Upside
This week's happenings in startup and investing land. Getting underneath VC, and discussing how to better support the European startup eco-system.
Every week we share what's been on our mind and get under the skin of VC, investing, startups and founder psychology.
From the team behind SuperSeed who invest in technical teams solving difficult business problems.
The network is run on LinkedIn so join me there - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbowyer/
With full interview audio and video uploaded to all major outlets.
Love to hear from you - dan@superseed.com
Episodes
100 episodes
China Blocks AI - Are UK Pensions Now In Venture!? - Is it 1999?
Live from a Lisbon beach studio, Dan, Mads and Lomax dig behind the headlines shaping European venture. This week: China's AI power play, is UK pension money finally trickling into venture, and a full 10-vs-10 slugfest on whether we're partying...
Burnham’s Britain - AI Creates A New World Order - How Trade Becomes War
Every week, Upside digs behind the headlines shaping European venture. This week Dan, Mads and Lomax get into Burnham's Britain and what a Manchester PM means for tech and capital; how AI is being pulled into a new world order as Wa...
Why Does Micron Matter? Will UK Capital Flow? The AI Bill Is Due - Who’s Paying?
Upside is a weekly podcast looking behind the headlines to see what's going to affect European venture, start-ups and investing. Hosted by Dan and Mads from Superseed, and this week our special guest is Neil Shah from the London Sto...
Anthropic’s Fable - Technical or Political - The G7 AI Backroom Chat - Europe's $Trillion Company
Upside is a weekly show that looks behind the headlines affecting European venture. This week Dan and Mads are joined by Joe Schorge of Isomer Capital — one of the people who literally decides which European VC funds get to exist. Engla...
Has AI Hit Its Glass Ceiling? Quantum IPOs at 500x Rev?! & Siri Goes Google!
Upside is a weekly show that looks behind the headlines that will affect European venture, start-ups and investing. On the show this week: 3:03 — SpaceX IPO day: pop, flop or nothing-burger?7:16 — OpenAI files for IPO...
Time To Rip Out Palantir? - Where Is The AI ROI? - And Florida Sues OpenAI?!
Plus it's EU Sovereignty Week, more on the EU's Palantir Problem & who's now in the the $80bn club?This week Dan and Mads are joined by Matt Russell, Head of Secondaries at VenCap, the 40-year-old firm with a look-through portfolio ...
AI Winners Beyond NVIDIA - Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 Is Out! - A Zero Employee Startup Raises $30m!
This week, Dan and Mads dig into the AI infrastructure boom spreading beyond GPUs, Europe's sovereignty contradictions, the era of the zero-employee unicorn, and a Pope weighing in on AI.00:00 — The week's headlines and some chit chat.<...
IPOs Unfreeze - 3 Sovereign Euro Deals Land - Do You Hate AI?
This week on Upside: Nvidia is so rich it's literally throwing money at shareholders, three megacaps queue up to IPO, and Americans discover they hate AI almost as much as politicians.(00:47) Mads at the BBCA / UKPC. Same name, sa...
Upside Special - What Would European Investors Back With Their Last Euro?
Upside Live from Montenegro: Five GPs, Five BetsRecorded live from a Montenegrin port at a European LP/GP gathering of 80 investors, Dan asked 5 European investors the same question: If you had to put every penny ...
Anthropic Builds - ASML defends - Meta Cracks
Hosts: Mads Jensen (moderator), Lomax Ward (Lisbon beach bum), Dr. Andrew Scott (serial mute-button offender) Missing: Dan Bowyer — scaling actual mountains. We told him to come back alive. Mostly because nobody else wants to mode...
Musk v. Altman - UK Eats EU AI Act - SMRs Solve UK’s Energy Crisis?!
Every week on Upside, we look behind the headlines to expose the real news affecting European venture, startups and investing. Charles hands Trump a bell, Musk says he's not building AGI (this week), and Brussels manages 12 h...
EU Eats Its Own - Europe Gives Up On Space - Is SpaceX Really Buying Cursor?
