Episode Details

A scrappy Flemish speech recognition company tries to put its hometown on the global tech map.

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• (00:00) - A Pie to the Face
• (01:00) - Welcome to Oh My Fraud
• (06:00) - Welcome to Flanders, Belgium
• (07:30) - Meet the Founders: Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie
• (09:30) - The Dream of Voice Recognition
• (13:30) - Going Public in a Crowded Market
• (16:00) - Creating the Flanders Language Valley
• (20:00) - Gaston Bastiaens and His Wine Cellar Wager
• (24:00) - Microsoft's $45 Million Investment
• (27:00) - The Philosophy of Pie Throwing
• (28:30) - Explosive Growth and Suspicious Numbers
• (30:30) - Dragon Systems and Dictaphone Acquisitions
• (33:00) - The Korean Revenue Mystery
• (36:00) - Wall Street Journal Starts Digging
• (38:30) - "I Lied About Everything"
• (40:00) - The Resignation and Bankruptcy
• (44:00) - The SEC Reveals the Fraud
• (46:00) - Criminal Convictions and Symbolic Justice
• (47:00) - Lessons Learned: Fake It Till You Make It
• (48:30) - What Happened to the Technology
• (50:00) - Closing Thoughts

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Sources:

• How Hype Hurt Lernout & Hauspie [Bloomberg via Wayback Machine]
• How High-Tech Dream Shattered In Scandal at Lernout & Hauspie [WSJ]
• Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products: Financing From Start-up through IPO [INSEAD, Herwig Langohr,  Benoit Leleux,  Danny Lein, July 2000, accessed on Sept. 16, 2025]
• Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products: The Question [INSEAD, Arnoud De Meyer,  Bart Pycke, January 1998, accessed on Sept. 16, 2025]
• Quarterdeck Office Systems [Wikipedia]
• Patent Is Won By Quarterdeck [NYT]
• Internet Hype Gives New Life to Quarterdeck Stock [LAT]
• Gaston Bastiaens [Apple.Fandom]
• Today in Apple history: Apple exec bets his wine cellar on Newton [CultofMac]
• Will Microsoft's Stake in Lernout & Hauspie Drive Growth in Speech? [Speech Technology