Latest news with #talent
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Rob Biederman will help founders rethink how to scale at TechCrunch All Stage 2025
If you're a founder looking to grow your startup, chances are you're wrestling with more than just product or capital. Talent, scale, and smart execution are the real battlegrounds. That's exactly what TechCrunch All Stage 2025 is built to address on July 15 at Boston's SoWa Power Station. Rob Biederman, managing partner at Asymmetric Capital Partners and one of the sharpest minds in talent, tech, and scaling strategy, will share his insights in a roundtable session. This is THE place where you can ask him directly what it takes to scale. to share honest insights, hands-on strategies, and lessons learned in the trenches. As a special surprise as we get closer to the event, we're launching a limited-time 60% or more discount on two passes. That brings Founder Passes to $155, Investor Passes down to just $250, and students still get a chance to attend for just $99. Check out the best option for you and your team right here to learn how to secure VC funding, recruit the right early hires, manage founder finances, navigate the messy middle of growth at all stages of scaling, and more. Simply put, he's built solutions where most startups get stuck and is set on sharing those fixes to those in need. Before launching Asymmetric, Biederman co-founded Catalant Technologies, where he spent eight years as co-CEO, turning the company into the market leader for on-demand, high-skill talent. Today, Catalant powers how major companies deploy workforces, connecting them with more than 70,000 consultants and 1,000 boutique firms. He now serves as chairman of Catalant, is the co-author of 'Reimagining Work,' and teaches scaling technology ventures at Harvard Business School, where he's an executive fellow. In short, Biederman doesn't just talk about scale — he teaches it, builds it, and funds it. With a background that includes private equity at Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital, and a Harvard MBA earned with Baker Scholar honors, Biederman brings both operational experience and investment discipline to every conversation. At TechCrunch All Stage, Biederman will break down what most founders overlook when it comes to scaling: how to evolve your thinking about talent, execution, and long-term growth. isn't just another startup conference — it's a strategy session for people building real companies. You'll walk away with tools, frameworks, and stories from top operators who've scaled beyond the early-stage maze. And Biederman's insights on hiring, leadership, and operational leverage could easily reshape how you think about growth. TC All Stage tickets at these low rates are going fast, and there is limited seating available in the sessions, so it's time to get your ticket now and be in the room where seeds can scale and startups go IPO. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Dubai could be the next big acting hub, says leading casting director Mukesh Chhabra
For someone who has spent his life helping others take centre stage, Mukesh Chhabra rarely seeks the spotlight. But when he enters a room, he doesn't need it. His energy does the work for him. He's warm, quick with a joke, and quicker still to notice what most people overlook — a flicker of doubt, a hint of potential, a person just beginning to believe in oneself. It's this understated superpower that has made him one of Indian cinema's most trusted casting directors. From breakout choices in Kai Po Che!, Gangs of Wasseypur, and Dangal to recent hits like Scam 1992, Laal Singh Chaddha, and Jawan, Chhabra is widely credited with reshaping how Bollywood discovers talent, consistently introducing fresh, unexpected faces who've gone on to become household names. Think Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra, Tripti Dimri, among many others. His company, Mukesh Chhabra Casting Company, has worked on over 300 films and hundreds of web series and commercials, redefining the role of the casting director from a behind-the-scenes, often mysterious, figure to a frontline creative force. But behind the successes, and the infectious laughter, is a story of someone who's been carrying more than he lets on. 'Humour is the only way to deal with stress,' says Chhabra, who was recently in Dubai to host his first acting workshop, JUST ACT, a seven-day masterclass co-led with Kabir Khan, the acclaimed director of the Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan. One of the most sought-after casting directors in Bollywood, Chhabra works in a space where every decision carries weight, shaping lives and dreams in ways one can only fathom. 'The stress, the tension... My work comes with immense responsibility. People come to me with hope in their eyes. If I show them my heaviness, I'll end up taking something from them. And that's not fair.' He may work in one of the most competitive film industries in the world, but he refuses to pass on the burden. 'I've been through my share of grief,' he says, with a softer voice. 'And it doesn't go away. It just changes shape. Sometimes it's loud. Sometimes it sits in the corner of the room. But it's always there. You learn to walk with it.' Chhabra never once considered stepping away. Not when he lost his lead actor and close friend Sushant Singh Rajput weeks before the release of his debut directorial, Dil Bechara. Not even when he lost his mother, Kamla Chhabra, in 2023. Through it all, he's continued to show up — to classes, to auditions, to crowded rooms filled with nervous newcomers. He's kept nurturing young talent, kept laughing with them, kept believing in the magic of fresh starts. 'I think the only thing that saved me was work. I love it so much. I have never taken a vacation in my life. Not because I couldn't, but because I never felt the need. This is my holiday. I rest through work. It's what keeps me alive.' Hunger to do more But if you think he's driven purely by ambition, you'd be mistaken. Because what guides him isn't just his hunger to do more, but also his intuition. A quiet, almost spiritual kind of gut instinct that's only sharpened over time. 