Upside is a weekly podcast that unpacks the real news behind the headlines affecting European venture startups and investing. Hosted by Mads and Dan from SuperSeed. This week: the EU admits i...
EU Hungry for Hungary - Solo Founder Unicorns - & Let’s Ship Something Great!
Upside is a weekly podcast that unpacks the news and headlines that will affect European venture startups and investing. This week Dan and Mads go deep on what Hungary's political earthquake mean...
Menacing Mythos, Mega IPOs & Dimon’s Doomerism
Upside is a weekly podcast that looks behind the headlines affecting European venture, startups and investing. On this week's show...Anthropic is having the week of its life, Jamie Dimon wants you to know the sky is falling (again), and ...
Why $800m Mistral? - Who’s Boycotting Palantir? - When CoreWeave Crushed Poolside
Every week we look behind the headlines affecting European venture, startups and investing. This week it's with Lomax from Outsized Ventures, Andrew from 7 Percent, and myself, your host Dan Bowyer from Superseed. 00:00 – Dan...
The AI Token Economy - Europe Finally Writes a Big Cheque - Cursor Caught Out
Every week, we look behind the headlines to explore what's coming down the track that will affect European venture, start-ups and investing. 00:00 — Meet Harry Destecroix Dan butchers the fund status (already closed, Dan), Ha...
Jensen Drops a Trillion - Hyperscalers Go Broke - & Some Guy Cures Cancer with ChatGPT
Every week on Upside, we try to unpack the news that's going to affect European venture, start-ups and investing. If you're a founder, GP, or LP, this is the show for you to catch up on the week's shenanigans.Hosted by Dan Bowyer, Mads J...
It's a Recession. Europe Smashes. London Maxes.
Every week we dig into the news affecting European venture, startups and investing. This week, Trump may have speed-run a global recession. Europe is having a moment. Cursor might be toast. And Jensen Huang promises a chip that will...
AI Safety Theatre & War - What Is It Good For?
Every week we unpack the real stories behind the headlines affecting European venture. Hosts: Dan, Lomax and Mads - All European early stage VCs.02:00 — Why Hormuz matters more than you think. 04:08 ...
Intelligence Crisis, Europe’s Rearmament Boom & The End Of AI Safety
Upside is a weekly review of all of the news affecting European venture, startups and investing. VC Hosts: Dan, Mads, Lomax[03:05] Nvidia Earnings — 14th consecutive beat. Data centre rev up 75% to $62B. Stock basicall...
Clone Wars, Euro-Meme Stocks & Magic Mushrooms
For the week's latest news behind the headlines affecting European Venture, startups and investing. Hosts: Dan Bowyer, Lomax Ward Guest: Eyal Malinger — Co-founder, Resurge Growth Partners (venture equity — the gap be...
Is AI Simply Making Work More Fun?
01:52 - Anthropic's Insane $30B Round Started as $10B rumour, became $20B in January, closed at $30B. 03:21 - The Great Model Migration Sam finally kicked OpenAI off his iPhone homepage. Claude's in. 08:...
AI Wars, SaaSpocalypse & Muskonomics
Upside captures all of the week's news affecting European Venture.01:22 — AI models: two flagships drop 20 minutes apartAnthropic ships Opus 4.6; OpenAI replies with GPT 5.3.Key tension: best model vs stickiest workflow (t...
Your AI Intern With Root Access - Masa Goes Massive - Europe's Midlife Crisis
00:59 — Saudi surprises, NEOM shrinks, Vision 2030 = Europe takes notes.02:58 — Europe: zero vibes, zero mission.03:55 — War bonds?! Saudi winter games postponed. Reality intrudes.🤖 AI Corner07:32
Doh Davos, Data Centre Downsides, No To Delaware, Dead SaaS & Defence IPOs
01:35–10:24 — UK data centres: blocked… but a way throughA £1bn London-area data-centre project gets halted after a planning/EIA mess-up → delays of 9–12+ months, potentially worse.The twist: data centres are being u...