key. A sharp, insightful conversation for entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone navigating tech’s rapid shifts.
Mark’s Top 3 Favorite Songs:
“Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z_41J-uKPI “The Wheels On The Bus”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_04ZrNroTo “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2X0Gf9jfz8
Mister Beacon is hosted by Steve Statler, CEO of AmbAI Inc. — creators of AmbAI, the AI agent that connects people to products and the brands behind them. AmbAI also advises leading brands on Ambient Intelligence strategy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Mr. Beacon Ambient IoT Podcast
InPlay CEO Jason Wu returns to the Mr. Beacon Podcast with an exclusive announcement: LIVE IoT, a new initiative for secure, interoperable Bluetooth tags. Discover how InPlay’s IN120 chip enables sub-$1 temperature logging, why open standards matter, and how partnerships with Trackonomy and Hubble Network could accelerate Ambient Physical AI and connect trillions of everyday objects to the cloud.
Ismail Hamdad, Co-Founder of Adsum Networks, joins Mr. Beacon to explore how AI can accelerate IoT firmware development from months to hours. We discuss Adsum’s IoT Decoder, giving AI coding agents the tools and context to work with physical hardware, the future of open IoT development, and Ismail’s journey from telecom engineering to entrepreneurship.
Matt Maupin of Silicon Labs joins the Mr. Beacon Podcast to discuss the evolution from Zigbee to Matter over Thread, the company’s concurrent multi-protocol technology, and its collaboration with Philips Hue. We explore interoperability, wireless reliability, commercial IoT, chip integration, Bluetooth Channel Sounding, and how these technologies can make connected devices easier and more dependable.
Rob Tiffany, Research Director at IDC and author of “Saving the Earth with the Internet of Things,” joins Mr. Beacon to explore how IoT can tackle real-world challenges in agriculture, water, food and sustainable cities. We discuss his 100 practical IoT recipes, pioneering work connecting vending machines, his definition of digital twins, and why combining IoT, automation and AI could unlock enormous opportunities.
What happens when IoT finally gets the connectivity infrastructure it has been waiting for?