Pete Blackshaw 00:00
If you look across the United States, you'll see that certain entrepreneurial economies that are moving really fast this is where we're going to plant a flag. And, you know, we're even going to try to convince my friends in Silicon Valley that this under stated under appreciated region in the Midwest can actually be a leader here.
Tom Cain 00:19
Imagine you're the CEO of Cintrifuse, a venture capital fund and Innovation Hub based in Cincinnati, in your hands lies the challenge of transforming a city known for retail, FinTech, health, and logistics into a glowing beacon of startup innovation.
Pete Blackshaw 00:37
New Job creation can happen everywhere. But it has to be approached in a strategic way. You can't create lots of new jobs unless you create new companies. And you can't create new companies unless you create a culture to nurture startups. Post
Tom Cain 00:50
pandemic. you're leveraging these strengths to pivot Cincinnati towards a greener future. Aligning corporations, government and startups towards a common goal. Now imagine the complexities that lie ahead. The shifting startup ecosystem. The rising tide of a AI
Pete Blackshaw 01:12
the chat GPT thing Yes, slapped me in the face like nothing I've experienced. And yeah, it's a disruption at many, many different levels. It is kind of like coming of age is going to be a very rude awakening for brands, especially in impact areas. And what I'm trying to do is train entrepreneurs to use AI to better understand the customer, especially on the complicated issues.
Tom Cain 01:34
The urgency of experienced leadership, and the delicate dance of pairing big corporations with Nimble startups, and threading through all of this, the pressing themes of diversity and sustainability. This is the story of Pete Blackshaw, CEO of Cintrifuse. And this is The Catalyst.
Ben Kaplan 01:59
Pete, when you can't came on the job, and you're looking to make a name for what Cincinnati really is, he had a lot of choices. You could just say, if you've got a start up and you want to grow up, come here, you could be general, or you could be incredibly specific, you ended up going with a more specific route. What were you thinking? And what were the pressures you were facing at that time trying to figure out what is the focus of this new incubator in the Midwest that wants to stand out and be different yet wants everyone to see value in it right away?
Pete Blackshaw 02:29
Yeah. So I was recruited into this job after spending eight years leading digital marketing and digital innovation at at Nestle. And in taking this job, I was given this very unique challenge, which drew me to the job, which was to help make greater Cincinnati, the number one startup hub in the Midwest and a top Innovation Centre in the country. And so when you have a kind of a step change remit like that, you really have to take a step back and ask, like, what is really going to move than eat, you know, and you can't be incremental ism. And I concluded really quickly that a concentration of talent technology and capital in certain areas will drive disproportionate or outsize advantage. And what I mean by that, if you look across, you know, the United States or even outside the United States, you'll see that certain entrepreneurial economies that are moving really fast are kind of tied to certain sectors, not exclusively, but I would characterise them as centres of gravity, they give focus,
Ben Kaplan 03:33
and I'll give you one where I'm originally from Oregon, it's the birthplace of Nike, then you have Adidas USA locating there because they're going to share a talent pool. You have other sportswear companies like Columbia Sportswear, making winter coats and ski jackets there. And it starts to have a little bit of a hub. But it's difficult to create that unless there's raw ingredients there. You shape it, but it almost needs that but yeah, suddenly your job was kind of to do that. But take into account the resources you had. Yeah,
Pete Blackshaw 04:02
it's it's a good example. I mean, sports tech begets sports tech, right? You kind of create this whole, you know, ecosystem. So I looked around and asked myself like, well, what are those strikes? And I quickly kind of gravitated around four areas, one kind of future branding and retail because Kroger and p&g Kroger's. You know, I think the third largest grocery retailer in the world, p&g is the world's biggest advertiser. And so to some extent, like figuring out the future branding and retail is almost a no brainer, just given those to figure that out. And then connected health to really strong health foundations, whether it's, you see, which has gotten a lot of, you know, attention recently because of the role that they played. You know, the recent kind of football football incident. News
04:53
Tonight and Buffalo Bills player Tamar Hamlin who millions watched collapse during Monday Night Football suffering cardiac arrest tonight what is His family is now reporting indicating that his condition is moving in a positive direction. John
05:04
Bush Jr. is a respiratory therapist chosen by UC Health doctors to be part of a special team that handles on field emergencies. For the Cincinnati Bengals, those who know him best say he is so much more.
