The decreasing gap between science fiction and science fact 💫
Directional arrows of progress, Lux Capital and Cholera resistance...
“We love to find directional arrows of progress. Directional arrows of progress don’t point to who the entrepreneur is. They tell you with a reasonably high level of confidence where things are headed.”
— Josh Wolfe on how he looks for the next cutting-edge investment as Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Lux Capital
Welcome back to another Startup Sitdown!
Today’s Sitdown is a little longer than usual, but I promise it’s interesting. We will be focusing on startups decreasing the gap between science fiction and science fact.
Let’s dive right in ⬇️
The science startups of the week are…
BioTech 🧬
4-year-old startup developing therapies to improve global health by studying the genes of people with exceptional health-related traits.
Exceptional traits discovered thus far include cholera resistance and unique metabolisms
Raised a total of $129.7M
Robotics & Computer Vision 💻
5-year-old startup building a universal AI that allows robots to see, act and reason about the world around them.
Raised $80M in Series C Funding
Artificial Intelligence
2-year-old SF-based tech startup developing AI tools to assist physicians in increasing a patient's chances of pregnancy success 👶
Raised $22M in Series A Funding. Full story here.
Episode of the Week 🎧
Investing in Innovation & Deeptech with Josh Wolfe
Josh Wolfe is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Lux Capital
Lux Capital is a VC firm investing in emerging science companies that are bringing futuristic ideas to life.
In this episode, Wolfe talks about the idea of “directional arrows of progress” and how this fuels Lux’s investments.
I highly recommend this one. Anything with Josh Wolfe is bound to change the way you think. Hope you enjoy!
Top 2 Takeaways 🤔
There are always going to be directional arrows of progress, or arrows of inevitability, that exist in the market.
Smart investing is a matter of analyzing past historical developments in order to think smartly about the present and ultimately identify these future arrows of progress that aren’t going away any time soon.
Arrows of progress I’ve been thinking about…
paradigm of drug discovery:
from chemical and systematic research methods in the early 1900s to the emergence of biotechnology in the 1970s to present day with a combination of empirical methods and modern software tools, it is clear that software is not only eating the world, but also the way we discover the world.
the evolution of power grid orchestration:
I currently work at Camus Energy, a startup re-envisioning how America’s power grid is managed with a data-first, massively parallel software + systems approach.
The electric grid is one of the most remarkable inventions of human history. Critical developments over time like IoT, AI, electric vehicles, solar panels, etc. have created opportunities to integrate modern tech into the way the grid is run.
Again, software has eaten the world, but it has yet to transform how we power the world. That is an inevitable arrow of progress.
The marriage between hard sciences and emerging software tools is salient for tackling the world’s most vexing problems.
Here are a few of my favorite marriages in addition to the ones above…
biology + robotization
earth/physical sciences + machine learning
biology + 3D imaging
Enjoyed this 1 minute peek into the most cutting-edge science startups from the week? Make sure to tell your friends! ⬇️