About
🎙️ Upside #EP— IPOs, AI vs Doctors, London’s Trouble & The Internet’s Future
⏱️ 02:30 – Figma’s IPO & European Stakes
- Filing in NYC after failed Adobe acquisition$800M+ revenue, 91% margins, 132% NDR$5B Index Ventures paydayWhy this matters for Euro tech
⏱️ 08:50 – London’s IPO Disaster
- Worst first half in nearly 30 years: only $160M raisedAstraZeneca flirting with a US listingCan London come back?25+ years of decline traced to pension reform post-Maxwell scandal
⏱️ 14:10 – UK vs US Markets: Staggering Comparison
- US market cap: $60T vs UK: $3TTech in FTSE 100: only 1%Apple alone = FTSE 100Institutional apathy + structural rot
⏱️ 18:00 – Pension Power & Mansion House Debate
- UK pension funds hold just 5% in UK equities£40B in annual tax breaks not translating into local investmentNeed for regulatory overhaul to unlock capital
⏱️ 22:00 – Fixing the Public Markets
- Public markets *should* be the exit pathWithout them, the entire private capital waterfall stallsStagnation in public exits affects tax receipts, job creation, and the UK ecosystem
⏱️ 25:45 – European Equities Surge
- Biggest outperformance vs US stocks on record€46B inflows in 2025 vs €66B outflows in 2024Germany wakes up: €500B in infrastructure & defence spendSustainable or a short-term Trump-driven rotation?
⏱️ 32:00 – UK Budget Black Hole
- £5B budget gap after Labour’s U-turnHighest tax burden since WWIISocial care + NHS = nearly 50% of budgetStuck between tax pledges, borrowing risks, and spending pressures
⏱️ 41:00 – UK Future - 3-Paths
- Stasis: stealth taxes, zero reformsFurther decline: shrinking influenceRecovery: bold reforms in pensions, NHS tech, and civil service productivityWhat road will we take?
⏱️ 46:30 – EU AI Act: Incoming Train Wreck?
- Set for August rollout, but 44 major firms ask for pauseMissed code-of-practice deadline - What do we do?Healthcare, finance, and SaaS startups at riskGDPR 2.0 on steroids?
⏱️ 52:45 – Can We Save the Open Web?
- Cloudflare’s bold move to gate AI scrapingAPI-first monetisation and licensing models emerging
⏱️ 57:45 – AI vs Doctors
- Microsoft benchmark: AI got 80% of diagnoses right vs doctors’ 20%The end for doctors?Regulation, infrastructure, and explainability still big hurdles
⏱️ 01:05:00 – Deal of the Week: Portal Biotech
- $35M Series A led by Earlybird + NATO Innovation FundProtein sequencing tech spun out of University of GroningenHopes to be “the Illumina of proteins”A deeptech win for Europe