Pete Blackshaw 05:15
So connected health, big opportunity, a lot of income and strengths there, FinTech, we have a lot of banks and insurance companies, I would almost put that into the disrupter be disrupted, you can't afford not to think Fintech is about 20 25% of all venture capital raise. So you have to play there. But I would say some of that's almost for defensive reasons, because you just simply, you know, a lot of these fintechs are trying to put the big companies out of business. And then the third area is was supply chain and logistics. And what I quickly learned as I got to the region is that, you know, Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, it's a bit of a great supply way to the world, it's really, you know, we're now the home to Amazon Prime. We're one of the top hubs for DHL. I think we're actually the number one ecommerce hub in the country, which kind of gives it a really interesting supply chain element. And so started with those three, Eric four areas. And then post pandemic, I was asked to chair a committee on kind of the future of supply chains. And the whole issue of supply chain resilience was a really relevant topic in the wake of COVID. So I chaired a committee with all the big companies, and a number of startup leaders. And what was interesting as we charted out, kind of the future of supply chains, we kind of broke out the committee into three different buckets. One was tech future of freight. The second was food from seed to plate. And the third one was circular economy and zero waste. And what was interesting is it about 80% of the records that that committee came up with, were about sustainability, I mean, literally carbon neutral last mile delivery. Kroger's trying to figure out the future of fresh and so localised supply chains are really, really important. And then everyone is trying to figure out how to reduce the carbon footprint through circularity, or taking waste out of the system. And so the big aha that went in my head was like, Oh, my gosh, this is an area that where there's obviously a huge need, the supply chain strength is also the green strength. And then I started to look around at all the ESG reports and consumer promises from all the companies, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, like, everybody has to win here. So let's, let's kind of take that and turn it into a growth opportunity. And I mean, it's a little bit tricky, because it's not like you're ruling out other sectors, but that you're sort of saying, Hey, this is where we're going to plant a flag. And, you know, we're even going to try to convince my friends in Silicon Valley, or Boulder, or other kind of green hubs that this under stated under appreciated region in the Midwest can actually be a leader here. And what I realised is that we actually have quite a few advantages, the I quickly learned that we were rated the most sustainable city in the country, even ahead of some of these other cities, largely based on how we are thinking about new builds. So if you look at the new buildings that are going up, incredibly progressive in terms of net zero targets, the way the buildings are made, and so my thought was, okay, let's just double down on this. Let's do it really well. Let's get close to the big companies and figure Okay, as you think about your five year plans, 10 year plans, what role could a start up economy play there? And? And yeah, I think we're kind of I think everybody's kind of bought in, and we're off to the races. And we're certainly thinking a lot about with all you know, there's a trillion dollars in federal money that's coming down across these three big X infrastructure chips and science and the IRA, which is basically a climate Tech Act. So the question is, how can our region and our effort to shine a light around the future of sustainability partner with the government to get there faster? At the end of the day, they're really trying to find, are there hubs within the United States that can really lead and get ahead and set a new standard for industrial policies? That's where I think this is really interesting, but there's definitely trade offs. And I think that you have to focus to when full stop for
09:25
Cintrifuse. It's maybe a large number of stakeholders that you have to align and get on board some say would say more pessimistically, that's like herding cats, others people would maybe be more optimistic. But how do you get what you need when you have big funders of what you're doing? You got government officials that have their own ideas, their own agenda, you have the startups themselves. You have other players, just geographically chambers of commerce, development, all of that. How do you get them aligned?
