
John Lazar
British investor and engineer
2
APPEARANCES
2
PODCASTS
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Sep 28, 2026
Maker, Not Taker: Africa’s AI Opportunity – Sir John Lazar
14:03
14:15
14:26
14:39

Chipo MuwowoHOST
Could you just give me one or two examples of companies in your portfolio that demonstrate your thesis? Companies that you think are great examples of what's possible when EMSA gets involved?

Sir John LazarGUEST
Yeah, I mean, we've got 47 companies in the portfolio, and I think, I mean, I love all of them.

Sir John LazarGUEST
I'll give you a couple of examples of companies, particularly in the AI space, that I think are interesting.

Sir John LazarGUEST
This is a company where they've developed interesting distribution models, very good unit economics.
9 MINS LATER
Sir John Lazar: Leading Ahead of the Tech Curve
2:16
2:24
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27:41

John LazarGUEST
I think the obvious one that most CEOs will point to is it does take an extraordinary amount of resilience.

John LazarGUEST
So you as a CEO will just deal with an enormous amount of perturbation and uncertainty, and your ability to really, really deal with uncertainty and manage your way through it and inspire other people to manage their way through it is just a key determinant.

John LazarGUEST
So I think the resilience one, and, uh, and I don't think you know this till you're in a job because, you know, people say it's lonely at the top and blah, blah, blah.

John LazarGUEST
There is this moment where you suddenly realize that you thought you had a strategy, something's just changed.

John LazarGUEST
As a company, you need to work your way through it, and despite all the help and support that you get, ultimately, you, you are the person who's in charge and has to, uh, sign off on the decision.
25 MINS LATER

Bruce WhitfieldHOST
[chuckles] I imagine a world of guardrails emerging sooner rather than later in terms of where and what AI is able to get up to.