The Tech Strategy Podcast

This week’s podcast is about my recent tour to Hangzhou and Alibaba headquarters. And my 3 take-aways from the epicenter of ecommerce meets AI and agents.
You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.
Here is the link to TechMoat Consulting.
Here is the link to our Tech Tours.
My big take-aways are:
Agentic Commerce Is Now an Arms RaceEveryone needs to upgrade their capabilities with AI and agents to stay competitive.
And then repeat.
And repeat again.

Human KOLs and Content Creators Have Already Peaked.Livestreaming is already shifting to digital avatars. Other content creator types will follow.
The future of content creation and KOLs is mostly not-human.

Digital Livestreamers Have Arrived in Ecommerce. Entertainment and Thought Leaders Are Next.
My playbook for human content creators / KOLs is:
Focus on topics where being human matters:Taste and curation. What wine is better vs. what laptop is better.
Irreversible and/or critical decisions. Situations where you can't do it over and judgement matters.
There is an advancing frontier of knowledge. There is no existing online database of expertise. Think new AI tools, not history.

Use a multi-format approach:Focus on building personal relationships. Such as in communities and events. Both online and offline.
Make your content super authentic. Ideally videos instead of text or voice. Make it clear this is a human.
Deploy an avatar army. Your solo content is not enough. You need an army creating content 24/7. This can be clones of yourself or similar personas.

The mentioned photos are here.
 Disclosure. I have had a education partnership with Alibaba within the past twelve months. 
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I am a consultant & keynote speaker on how to increase digital growth and strengthen digital AI moats.
I am the founder of TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in increasing digital growth and strengthening digital AI moats. Get in contact here.
I write (a lot) about digital growth and digital AI strategy (3 best selling books, +2.9M followers on LinkedIn). There is a free book and email newsletter below.
My Moats and Marathons book series is a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.
This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.
Support the show

This week’s podcast is about WorkBuddy, Tencent's flagship Agent product. It is currently going international. And will likely be followed by Tencent's other "buddy" products:
CodeBuddy
Toast
Marvis
Ardot
Miora
ima Copilot
You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.
Here is the link to TechMoat Consulting.
Here is the link to our Tech Tours.
Disclosure. I have had a paid consulting relationship with Tencent in the past twelve months.
-------
I am a consultant & keynote speaker on how to increase digital growth and strengthen digital AI moats.
I am the founder of TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in increasing digital growth and strengthening digital AI moats. Get in contact here.
I write (a lot) about digital growth and digital AI strategy (3 best selling books, +2.9M followers on LinkedIn). There is a free book and email newsletter below.
My Moats and Marathons book series is a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.
This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.
Support the show

This week’s podcast is about the robot-native network Huawei and China Unicom built for the World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG) in Beijing.
You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.
Here is the link to TechMoat Consulting.
Here is the link to our Tech Tours.
Disclosure. I have had a paid consulting relationship with Huawei in the past twelve months.
-----------
I am a consultant & keynote speaker on how to increase digital growth and strengthen digital AI moats.
I am the founder of TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in increasing digital growth and strengthening digital AI moats. Get in contact here.
I write (a lot) about digital growth and digital AI strategy (3 best selling books, +2.9M followers on LinkedIn). There is a free book and email newsletter below.
My Moats and Marathons book series is a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.
This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.
Support the show

This week’s podcast is about Unitree, which is about to go public.
Plus, there is a quick intro to Tencent's Robot Brain (Tairos).
You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.
Here is the link to TechMoat Consulting.
Here is the link to our Tech Tours.
Here are my 5 take-aways:
A good growth story in robodogs and humanoids. Rapid growth. Highly diversified. In both product categories.
Unitree has frontier-level expertise in robot bodies and agility.
Unitree was late to embodied AI capabilities.
The hands don’t appear advanced. Only 10 DoF?
Operationally, Unitree is still a relatively small company516 FTEs, versus 1,500 at Agibot

Disclosure. I have had a paid consulting relationship with Tencent in the past twelve months.
-----------
I am a consultant & keynote speaker on how to increase digital growth and strengthen digital AI moats.
I am the founder of TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in increasing digital growth and strengthening digital AI moats. Get in contact here.
I write (a lot) about digital growth and digital AI strategy (3 best selling books, +2.9M followers on LinkedIn). There is a free book and email newsletter below.
My Moats and Marathons book series is a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.
This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.
Support the show

This week’s podcast is about Shein, which is about to go public. 
It has had a lot of success as a specialist in cross-border fashion ecommerce. But it needs to move beyond this going forward. 
You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.
Here is the link to TechMoat Consulting.
Here is the link to our Tech Tours.
Here are my 5 questions (thus far) for assessing the viability of a specialty ecommerce company.
Is the company sufficiently differentiated in the user experience?
Can the company compete and/or differentiate in logistics or infrastructure without ongoing spending?
Does the company have a strong competitive advantage in a circumscribed market? No
Is there a clear path to significant operational cash flow?
Has the company avoided markets and situations that are attractive or strategic for the major ecommerce companies?
I spoke about this in a past podcast. 
Early Etsy Was a Great Example of Specialty Ecommerce. But Things Are Changing. (1 of 3) (Tech Strategy)
The future of Shein depends on what business you think Shein is in:
Connecting China manufacturers with foreign consumers. China manufacturing gets you low cost and big variety. 

Ultra fast fashion.This is about speed and flexible production. Test, learn, restock.

Digital-first fashion. This is a compelling future position.
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I am a consultant & keynote speaker on how to increase digital growth and strengthen digital AI moats.
I am the founder of TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in increasing digital growth and strengthening digital AI moats. Get in contact here.
I write (a lot) about digital growth and digital AI strategy (3 best selling books, +2.9M followers on LinkedIn). There is a free book and email newsletter below.
My Moats and Marathons book series is a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.
This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.
Support the show