Pete Blackshaw 09:55
It's a great question. And what's been interesting about this job is that it's really combined my experience in public policy marketing and brand management, and I mean, it's really I mean, there's actually quite a bit of policy and and I started my career working in the California Legislature before I went to before I went to HBS. And that's really kind of come in handy. But yeah, there's a lot of coalition building, but I think all leaders have to, I'm a big future back thinker. Which means that sometimes it's easy to see the easier to see the world, you know, 10 years out than it is tomorrow, I think there's a lot of noise in the presence that really makes it very, very difficult to see possibilities. And so I tried to think about, okay, what's what could that article in The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal look like in five years related to Cincinnati being a green leader, and it's much easier to build a coalition around that that outcome. So one of the things I, you know, sometimes I'll do precisely that I'll like write the article, five years out, and sort of scripted out from a if we do this, this is kind of the outcome. And I did the same thing at Nestle, I did a lot of 510 year forecasting on future food, future of digital within food, but you have to help your constituencies like see the possibilities. And it's a little bit risky, honestly, I mean, you know, throughout my career, I've always lived that tension of being the person that the leader that's too far out there versus the practical, you know, how you're going to sell cases tomorrow. And it's a good tension, I mean, but but but in this role, you really have to help people see around corners, and understand that they may have strengths that they may not realise. Or they may have promises to shareholders that they just haven't quite processed. So companies like Kroger, for example, they're going to have to get beyond plastics, they're going to have to think about circularity just to be competitive. And then it's like, hey, they can go outside of Cincinnati to find those partners to get there. Or we can think ahead and actually build a startup economy around that. With universities, I just had several meetings just now. I mean, I think the universities that figured out the green space are going to get way ahead of the marketplace, I think they're gonna get more federal dollars. Look at John Doerr giving Stanford $1.1 billion, mostly because they decided to create a progressive School of Sustainability. So I do think there's got to be rewards of leadership, and I'm trying to help all the different stakeholders see that, and I may miserably fail. But I'm reasonably confident that really important things are going to come out of it. So I'll give you an example how we brought the city into it. And this is really interesting. Like, you know, my team has done a brilliant job of working with the City of Cincinnati, almost thinking about the city has a lab, I do think cities are really important sources of innovation and the problems that they need to solve could cascade in a lot of directions. So we were brought in to basically lead the nation's first ever hack on litter, which was the number one pain point with residents a cutting across all economic lines. And it was a huge success. We ended up coming up with a number of startup ideas. We got a couple of them funded. We thought about digitalization meats, trash, you name it, and now we're going deep on recycling. But you know, it's not just how do we work with p&g? It's how do we work with the city? How do we bring, you know, the corporates into that model? But you've almost got to figure out there's something in it for everybody. You know, and, you know, even some that are on the you know, there's a very polarising issue, even in the Midwest states like Ohio. And you know, I work really hard to even help sceptical Republican Republicans. I mean, it's a claim and my job is non partisan, but to understand that, hey, your business interests, your desire to get that Intel plant up in Ohio, is inseparable from a sustainable future because any business that wants to move here is looking favourably at Ohio because of climate reasons. And so I you just have to be really smart about how you position it.
