Most business plans are never read after the first investor meeting. In this episode of Let's Talk Business, Hedi Mesme breaks down why the 5-year business plan is dead in the AI era — and what actually works in 2026.

In a world where AI is restructuring entire industries every 18 months, planning five years ahead is not strategy. It is fiction.

Hedi walks through the three-layer framework that replaces the traditional business plan: the 90-Day Sprint, the 12-Month Milestone, and the 3-Year Directional Bet — plus why distribution is now the only real moat, and why the biggest opportunity in the next decade is infrastructure, not vertical products.

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🕐 TIMESTAMPS

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00:00 — Why nobody reads your business plan

02:00 — The 5-year plan is dead (and why)

10:00 — The 3-layer framework that replaces it

20:00 — Distribution is the only real moat in 2026

30:00 — Infrastructure vs. vertical products: where the real money is

40:00 — What a real business plan looks like today (one page)

46:00 — Q&A: investor conversations, long-term vision, no-budget distribution

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💡 KEY INSIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE

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→ A 5-year business plan is a fiction document in the AI era

→ What was a competitive advantage in 2022 is a commodity in 2026

→ Speed of learning beats quality of planning every time

→ Distribution is the moat — not the product

→ Attention is the new real estate: scarce, expensive, and the only thing that scales

→ The biggest opportunity in the next decade is infrastructure, not vertical products

→ The best business plan in 2026 fits on one page

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🔗 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

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→ Book a 30-minute conversation with Hedi: https://hedimesme.com/book

→ The Capital Table Dubai — apply: https://hedimesme.com/capital-table

→ Media Kit & Partnership: https://hedimesme.com/media-kit

→ Newsletter (weekly insights ): https://hedimesme.com/newsletter

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🏷️ ABOUT LET'S TALK BUSINESS

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Let's Talk Business is a live show hosted by Hedi Mesme — entrepreneur, fund manager, and new economy strategist based in Dubai. Each episode tackles the real conversations that founders, investors, and operators need to have — without the fluff.

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#LetsTalkBusiness #BusinessPlan #Entrepreneurship #StartupStrategy #AIBusiness #Distribution #HediMesme #Dubai #TheKnowledgeCapital #BusinessIn2026 #Startup #Founder #VentureCapital #DigitalStrategy #AIEra #InfrastructureInvesting #PersonalBrand #ContentStrategy #BusinessGrowth #NewEconomy

Forget the ChatGPT hype. If you are a founder or investor making decisions about AI, you need to understand the actual architecture beneath the buzzwords.

In Episode 14 of Business & Breakfast, Hedi breaks down the 4 layers of the AI stack, explains exactly how Large Language Models (LLMs) work, and reveals the 4 critical concepts every business leader must understand to avoid costly mistakes. Plus, a deep dive into why the UAE is positioning itself as the AI capital of the Global South.

What you will learn in this episode:

• What is an LLM? A statistical model trained on massive datasets to predict the next most likely word—it predicts, it doesn't "think."

• What is AI Hallucination? When an AI confidently generates false information.

• What is RAG vs Fine-Tuning? How businesses give AI access to their private data securely.

• What is the UAE's AI Strategy? How Dubai and Abu Dhabi (G42) are investing billions in AI infrastructure.

Timestamps:

00:00 - The AI Hype Cycle: Where Are We Now?

03:10 - The Real Architecture: Data, Model, Inference, Application

06:45 - What is an LLM? (Explained Simply)

10:20 - 4 Things Founders Must Know: Hallucination, Context, Fine-Tuning, RAG

14:30 - The AI Landscape: OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA & Enterprise

18:00 - AI in Dubai & the UAE (G42, Hub42, Vision 2031)

21:15 - What Founders Should Do With AI Right Now (2x2 Matrix)

24:30 - The Biggest Risks & Mistakes Founders Make with AI

🔗 Download the Slide Deck & Notes: hedimesme.com

📱 Follow Hedi: @hedimesme

Subscribe on Linkedin Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/fluent-in-the-new-economy-7441692696399736832

#ArtificialIntelligence #LLM #ChatGPT #AIForBusiness #DubaiAI #G42 #BusinessAndBreakfast #TechStartups #MachineLearning

The 2-and-20 fund structure has run private capital for 74 years. It survived the dot-com crash, 2008, and COVID. But it will not survive tokenization.

In this episode of Let's Talk Business, Hedi Mesme — entrepreneur, brand builder, and founder of The Capital Table — breaks down why tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is dismantling the traditional private equity and venture capital fund model.

What you'll learn in this episode:

•What tokenization of real-world assets actually means (not the hype — the real mechanics)

•Why the median private equity fund underperforms the S&P 500 after fees — and how tokenization fixes this

•The 4 structural advantages of tokenized assets: liquidity, fractionalisation, transparency, and programmability

•The 3 models replacing the traditional fund structure in 2026: direct tokenized deals, tokenized club deals, and tokenized funds

•Why Dubai and the DIFC are the global epicentre of this transition

•What the next generation of family offices is actually doing with their capital

•How founders can use tokenization to access family office capital directly

•Live Q&A with founders, investors, and family office principals

Key data points covered:

•Tokenized real-world assets: $34 billion in May 2026 (up from $5B in 2023) — growing at 90% per year

•70% of family offices now doing direct investing (Citi Global Family Office Report 2025)

•73% of next-gen family office members plan to change their family's investment approach

•Private debt financed 77% of global buyouts in 2024 — the highest share in 10 years

•1,289 family office entities registered in the DIFC — up from 800 twelve months ago

•Hamilton Lane, BlackRock, and Bastiat Partners have all launched tokenized vehicles in 2025–2026

Timestamps:

00:00 — The hook: 74 years of 2-and-20

02:30 — The structural problem with the traditional fund model

08:00 — What tokenization actually is (clear definition, no hype)

14:00 — The 3 models replacing the fund structure

21:00 — Why Dubai is the epicentre of this transition

25:00 — What this means for founders, investors, and family offices

28:30 — Live Q&A

→ Apply as a Founder or Family Office Capital Table: https://capitaltable.limitless-capital.eu

Connect with Hedi Mesme:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hedi-mesme-798221222

X / Twitter: https://x.com/hedimesme

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hedilimitless

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@limitlesscapitaldubai

Listen to The Knowledge Capital Podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ae/podcast/the-knowledge-capital/id1829395051

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/45W0rpPmTJPlkYO08CfSaP

#Tokenization #RealWorldAssets #FamilyOffice #PrivateCapital #Dubai #DIFC #BlockchainFinance #LetsTalkBusiness #HediMesme #LimitlessCapital #CapitalTable #FundStructure #AlternativeInvestments #RWA #PrivateEquity #Web3Finance #DubaiInvesting #MENA #Founders