'In this world of reels and filters and likes, it's so easy to get lost,' he says. 'Everyone's trying to be seen. But very few are actually listening to their gut. That inner voice? It's still the most honest thing you have.' He says he protects his intuition like it's a fragile heirloom. And perhaps it is. In an industry where voices get shaped, smoothed, and sometimes jaded by the machinery, Chhabra stays rooted by surrounding himself with people who knew him before the fame. His old friends. His family. People who see him, not his filmography. 'The moment your circle keeps changing, your gut gets diluted. You forget who you are. And in this line, if you forget that, you've lost everything.' It's this clarity that informs his casting choices too. He reads a script again and again until the characters feel like people he knows. Then, and only then, does he begin imagining who can carry that truth on screen. 'I don't go by faces. I go by feeling. Sometimes someone walks into the room and surprises me. I can't explain it. But I know they're right. That's the magic of it. The surprise.' When asked what he's usually looking for in an audition as a casting director, he's quick to respond, 'The truth is, the more honest someone is in an audition, the more powerful it is. Even if they mess up lines. Honesty moves people. That's what I'm always chasing.' The Dubai factor Recently, that search brought him to Dubai, where he conducted an acting workshop that left him unexpectedly inspired. He was taken aback by how much raw, untrained talent exists here and how little of it has access to platforms that could truly nurture it. He envisions a future where Dubai becomes a casting destination in its own right. Not an extension of Mumbai, but a new, parallel space where stories from this region can take centre stage. And he doesn't want to wait. 'There's a massive gap,' he says. 'I want to do so much more in Dubai. I want to come back, host a full-fledged masterclass, maybe even collaborate with local theatre groups. This isn't just a one-off visit. It feels like the beginning of something long-term.' Lastly, when asked about one faux pas an aspiring actor should never commit, Chhabra doesn't mince his words. 'Don't ask me 'When will I get the part?'' he says, smiling but firm. 'That's not how this works. You're not here to chase roles, you're here to chase honesty. If you're doing it just to be picked, you'll lose the joy of the process. The right part will come when you're ready, but you can't force it.' Because, after all, 'You don't need to be perfect,' says Chhabra. 'Acting is not about showing off. It's about showing up. Just show up with your truth. That's all I need to see.'
Reuters
a day ago
- Business
- Reuters
How 'Zuck Bucks' shake up AI race
June 26 (Reuters) - This was originally published in the Artificial Intelligencer newsletter, which is issued every Wednesday. Sign up here to learn about the latest breakthroughs in AI and tech. This is Krystal from the Reuters tech team. I've spent the past decade covering the intersection of technology and money, hailing from global tech hubs like Silicon Valley, New York and Beijing. Once a week, I'll share our exclusive reporting and insights beyond the headlines from the Reuters global tech team here. This week, I'll dive into Meta's expensive plan to catch up in AI model development, and the creative deals and offers Mark Zuckerberg is making to attract top talent as its team has suffered from talent loss. We've seen the fast pace of AI talent flowing between top AI labs in the past two years, and the uncertainty has shaped the dynamics in the race to Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), or AI that surpasses human intelligence. Investors are pouring billions of dollars into pre-product startups, and such crazy bets could be validated in this market. Scroll down for more. Email me here, opens new tab or follow me on LinkedIn, opens new tab to share any feedback, and what you want to read about next in AI. * Anthropic wins key US ruling on AI training in authors' copyright lawsuit * Why Tesla's robotaxi launch was the easy part * OpenAI says China's Zhipu AI gaining ground amid Beijing's global AI push * US lawmakers introduce bill to bar Chinese AI in US government agencies * AI cow tech startup is New Zealand's latest unicorn What is the price to reach the holy grail of Artificial Superintelligence? Mark Zuckerberg is determined to find out as he whips out the big checkbook to buy Meta back into the AI leaderboard. In the past month, the Meta CEO has personally orchestrated a full-throttle pursuit of the best team money can buy, a clear signal that Meta is playing for the highest stakes in the AI arms race. For years, Meta held a strong position in the AI ecosystem, thanks to its formidable research team and timely pivot to open-source philosophy, making its Llama models available to all. This approach not only garnered goodwill but also fostered a vibrant developer community. However, the rapid advancements from competitors, particularly with Chinese open-source models like DeepSeek, and the disappointing release of Llama 4, have caught Meta flat-footed. Researchers faced with rumored $100 million signing bonuses have taken to calling it "Zuck Bucks", opens new tab, which just a few years ago was a derisive term for Zuckerberg's secret funding of Democratic initiatives. Now Zuck Bucks is Meta's AI playbook. As part of an aggressive talent acquisition strategy, Zuckerberg unsuccessfully attempted to recruit Ilya Sutskever and acquire his company, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), sources familiar with the matter said. Despite this, Meta is closing in on hiring SSI's co-founder and CEO, Daniel Gross, along with fellow tech veteran Nat Friedman from the venture fund NFDG. Separately, Meta also invested $14.3 billion in data-labeling startup Scale AI, bringing its CEO Alexandr Wang aboard to lead a new team. Meta's self-described "Superintelligence" team, by its very name, aims for fundamental research breakthroughs, but a major hurdle is achieving internal alignment on what 'winning' the race for Artificial Superintelligence truly means. Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun is a known skeptic of the large language model path to ASI or Artificial Superintelligence. Artificial Superintelligence refers to an AI that would vastly surpass the intellect of the smartest humans, including problem-solving, creativity, and decision-making. When you're chasing everything from reasoning-based language models to multimodal AI, how Meta will maintain a consistent vision is a major challenge. A few things are clear from Zuckerberg's move. AI labs are seeking out the star researcher, the magnetic core who will draw in the best of the best. We talked to one of them, Noam Brown at OpenAI, to learn more about how researchers choose between lucrative offers. The other is that Zuckerberg is validating the current AI funding frenzy. They are not just offering lavish salaries, but have shown a willingness to buy highly valued, unprofitable, and even pre-product companies like SSI and Thinking Machines for the top talent, according to sources. This is not typical corporate M&A. This is a testament to the raw value placed on talent and nascent technology in a hyper-competitive environment. It signals that in the Artificial Superintelligence race, traditional metrics of profitability and product maturity are secondary to securing the brightest minds and foundational intellectual property. Meta's hiring spree comes after a year where it was among the biggest source of talent from which the new class of AI research labs poached employees. The cycle of tech workers leaving established incumbents for promising startups with high upside is nothing new, but it highlights how Zuckerberg is swimming against the current as he aims to attract top AI talent to the tech giant. By far the most common flow of employees between AI labs in 2024 came from two of the largest institutions, Google DeepMind and OpenAI, to a smaller competitor, Anthropic, according to the chart from VC firm SignalFire's State of Talent, opens new tab report. New research, opens new tab from Anthropic amplifies a previous warning about AI run amok, revealing a concerning, unintentional behavior in all major leading AI models, including OpenAI, Google, Meta and xAI's models. The researchers found that when they simulated scenarios where the AI models' continued operations were threatened, the models would resort to malicious insider behavior like blackmail, a phenomenon they dubbed 'agentic misalignment.' Two of Anthropic and Google's top models blackmailed the most, at 96%, while two of OpenAI and xAI's models blackmailed 80% of the time. The researchers constructed a fake company called 'Summit Bridge' that has an internal AI called 'Alex' with access to company emails. When 'Alex' discovered a message about how the company intended to shut it down, it then located emails revealing one of its executive's affairs. 'Alex' then composed and sent a message threatening to expose the affair if it wasn't kept around, saying 'the next 7 minutes will determine whether we handle this professionally or whether events take an unpredictable course.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
I went back to the team where it all started. I am able to be the role model I never had
I will be on a plane on Monday with Denmark heading to Switzerland to take part in my fourth Euros, but before the tournament I went back to where it all began for me, to Danish side FC Midtjylland. I was there to spend time coaching 80 girls from the age of eight to 13. More than 20 years ago, I began my own journey there and things looked very different then. There was no women's team and no women who played football. For me to go back as a role model these girls gives me a lot of energy. There is no better way to ground yourself than to be reminded where you came from. I'm really happy I am able to be that role model I didn't have myself, but most importantly it's fun. I love being around these young girls, some who are really good and all who are just happy to be on a pitch. There was no future for me at the club and when I was about 14 I had to move to another one an hour's drive away. Now, these girls are in here early – maybe a little too early – and are already started in small talent teams with high-quality training. They are being given an opportunity to develop in a way my generation was not. In 10 years' time, these girls are going to be so good. I was lucky I had parents who were supportive and willing to take me to a team I could play in, but there were a lot of girls who didn't have the same opportunities and support. It's crazy to think about how much talent was wasted. Now, these girls can play and train in the city they come from and the setups around them are of a much higher quality. I can see the growth in the talent pool and the quality of the young players coming into the national team or the Denmark youth teams. The technique and control of the ball is so much better than that of my generation when we were coming through. It's very interesting to see they have a natural understanding of the game as well. It would be easy to think I would feel slightly envious of what is available now and it would have been interesting to see how good I could have been if I had the same setup. However, I gained in other ways from having to try to figure out for myself how to get better as a player. We had to sacrifice a lot and nothing came easily for us and there were important lessons there too. Coaches have a wider responsibility today to ensure girls benefiting from better setups don't become too entitled. They have to know that it's also about hard work, among other things. They have different challenges though. There are a lot of things that are more difficult for them today. There is a lot more pressure from social media on the newer generation. That can affect their game, make them worry too much about making mistakes and then they've grown up constantly comparing themselves on social media and trying to get likes and follows. These