14:02
It's an underrated skill for CEOs or any leaders to be able to understand someone's or some organisations motivation to actually understand what is driving this being able to understand it quickly and being able to move people and organisations and things that are entrenched by understanding how motivations can ally and what drives things. And sometimes it's obvious and sometimes it's not obvious. And sometimes you have an organisation, that's one way but you got a new leadership coming up that might think a little bit differently and might be open to your ideas. But this idea of being able to kind of ascertain, how do you do that and do it in a way that enables if you work for an accelerator, your job is to accelerate. So how do you accelerate How do you Yeah, that sounds great, but Pete, it's going to take 20 years to do how do you do in two what would take 20 Yeah,
Pete Blackshaw 15:00
so the big piece and I would say I've, you know, this is probably my most important leadership skill. Even when I was leading back then interactive marketing at Procter and digital Nestle, and now it's Cintrifuse. You have to embrace urgent optimism. It's such an important skill, because you know, innovators like us, we see possibilities and possibilities kind of speak to the optimism that, hey, there's value be created. And there's just like, no question that an area like sustainability is the opportunities in under that tent are just absolutely massive, unlimited, maybe too wide. But the other part is the urgency and this is critical. And it's a little bit it's not just FOMO, it's the sense that, you know, you reap the upside, if you if you act now, or you start the planning now, or you or you stake the claim. Now, it's a little bit of competitive pressure. It's a bit of paranoia that, you know, other states or regions may get there first. And you don't want to scare people away. You don't want to sound like the boy who cried wolf. But it's that combination of urgency and optimism that I think helps to really move the needle it certainly has for me, and again, I don't want to, you know, I'm a crash and burn for all I know, but I believe that it has made a big difference in getting different stakeholders to see the possibilities. And even as we think about federal grants in the US industrial policy. Yeah, there's a real opportunity cost of not moving fast, full stop. So don't seek perfection. See the possibilities, but don't miss the boat. How much
Ben Kaplan 16:51
do you think some of this either pandemic fueled, or corporate regulation, government regulation field exodus of Silicon Valley, and San Francisco, where people can leave it still lightyears ahead of other cities, but still, the fact that venture capitalists are not asking companies knowing that I'll pick up where you are, and come to Silicon Valley, you need to be here? That is a little bit of an outdated mentality that you would have heard 10 years ago, but it isn't there. Now. How much does that create an opportunity for other places to have these a locus of influence in a particular sector?
Pete Blackshaw 17:24
I mean, for a while, we are just kind of considered flyover country. And I think post COVID Everybody's thinking differently about where to work and where to live. I mean, the reality is it just a fantastic quality of life in the Midwest, and I'm saying this as someone who has lived the good life and Southern California, Pasadena and went to school on the southern tip of Silicon Valley, and UC Santa Cruz, and I'm kind of blown away at what the Midwest offers, I think we sometimes kind of stereotype the Midwest in a very elitist way. But in fact, there's a real competitive advantage of being here. There's a high quality of life. And I've even been thinking in the wake of all the Tech Tech disruption just in the last couple of weeks, you know, is that an opportunity for us to relocate a lot of startups, a lot of engineers, a lot of greenies who maybe think San Francisco is too expensive to move out here and join our revolution. And so absolutely, and, and I do think COVID was a, you know, COVID was a horrible thing, but it led to some a bit of a different mindset. In terms of m&a. I definitely think it's sped up innovation at a remarkable rate. But it also changed a lot of perceptions about again, where to live, where to work,
18:37
and just a few years since that has become a nationally recognised hub for new technology. And here's a look that's many leaders are trying to attract new water startup companies. It used to be that if you wanted to build a tech company, you had to move to the valley but not anymore.
18:52
One of the largest retail giants is now hiring Amazon
18:55
looking to fill 1000s of jobs right here in Greater Cincinnati. In
Tom Cain 19:00
the heartland of America, Pete Blackshaw, CEO of Cintrifuse, is striving to ignite an innovation revolution, uniting talent, tech and capital. He is spearheading a bold vision to elevate Cincinnati as a startup Haven. Post pandemic sustainability has taken centre stage. Blackshaw leading a supply chain resilience committee discovered an opportunity cloaked in green with the government at his side and the city as a playground for innovation. He's solving urban challenges, stimulating growth and benefiting diverse stakeholders. So, what's next on the horizon?
