Alex Wiltschko - Giving Computers A Sense Of Smell - [Invest Like the Best, EP.415]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Investing, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest today is Alex Wiltschko. Alex is the founder and CEO of Osmo, a science and technology company giving computers a sense of smell. He set out on a mission to digitize our sense of smell and he describes how Osmo is teaching computers to both read and write scent. Alex was kind enough to walk me through the laboratory which you can watch in the video version of this interview on Youtube and Spotify, where he demonstrates their method to the madness. We discuss their first commercial application, Generation, which is revolutionizing the fragrance industry by dramatically accelerating the typically years-long process of custom scent creation. We discuss all of the potential business implications this technology unlocks, applications ranging from counterfeit detection to health monitoring, and creating a cutting-edge proprietary platform in a historically routine industry. Please enjoy my conversation with Alex Wiltschko. Subscribe to Colossus Review. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Ramp. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Ramp is the fastest-growing FinTech company in history, and it’s backed by more of my favorite past guests (at least 16 of them!) than probably any other company I’m aware of. Go to Ramp.com/invest to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. – This episode is brought to you by AlphaSense. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Imagine completing your research five to ten times faster with search that delivers the most relevant results, helping you make high-conviction decisions with confidence. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at Alpha-Sense.com/Invest and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegus help you make smarter decisions faster. – This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. I think this platform will become the standard for investment managers, and if you run an investing firm, I highly recommend you find time to speak with them. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Show Notes: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:04:25) Introduction to Plum 1.0 (00:06:20) Synthetic Chemistry & OI (00:07:09) Perfumer's Organ & Fragrance Creation (00:08:03) Launching Generation Fragrance House (00:09:15) The Fragrance Design Process (00:12:04) AI and Olfactory Intelligence (00:14:59) The GCMS Machine (00:22:08) The Scent Printer (00:26:47) The Journey of a Fragrance Enthusiast (00:30:47) The Unsolved Problem of Scent (00:32:45) Applying AI to the World of Scent (00:33:17) Validating AI Predictions with Double-Blind Trials (00:39:42) The Emotional Power of Scent (00:49:01) Challenges & Future Prospects (00:59:08) The Defining Moment: Digitizing Smell (01:00:41) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done For Alex

Transcript

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0:00.0	This year's presenting sponsor for Invest Like the Best is Ramp. Ramp has built a command and control system for
0:05.7	companies finances. You can issue cards, manage approvals, make vendor payments of all kinds, and even
0:11.3	automate closing your books all in one place. We did an incredibly deep dive on the company and its product
0:17.0	as part of this partnership. And what we heard and saw in customer surveys over and over
0:21.2	again was that Ramp is the best product by far. We've been users ourselves since I started my
0:26.4	business since long before I was able to spend so much time with the founders of Ramp and their team.
0:31.7	Those that listen know that I believe that the best companies are reflections of the people
0:35.6	that started them and run them. I've always loved the idea that Apple was really just Steve Jobs with 10,000 lives.
0:42.6	Having gotten to know Ramps founders well, I can tell you that they are absolutely maniacal
0:46.5	about their mission to save people time.
0:48.5	As far as I can tell, they do not stop working or thinking about the product and how to make
0:52.6	it better.
0:53.6	I'm sure they're
0:54.1	proud of what they've built, but all I ever hear when I'm with them is them talk about what they
0:58.2	can do to improve and expand what Ramp does for its customers. I used to joke that this podcast
1:03.5	should be called This is Who You Are Up Against. I often had that same thought when I'm with Ramps
1:08.4	founders, Kareem and Eric. I would not want to compete with
1:11.9	these guys. I wish all the products I used had a team as hell-bent on making the product better in
1:16.7	every conceivable way. I could list everything Ramp does here, but the list would be stale in a
1:20.9	week. I highly recommend you just start using it to run your business's finances today. To get started, go to ramp.com. As an investor, staying ahead of
1:29.9	the game means having the right tools, and I want to share one that's become indispensable in
1:33.6	my team's own research, AlphaSense. It's the market intelligence platform trusted by 75% of the
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