ICYMI: Elon Calls $500B AI Project 'Smoke and Mirrors' - Is He Right?

Author

Owen Drury
May 23, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

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This Week's Quickfire Bytes
Fuel your curiosity with this week's content
W/C 19th May 2025

NEW EPISODES
90% of Sales Demos Fail - Closing $1M Deals with Mutual Action Plans & Multi-Threading Secret to Accelerate Sales Cycles

We had Scotland Foss, who helped build PlanGrid before its $1B acquisition by Autodesk. Scotland shared his proven playbook for construction tech go-to-market success from his journey across multiple ventures.

Find out why product-market fit must come before hiring salespeople, how PlanGrid's freemium strategy created viral adoption on job sites and why unlimited user pricing models work better than per-seat in construction.

open.spotify.com/episode/7rtu92S2vQwSgizpZULYlo


Why Data Centers Might Crash, Autodesk Alienates Christians, Y Combinator Predatory Practices, Paper Beats Digital, with Softbank's $100B Pledge

We talk about the $500B "Stargate" project between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle that's having trouble finding backers as data center costs rise.

Find out why smart capital is hesitant to invest in data center construction right now, how Y Combinator takes 7% equity while giving little value to founders and why Safe Notes are becoming unpopular with serious investors.

open.spotify.com/episode/3TKC4JOUYtyE8GfGws7v9R


From Shop Drawings to Smart Buildings: The Radical Innovation Strategy of a $200M Engineering Firm

Robert Ioanna, Executive Principal of Syska Hennessy Group, shares his innovative approach to construction tech investment and internal R&D.

Find out why he believes MEP industry disruption will work backwards (from shop drawings to concept), how they gamify innovation with an internal point system that engages 20% of their firm and the challenge of AI adoption in a code-driven, legally-rigid industry with PE stamp requirements.

open.spotify.com/episode/1xmPC7E9EcvNPnKzJmvVIb

BRICKS & BYTES PREMIUM
Early Release Episodes

When Industry Experts Lead the Sales Process - Trey Darnell - EARLY RELEASE

In this insightful episode, Trey Darnell, Director of Sales at Ediphi, shares his journey from construction BIM specialist to construction tech sales leader.

How PlanGrid Transformed an Industry and Sold for $875M - Ralph Gootee - EARLY RELEASE

In this fascinating episode, Ralph Gootee, co-founder of PlanGrid (acquired by Autodesk for $875M) and current CEO of TigerEye, reveals the insider strategies that helped his company dominate the construction tech space.

2 FAVORITE QUOTES:

"Like you talk to some of these founders and it's like, I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread because I got accepted into YC."

- Dustin DeVan on On Y Combinator

"Every rep should take it upon themselves to bake their own cake like anything that's going to come in inbound or be handed to them. That's like icing."

- Scotland Foss on prospecting priority

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