Ben Kaplan 19:51
Pete there are these moments where for a certain industry, a technology a location where suddenly every One sees the possibilities, suddenly everyone sees the potential is like, Oh, wow, this can be big. And so we've had kind of a moment like that recently, I was going to lead you in the chat GPT just because it's an example of when something is simple, surprising and significant in a way that you can crystallise, what is essentially a technology that's been developing. It's been there, but something in the simple, surprising, significant way that it all came together to say, Wow, this can answer questions about anything in any format at its best be an answer you can use right away. And if not, maybe a c minus college essay that you maybe you could revise. So what is it like that? What is your thoughts on Chad GPT? And what are your thoughts on just crystallising a technology or a sector to where suddenly everyone gets it?
Pete Blackshaw 20:49
I mean, Chad, UBC is kind of interesting, because I just had led a whole workshop with my team on it just to really internalise like, what's going on little bit of chat, you know, ai 101. But I also brought in a panel of experts. And it was a really super important conversation. One of the things I said was, for me personally, I mean, I've been studying technology my entire life. And I'd say before chat, GBT, the single biggest slap me in the face tech Awakening was discovering the Mosaic browser that was just a game changing experience. It kind of changed my life. I think after I saw this, I was at HBS ended up like ran down to the student newspaper, and I started writing a column called the surf report. It was almost my way of like, forcing myself to kind of think about what was going on. And, and I've seen a lot of really interesting waves in my career. But the chat GBT thing, yes, slapped me in the face like nothing I've experienced. And yeah, it's a disruption at many, many different levels. It is kind of like coming of age. It's the consumerization of AI, which up until now, it always been like this abstract concept, we kind of knew that it was working in the background. But now you've got this. Yeah, this really, really sticky app that is becoming a Google and everybody's kind of in denial of this, but it is becoming the next search. I mean, and it's despite some of the debates over you know, is it perfect? You know, debates we always had with Wikipedia, right? Oh, my gosh, they got something wrong. But it's marching down the path of like the Northstar of truth. And, and at a time when consumers are just frustrated as all hell with the noise and the interruption, you know that the web's still a bit of a cesspool of noise. And so now you've got this elegant tool that kind of gives you a single response. That's pretty damn good, and is only gonna get better. Yeah, that's a massive disruption. And on top of that, you know, looking at it through my consumer lens, and as someone who's working with startups all the time, and I've been trying to ask myself, like, at the end of the day, like, when you're helping startups, it's like helping the underdog, you're trying to figure out like, how do you help that person who has very little cash may not have been tapped by the VC to get that extra advantage. But what I've been obsessed with is like, boy, I mean, chat, GBT is a great way to write concepts, develop that minimally viable concept. And you can both get feedback from it. And you can kind of develop the product, and then kind of inform all sorts of other expertise. I mean, I'm kind of amazed at how well it answers startup questions, and it's generally right. But yeah, just thinking about, like, how do you reinvent the journey of a startup, especially the startup that doesn't have a lot money? And that could that change certain outcomes? I mean, think about the green space I've been obsessed with. There's a lot of great, you know, Green Ideas out that folks haven't thought about yet. You know, carbon analytics, I'm like, shocked that industry isn't more developed. I mean, why don't we have apps where you can literally get a carbon footprint when you go into a grocery store? And I'm kind of optimistic that tools like chat, GBT are going to allow us to basically identify that long tail of ideas and kind of take them to market a lot faster. And I'm going to be in a better position to add value to those startups on that journey, and many more kind of creative ways. I think the other thing I would say is that I wrote an article and at age just two weeks ago that has created a bit of a swirl. But I'm absolutely stand by my claim I said in a chat, GBT is going to be a very rude awakening for brands, especially in impact areas. And so if you go to chat, GVP and you type it out, you ask it about a brand and its diversity level, or a brand and how well it's meeting its sustainability commitment, or its carbon footprint. It's