“Nine times out of 10, you get this really small, like cyber revenue.
Like I don't have a system yet.
I got to develop the thing.
I got to go get someone to pay me for some small, like two, three, four, five million dollar R and D money.
And as an investor in this ecosystem,
I actually discount all that revenue to zero.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
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