World of AI, Fashion & More from Aistetic Duncan McKay

In this episode, I interview Valeria Siniouchkina, Circular Economy Ambassador, Sustainable Fashion Strategist and Brand Manager at BE THE FIBRE. Valeria has been a Designer, Entrepreneur in Fashion for the last 20 years at LordsxLilies, Komono and OMSK Belgium. 
We cover:-
What is the circular economy?
How you can approach embracing the 3P’s
What fashion brands and businesses you can look to for inspiration
This is a great primer on circularity and sustainability.

In this episode, I interview Joe Jordan, Investor at Venture Capital Firm Supernode - https://www.supernodeglobal.com/. 
Joe invests in seed stage technology companies that provide platforms and tools for digital content in web3, the metaverse and the creator economy. 
We cover the following topics: 
How should you be approaching digital content in web 2.0 and web3 as an ecommerce store owner What Joe is excited about in digital content tech right now How Joe assesses investment opportunities The characteristics that make a Founder investable Be sure to check out Joe’s blog, a monthly First Look at startups raising Pre-seed or Seed rounds in the digital content world https://1firstlook.substack.com/. 
Enjoy!
 

“I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t care about you at all. “
Do those words from Coco Chanel still sum up the fashion industry?
In this episode, I interview Philippe Pourhashemi, Editor at large at Fucking Young and Journalist at Contributior. In this episode, we dive into a number of important questions and topics in fashion right now: The importance of authenticity Is enough being done on sustainability, inclusivity in fashion? Why are fashion commentators holding back criticism - what needs to happen to change this? How has reality TV affected fashion and its purpose?
This episode offers an inside take on the state of fashion, where its heading and what should be done.
Enjoy!

In this episode, I interview Arian Ghashgha, Founding & Managing Partner at Earthling VC. Arian is an AI Engineer, investor and entrepreneur having worked at Meta, started his own company Rapify and most recently founding a VC firm, Earthling VC focused on AI preseed investments.  
We cover Arian’s driving beliefs “No guts, no glory” and how this shaped his journey into computer science, AI, Facebook’s Reality Labs and now venture capital. This is an episode filled with insight, advice and learnings for tech entrepreneurs and engineers alike. We dive into the culture of Meta, how you should approach early investment and how learning from failing has proved to be an accelerator for Arian’s career. 
Enjoy! 
 

Why are we still so obsessed with acquisition in ecommerce? And how should you be thinking about your ecommerce marketing in 2023?
In this episode, I interview Adam Pearce, Founder of Blend Commerce. Adam is an ecommerce expert who has won numerous agency awards most recently winning UK CRO agency of the year and Global CRO agency of the year.  
We cover how Adam founded his agency with his brother-in-law Peter, and has grown it to a team of 18 people.   We dive straight into CVO - customer value optimization - and why you should focus on this metric. We talk through the key trends you should be jumping as an ecommerce business, our obsession with acquisition, the risks from ChatGPT, the importance of long term community, and how you should be thinking about your ecommerce business in 2023. Keep it simple. This is an episode packed full of ecommerce insight and advice.   
Enjoy! 
 

How can you restore loss of vision for the visually impaired?
That’s what my guest, Stephen Hicks, has worked on for the last decade through his research and company Oxsight. Stephen is a Futurist, who has worked at the intersection of neuroscience, AI, visual perception and augmented reality.  
In this episode, we talk about the moments that spurred him on to start Oxsight, a spinout whose purpose is to transform the lives of people with visual impairment.   We dive into the fundamentals of startups, the importance of market research before building, the fact that as a founder you have to be prepared to say no and that patience and perseverance are key. 
It’s a show full of stories, learnings, and thought provoking insights on AI, computer vision and startups. 
Enjoy!