brutally honest. And it is like a total greenwashing detector. People may say that's not fair. That's not true. But if you look at the answer, and then you study the science, you'd say, I don't know how that blackbox work, but you know, it's right on. And what I'm trying to train entrepreneurs to do is take that the best ideas, startup idea, start with vulnerability, like where does the brand have a gap? Where does the business have a need? And historically, we'll go and talk to the companies and say, what are your needs and business challenges? And you might get the answer, but I think algorithms can also go right to the source of where there may be an unmet need. And what I'm trying to do is train entrepreneurs to use AI to better better understand the customer, especially on the complicated issues. And I think that's a potential breakthrough. It's not like you push a button, I think there's method behind it. And that's where I'm kind of putting my like, What is the method? Where How can I add value? How can my world of experience go into that method. But this is an absolute watershed moment, I've never seen in like this,
25:22
you could look at a tool, like a calculator where it used to be like, Okay, if we're gonna take a math test, you can't have a calculator. Why? Because it will just do work for you, then you don't have to do it. And we're at that point. Now with AI, like, is it just gonna do work for us, but a certain point, you move along in math, they require you to have a calculator in the class, you can't do anything unless you have a calculator. Because to do more advanced things, it handles the basic things so that you can do the things that actually only you can do. And so there's this natural reaction to sort of say, you know, the first wave is, well, are people going to cheat on tests are people gonna not do their work and write memos, or based on this, but the wave that comes later is it's just become table stakes, where it's a tool that you use, and you have to use it because you can't actually be as productive or efficient or effective or do your job unless you can use it well, which by the way, is not unlike probably doing a Google search now to take your browser example, and bring it further pretty hard to be like you're going to work in the world and you don't know how to search for things online. That's going to be difficult. Yeah.
Pete Blackshaw 26:26
Listen, there's a lot of really tricky, complicated questions that are sitting in front of us. And I think there's really important leadership challenges, I think, you know, CEOs can play a really important role and helping everyone to understand, you know, you know, how you know, chat, GBT, or AI can be a powerful vitamin, not kind of a job killer. You know, there will be some disruptions. I mean, there will be some industries that just are, you know, we've seen this waves all the time and technology, but we'll need to really think about how the capability opens up new opportunities. I know that almost sounds like a kind of a bit of a cliche. But yeah, that's always been like the riddle of technology. It's kind of there's always like, some inherent displacement, but it also opens up a lot of possibilities. And right now, I'm kind of in opportunity mode, how do you turn that into? You know, I like the notion of co pilot, I think that's a really good metaphor. And I was even in my, my session with my team yesterday, I said, Hey, I want you to think more about partner not replacement. And I think if you kind of have that mindset, we can kind of get through some of these more, you know, some of these trickier questions, but we need to be eyes wide open on the complicated part. And we need to be empathetic to those who are fearful of where this could all go. And I think those are really legitimate issues. And I think CEOs of the future are going to have to be very empathetic on all the downside dynamics around technology.
27:55
What that technology can now do from passing the bar exam to answering LSAT, questions, chat
28:00
and GPT might have a mind of its own. Now we're learning is chap GPT. Coming for your job.
28:07
I hope that the pizzeria owner, and many other small business owners like him will also take advantage of this technology. Because AI is creating tremendous wealth and will continue to create tremendous wealth.
Tom Cain 28:21
We have gone deep into the captivating world of AI, focusing on a game changer. Chat GPT Pete says it's an awakening akin to the arrival of the Mosaic browser, an experience that shook the technology landscape. But beyond its impressive ability to churn out answers. It's a catalyst for innovation. Transforming the familiar into the phenomenon. GPT enables startups, especially the underfunded ones, to breathe life into their concepts, sparking creativity and providing feedback. Back in the startup world, how do you know when businesses might make it and where others may fail?
