Some promising announcements in the budget, but £2bn is still being pulled from UK innovation via cuts to R&D tax credits. Leo Ringer spoke to the FT about it

AI safety/ ethics is so clearly going to a defining (50yrs+) policy issue There are lots of groups that can bring value to this: founders, investors, policymakers, regulators, 3rd sector, philosophers... So who is facilitating sharing/ cooperation between these groups?

on-demand delivery is here to stay, but gig work must get better: - let riders easily compare & optimise earnings across platforms / jobs / merchants / areas - provide financial tools & more to promote security v glad we Form Ventures are backing Rodeo, who are building it:

Delighted to be backing Alfie Pearce-Higgins and Will, as they build the gig model 2.0 at Rodeo medium.com/form-ventures/…

Absolutely love the new Console Wars pod - another Acquired Podcast classic from David Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert . The "how the hell did Sega come up with Sonic the Hedgehog" q reminds me of this sketch... youtube.com/watch?v=Dtg_QH…

3 stories today of 3 different regulators turning away / blocking startups from progressing bc they’ve got no resource to do a proper job

On the day that Microsoft resubmits to the CMA for approval of the Activision deal, a great moment to read last week's Form Ventures interview with Will Hayter, the official heading up the new Digital Markets Unit at the competition enforcer (link below) 👇

AI is moving so fast, it's so hard to see how policy-makers and regulators can keep up. Can't help but think that we need to start by changing the policy-making process itself. linkedin.com/pulse/ai-safet…

after we Form Ventures have been 'banging on about regulatory capacity' & its importance for UK startups/innovation, good to see some momentum: 1) New Department for Business and Trade consultation: gov.uk/government/cal… 2) New Lords Industry and Regulators Committee: committees.parliament.uk/committee/517/… 3) Vallance/McLean final

Our take on how policy shaped tech in 2023 and what comes next - and a recap of a very busy year for the Form Ventures team! formventures.substack.com/p/15-unfinishe…

Suggests portfolio construction should be based on a view of how much vals reflect 1. [Structural] More efficiently priced risk distributions of different founder/co profiles; vs 2. [Cyclical] Multi-stage playing at seed + oversized (2021) seed funds, both of which should unravel

America innovates, China replicates... Europe cleans up in the NBA. Mark Cuban Given that Luka Doncic Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo have gone to the US, maybe you guys could send some top founders in return?

Before reforming EIS, pushing more $$$ through the BBB, requiring pension funds to increase allocation to "British" private markets... we need to agree on a defn of a British co, and why supporting those cos (rather than cos in general) actually matters formventures.substack.com/p/backing-brit…

London is falling