What Was That?!

What Was That 29 April - FIIs are Back, an Unbundled Car, Antitrust Cases Heat Up

Nitesh is in West Rajasthan in his infuencer Era - carrying podcasting equipment to remote parts of the country, finding hidden gems. 
The FIIs are back. This is absolutely not investment advice - we don't know anything about anything, remember - but we do get into how sentiment is everything when it comes to the markets. 
There's a new car in the US market - and this is interesting because it's completely unbundled! $20,000 after subsidies, but that includes no paint, no speakers, no entertainment. At least it has a steering wheel. Will it catch on? 
https://www.wired.com/story/slate-auto-electric-pickup/
Also, a lot of antitrust action going on - against Meta and Google, both in the same building! In different rooms, thankfully. The US Department of Justice has proposed remedies to rid Google of its monopoly. 
https://www.theverge.com/policy/652708/google-search-antitrust-remedies-trial-opening
 
And more! Other notes: Lessons from the Screenplay of The Social Network: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IAGH6k17nw
 
Nitesh's old post on the Insta/Facebook negotiations: 
https://internetstuff.substack.com/p/splitting-the-difference

What Was That ! 19 April - Tesla Gaming Odometers, Bonds Go Up, BluSmart Goes Down

Welcome to the worst-shot episode of the podcast! Grainy footage, background noise, changing locations, changing podcast software, this was a fun week. But also, in less important news than a change in podcast software, bond prices went up and threw the financial world into a tizzy. 
Tesla gamed odometers (allegedly) to get out of warranty repairs: https://www.thestreet.com/automotive/tesla-accused-of-using-sneaky-tactic-to-dodge-car-repairs
BluSmart also had bond issues: https://m.economictimes.com/tech/startups/bond-blues-hnis-in-limbo-as-blusmart-runs-default-risk/articleshow/120414245.cms
OpenAI has financial trouble: https://www.wheresyoured.at/openai-is-a-systemic-risk-to-the-tech-industry-2/
And more rants as usual! Next week's episode will definitely look better, though we might not.

What Was That?! - Tariffs are Off/On/Off/On/Off/ON, Return-to-Office Extreme Chaos Mode, Gaming Gaming Benchmarks and more

What Was That, 8 April - Edited just in time for the first story to be completely outdated, and then made completely redundant again literally while this edit was going on. Do tariffs exist? Do we? Ooooooom.
We discuss tariffs, yes. But also return-to-office becoming a huge mess for the US Government:
https://www.wired.com/story/federal-workers-rto-chaos/
More clarity (or was it?) <suspense-type sound effect> around Ola's sales numbers:
https://www.cnbctv18.com/auto/ola-electrics-25000-feb-sales-count-yet-to-be-launched-vehicles-raises-questions-19586226.htm/
 
Facebook caught lying about AI benchmarks:
https://www.theverge.com/meta/645012/meta-llama-4-maverick-benchmarks-gaming
 
Winters are running out of snow:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/no-snow-on-slopes-ski-instructors-sell-gear-turn-to-mule-services-for-livelihood/articleshow/120069284.cms
 
ChatGPT as an astrologer:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/292931-chatgpt-your-astrologer-anyone.html
 
And many, many mini-rants. See you next week!
 
 

What Was That?! End March - Studio Ghibli AI Filters, US Tariffs are ON/OFF/ON/OFF/ON and More

What Was That financial-year-ending episode, but no, there are no tax implications of listening to this podcast. Nitesh and Vineet discuss ChatGPT's viral Studio Ghibli filter; billionaires like Li Ka-shing and Warren Buffett are hoarding cash, Google loses an appeal and has to open up its Play Store in India, and more.
 
Links:https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-03-27/when-warren-buffett-and-li-ka-shing-hoard-cash
https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/nclat-modifies-cci-order-against-google-in-play-store-case-cuts-penalty-to-260-crore
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/uday-kotak-warns-of-deposit-crunch-banking-margins-at-risk/articleshow/119668377.cms
And one Bengali song: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ3677p5NWg
 

What Was That, 20th March - Ola Showroom Raids, China Fund Management Norms, Dials are Back in Cars

It's What Was That?! Time again. This week Nitesh and Vineet discuss IT raids on Ola showrooms, and a huge mismatch between their sales figures and RTO registrations - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-07/ola-electric-stores-see-raids-seizures-on-flouting-india-rules
Chinese find managers now have string perform-or-get-docked norms.
Apple's very, very late on delivering "AI Siri", and internal teams are fighting about it - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-14/apple-s-siri-chief-calls-ai-delays-ugly-and-embarrassing-promises-fixes
 
Physical buttons are coming back to cars!
https://www.theverge.com/news/626311/vw-physical-controls-buttons-coming-id-2-all
 
Other links -
 
Trump is selling Teslas at the White House:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQEebJSCYRE
And The Daily Show's edit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUntzU4Toy4
 
See y'all next week!
 
 

What Was That 9th March - Reliance Retail, Drone Deliveries, AI Summaries, Ozempic and More

Welcome Back to What Was That?! where Nitesh and Vineet discuss the tech and business news of the week gone by.
 
This week we discuss Ozempic coming to India;
a pushback in a small town in the US against drone deliveries (https://www.wired.com/story/texas-amazon-drones-stop-flying/ );
Reliance Retail announcing a pullback and an overhaul (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-04/ambanis-overhaul-retail-unit-in-quest-of-125-billion-valuation);
AI summaries in the LA Times going very wrong;
and more. We even discuss Nitesh's favourite new biscuit.
 
Listen in, subscribe, and stay tuned!
 

What Was That?! March 1 - YouTube's Billions, Buffett's Letter, Family Offices and more

It's What Was That?! time again, and Nitesh and Vineet cover a lot of ground talking about rich people owning things, and rich people investing, and rich people raising money for Youtube stuff.
 
Links:
https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=whwQqMMyRPU
https://notpricedin.substack.com/p/driving-under-the-influence
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-26/junior-banker-hiring-is-now-a-battle-against-ai-written-resumes
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-26/a-billion-people-are-watching-podcasts-on-youtube-every-month
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-27/youtube-star-mrbeast-is-raising-money-at-a-5-billion-valuation
 
This was fun, see you next week!
 
 

What Was That?! Lenskart, Blume Report, James Bond Goes to MGM and More

What Was That?! Feb 22nd - where Nitesh and Vineet discuss Lenskart's upcoming IPO, the Humane AI pin is humanely killed off, James Bond goes to MGM and ChatGPT goes to mental health columns, and more. 
 
Some relevant links from the show:
Nitesh writes about the shades market: https://notpricedin.substack.com/p/optical-illusions
This is the Humane AI Pin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lNIwOOMVHk
The Humane AI Pin is the worst product MKBHD has ever reviewed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TitZV6k8zfA&t=1247s
Adam Neumann tries to buy back WeWork: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-02-06/adam-neumann-wants-we-back
A fantastic WSJ writeup on the James Bond affair: https://www.wsj.com/business/media/james-bond-movies-amazon-barbara-broccoli-0b04f0db
 
 
 
 

What Was That?! ITC Bids for MTR, Producers Buy Movie Tickets, And Musk Trolls Altman

It's What Was That?! time again! We discuss ITC, MTR, OpenAI, Tesla, and where healthcare is headed. 
Also, a serious error in this episode that we apologize for - we stated that there were, at the time of recording, 17 subscribers to the YouTube channel. Vineet had extrapolated from 15 the previous day using some very calculated forecasting mechanisms. It turns out that there were actually just 16. 
Vineet apologizes for this gross oversight.