Pete Blackshaw 29:09
If I just think about like our region, like what is really going to help us move the needle from a great early stage startup to a scalable business. I think it's the it's the experience founder who brings the operational skills for just high velocity growth. And that's tricky. And there's some aspects of that, but I dare say, I'm not qualified to do I'm probably more on the early side of rally kind of a founding team and get it to a certain level, but I wouldn't say that I'm, you know, Mr. Operational, but I'm looking for those types of folks. I mean, who are the folks that have kind of built businesses, I even think about are there. Folks that have that experience in some of the big companies that might play a role? Sometimes it's good to get the people from the big companies that have kind of had a startup experience. So you've got this blend, but they can be the folks that can kind of take a growth stage startups The next level, you know, and at the early stage, yeah, you're gonna have a little bit more evangelism, idealism, you know, kind of visionary types. And what I'm trying to figure out is this, you know, how do you kind of how do you nurture all corners of it? Even? How do you nurture that founder to realise at some point, you need to let go and let somebody scale the model? It's not always easy.
30:22
What is the future like for the startups and big companies and groups like Cintrifuse and government agencies working together? What is the future like, for that? Is there a change coming in and how those groups can come together?
Pete Blackshaw 30:39
I certainly hope so. I mean, we have three priorities, one talent, attract talent and capital of the region, to you know, try to scale the next unicorn who's going to be the next Kroger. p&g. And the third one is probably the most important, which is like how do you make the local startups like the first point of entry for the big coasts for their innovation needs? And that one's tricky because I mean, you know, as much as I've romanticise startup Bidco collaboration, it's really hard. These companies are built for scale, there are risk factors of partnering with, you know, a mom and pop stop tech startup. And so, you know, we've really been thinking hard about how do we drive that marriage between the startup and the Big Co need, you know, big credit to my boss, who heads up growth at p&g guy named Guy Prasad. And he's really been helping us think through a strategy where we can take those startup opportunities and marry him with the Big Co needs. Now, there are some areas and this kind of takes us full circle to the first part of our conversation about making that choice. One additional reason that I didn't mention about why sustainability is so important. It's not just that we can leave. But that's an urgency catalyst. There are certain types of issues where I believe you can open up the door faster. And with less bureaucracy, I would even put diversity in that category. I do think companies are waking up to the reality of diversity and inclusion. And I think they are writing new rules, overdue rules, I think they're decalcifying processes to get that right. And I think you're seeing the same thing. In sustainability. There are really urgent deadlines there. And I'm trying to figure out how to use the urgency catalysts to reinvent new processes that might benefit all the different areas, but there's always going to be certain areas where you're just gonna get the meeting faster. And there may be more of a creative resolve to kind of get there, creating that flywheel with the startups to kind of open up unlock the innovation, with the Big Co needs is the hardest part of my job. But it's also the most thrilling because if I can crack that code, if I can solve that riddle, boy, that's going to be a great thing to look back on when I you know, reflect on career accomplishments.
Tom Cain 32:56
we've navigated through a strategic vision boldly capitalising on Cincinnati's inherent strengths. We've peered into the heart of sustainability, identifying a unique growth opportunity, amid an existential challenge, delving into the art of aligning diverse stakeholders and sharing a collective vision for Cincinnati as a green leader, setting an inspiring example for cities globally. We were also reminded of the critical role of urgent optimism, an energy source that fuels innovation and startup success. The conversation then ventured into the realms of AI, Pete urged us to reframe our perspectives and see AI as a co pilot, a powerful vision and an opportunity for profound advancements rather than a harbinger of job loss. We dove into the heart of entrepreneurship discussing the quintessential qualities needed for scaling startups, the crucial importance of operational skills, and the invaluable role of experienced founders in fostering high velocity growth. Finally, we acknowledge that we're in an era of rewriting rules of embracing diversity and sustainability. Pete challenged us not to see these as burdens, but as urgency catalysts that can fast track innovation and unlock unprecedented potential. So, as we wrap up, let's take away not just the insights, but also the bold optimism, the daring vision and the audacious commitment to a sustainable future. Today, we've picked into the future through Pete's eyes and is looking greener, smarter, and more collaborative. And with that, it's CASE CLOSED.
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