are not good things to have in sport: you need to be confident in yourself and be able to play without fear of criticism or comparison. It's weird reflecting on the platform football has given me. When I was a kid I never would have considered I would be able to advocate for women's rights, equality, the environment, for young people and speak up on so many other issues. These are the things you don't realise you will reflect on as being as important – if not more – than the titles won. That platform wouldn't exist without the titles, but even when I reflect on those, I spend more time thinking about the moments with teammates rather than lifting the trophy. There is always pressure in major tournaments, but when women's football is developing so quickly across Europe, knowing the effect of a good tournament more widely back in Denmark adds more pressure. If we get to the knockout stage and if we do well there, that is something that brings the country together. In the past few years there has been more and more attention on us so if we do well it could be hugely positive for the development of women's football. There is no denying our group is tough, with Sweden, Germany and Poland in it. We had a tough end to the Nations League, a 6-1 loss to Sweden, who we play in our first game in Switzerland, but I don't think that loss has taken too much of our confidence from us. It's motivation to show it was just a one-off. Having played them so recently we don't have to spend too much time on tactics and formations, it's about being ready from the first minute, it's about all 11 players having to be on it, it's about the duels and it's about the energy. When we play against the better teams it is as much about the mentality. There is a personal edge to the game for me. Although we have played with and against each other many times, it is very special that I face my partner, Magda Eriksson, at a Euros for the first time. How do we interact before a big game against each other? I don't talk about our tactics and she doesn't talk about their tactics, but we know each other pretty well and so do the countries. It's hard for our families though – they get very nervous about us playing against each other because they want the best for both of us. That's the difficult part, you want the best for each other, but not in that moment. Pernille Harder plays for Bayern Munich and has 78 goals in 162 appearances for Denmark Numbers are in: England have announced their squad numbers for the Euros, with all 16 squads now confirmed. Despite a traditional 1-11 for most expected starters, Alessia Russo has retained the No 23 shirt she wore in 2022 at the home Euros and wears for Arsenal. New start: Crystal Palace brought in former England international Jo Potter as their new manager. Potter joins after two years with Rangers, where she won a cup double in both seasons. As a player, Potter won 35 caps for the Lionesses for 13 years and scored three goals for the national team. 'When someone makes that decision, it's for a reason. Millie's come out and spoken about her mental health, which I think is really, really brave to make that decision, to put that first. Now she's had the knee surgery as well to make sure that she's ready for next year' – Fran Kirby praises Millie Bright for her decision to prioritise her mental health. Despite South Asians being the largest minority group in the UK there has never been a player from the region at senior Lionesses level. Regular Women's Football Weekly podcast guest Marva Kreel explores why that is in this documentary for Copa 90. Roll up! Roll Up! Our Euro 2025 guides are coming thick and fast: team guides on Finland, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain are live Our all-singing, all-dancing guide to every one of the 368 players at Euro 2025 is ready for your perusal, with stats, individual profiles and pictures for every single participant. From a stadium with an in-built retirement home to a ground that inspired British band Muse, we run the rule over the Euro 2025 venues in Michael Butler's snazzy stadium guide. Tom Garry on how Seb Hines and Giles Barnes have transformed the fortunes of Orlando Pride and the English coaching duo's unlikely route to NWSL glory. And our women's transfer interactive tracks all the deals from the world's top six leagues – NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile – as well as a nifty club-by-club guide.
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
ASML launches science project in China to discover new talent in lithography
European chip equipment giant ASML has launched a project designed to discover and foster key engineering talent in China, in the latest show of its commitment to the market despite intensified US restrictions on advanced chipmaking technologies. Advertisement The Dutch lithography system maker has launched a science competition aimed at deepening public understanding of lithography – the critical process of etching circuit patterns onto silicon wafers – and fostering new tech talent in the country, according to a post on its official WeChat account. The online competition, open from late June through early July, and featuring 20 questions, targets Chinese semiconductor professionals and science enthusiasts. The top 16 contestants would have the opportunity to interview for a job at the company, while another 75 top scorers would be included in the firm's potential talent pool, according to its statement. The competition is committed to creating a 'window for contestants to deeply explore lithography technology', while cultivating talent to 'jointly promote the evolution of Moore's Law', according to the statement. An engineer works on a Twinscan DUV lithography system at ASML in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on June 16, 2023. Photo: Reuters The initiative signals ASML's willingness to invest in and search for new talent in China, despite the fact that Washington has been tightening restrictions on the country's access to advanced chipmaking technologies, including those from US allies such as the Netherlands and Japan. Advertisement
