Podcasts about prime movers lab

Is it truly the end of document as we know it? Bryan Bauw, COO of Pico MES thinks so and on this episode of Workforce 4.0, Ann Wyatt is in conversation on Bryan on how the future of work is being drastically changed through the adaption of technology for the dreaded documentation process. Bryan also shares his journey from starting as an industrial engineer to becoming a prominent figure on the manufacturing scene, the evolution and digitalization of manufacturing and the role of AI in the future of our favorite industry sector. In This Episode:-03:27 The Evolution of Manufacturing and Technology -07:20 Teaching and Networking in Manufacturing -11:05 Digitization in Manufacturing: The Future is Now -20:18 The Evolution of Automation Systems -21:24 Exploring the Differences: Automation vs. Robotics -22:53 AI in Manufacturing: Current and Future Applications -28:02 Industrial Automation and Robotics: Practical Implementations -31:46 Balancing Standardization and Innovation More About Bryan Bauw:Bryan Bauw is Chief Operating Officer of Pico MES, a software startup that helps manufacturers improve their productivity. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Alabama and a Strategic Advisor to venture-backed manufacturing startups. Bryan has nearly two decades of experience leading advanced manufacturing teams and product development in high-growth businesses, startups and VC investments.Prior to joining Pico MES, Bryan was Head of Manufacturing and Partner at Prime Movers Lab, Director of Advanced Manufacturing Engineering and Technology and General Manager at Collins Aerospace and held various manufacturing and business roles at GKN Aerospace. To learn more about Bryan, connect with him here.

In today's episode of Building Texas Business, I chat with Sassie Duggleby, founder of Venus Aerospace, about her groundbreaking work developing hypersonic flight technology. Her vision is to connect the world through travel that spans continents in just one hour. She shares her motivation, sparked by living abroad and a desire to unite people across borders. We discuss Sassie's journey building Venus Aerospace from the ground up. She offers insights into raising capital, growing from a small team to over 70 employees, and prioritizing work-life balance for families. Sassie also talks about navigating challenges in aerospace, an evolving field with careful regulation. Our discussion delves deeper as Sassie reflects on balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. She also addresses tackling biases facing women in STEM fields. With her tenacity, Sassie is clearing paths for others. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Sassie Duggleby, CEO of Venus Aerospace, discusses the company's vision to revolutionize global transport with hypersonic flight, aiming to turn international travel into one-hour journeys. We explore Sassie's personal experiences, from living in Japan to leading a pioneering company, which fuel her ambition to make the world more connected through rapid travel. The conversation covers the evolution of Venus Aerospace from a small team to a 70-employee company, emphasizing the challenges and strategies of scaling a startup. Sassie shares the importance of cultivating a strong company culture that prioritizes family time and how it aligns with their vision of 'home for dinner'. We delve into the regulatory challenges faced by the company, such as securing permission for supersonic flights over land and navigating government relations. The episode touches on gender biases in the aerospace industry and how societal norms impact women, with Sassie recounting her own experiences as a female CEO. Sassie reflects on the need for potential changes in the academic system to accommodate different learning styles and to support women in STEM fields. Discussing personal challenges, Sassie emphasizes the importance of balancing motherhood with the demands of leading a startup and the intentionality required to maintain a work-life balance. A lighthearted discussion ensues about Tex-Mex versus barbecue, providing a glimpse into Sassie's personal preferences and her vision for a tech-free sabbatical in nature. We highlight Sassie's journey as a successful female entrepreneur and her contributions to the aerospace industry, particularly during International Women's Month in March 2024. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About Venus Aerospace GUESTS Sassie DugglebyAbout Sassie TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: In this episode, you will meet Sassie Duggleby, co-founder and CEO of Venus Aerospace. Venus Aerospace is a startup company focused on engineering the future of hypersonic flight by making one-hour global transport possible to connect the world and make it safer. Sassy talks about the importance of cultivating a strong company culture, where at Venus, they are focused on making it home for dinner. She also shares how she balances being the CEO of a startup while also being the mother of two. Sassy, I want to welcome you on to Building Texas Business. Thank you for taking the time to be with us today. Yeah, thanks for having me so very intriguing stories. I was reading your bio and I just want to give you a chance to introduce yourself to the audience and the listeners. Tell us you know who you are and what you do. I know your company is Venus Aerospace, which sounds really cool, so let's tell us about who you are and then what Venus Aerospace is. Sassie: Yeah, so I'm the co-founder and CEO of Venus Aerospace. Venus, we are using a next generation rocket engine to enable super high speed vehicles. So what does that mean? High speed vehicles is in planes, drones, and we've got an engine that allows you to take off and get up to speeds around Mach 4. So four times the speed of sound and super efficiently cruise across the globe. You can push all the way up to Mach 9 if you really wanted to, and then come back down and land and it would let you go. You know, say, san Francisco to Tokyo in under two hours. Wow. Chris: That's a little crazy, huh yeah, so does that mean you're a true rocket scientist? Sassie: I'm actually married to a rocket scientist and I manage a ton of rocket scientists, but I would not claim that title for myself. Chris: Okay, all right, so, but you're the one of the few that would say, well, it's not rocket science, but it kind of is. Sassie: It is in this case for sure. Chris: Yeah, I love it. Okay, so that Venus Aerospace, so high speed travel. For what? For? Obviously for a normal consumer. Sassie: Yeah, so the ultimate goal is commercial travel. We have near term opportunities doing hypersonic flight testing for the Department of Defense and then hypersonic drones, kind of for national security and defense purposes, both for, you know, nato and the US Department of Defense. But that ultimate goal is you know kind of how does the world change, if you could get anywhere, you know, in two hours, you know whether it's business travel or it's, you know, delivering parts or it's, you know, global organ transplant. There's a bunch of opportunities that you know what's your time worth and if we could give you back time by helping you get across the globe faster. That's our ultimate vision. Chris: Wow, I mean that's. It is visionary. So what inspired you to get into this business? Sassie: Yeah, so prior to starting Venus, andrew and I. So we co-founded the company together. Andrew's, my husband and we were both working for Virgin Orbit, so we were launching rockets off the wings of 747s. And while we were working for Virgin Orbit, we actually deployed to Japan. So Andrew's in the Navy reserves and in the Navy he does ship repair. So I always joke why a PhD rocket scientist is doing ship repair. That's a whole different question. But 2018 was a really bad year for the Navy and there were a bunch of collisions out at sea and they couldn't get the Navy ships all the way back to the United States. They could only get them to Japan. And so he got a call in like February 2018 and said, hey, we need you Any chance you could come to Japan. And I looked at him and said, can we go? And so we pulled the kids from school, moved to Yokosuka, japan, and it was actually living in Japan that we realized you know how big the world really is. So, you know, I had, we had traveled internationally, but we'd never actually lived overseas. And so it was literally a Sunday afternoon. We were sitting out on our balcony overlooking Tokyo Bay. You could see the whole, you know American shipyard there and we were talking about my grandmother's birthday was coming up and how do we get home? Do I take the kids jet lag socks, like we were just having a normal Sunday conversation. And Andrew looks at me and he says well, you know, there's a new rocket engine coming on the pipeline. That's been theorized for about 30 years. They've been working on it at academia, at the universities, and he said I think if this engine's ever proven, I think we could put it on a plane and we could be home in an hour. And I literally laughed at him in that moment. But then he started explaining the physics to me and how the engine works and how it's way more efficient If you don't have to, if it's more efficient, you don't have to have as much fuel. And just was getting into it. And we started kind of dreaming like, well, what if this engine ever really comes along and it's proven? And so you know, fast forward, we get back to Southern California and we're back working at Virgin orbit after the deployment. And he comes home from work one day and he said, hey, purdue University, their research, one of the research labs proved this engine and it's called a rotating detonation rocket engine, which I know is a mouthful Rotating detonation rocket engine. And so this engine in an A B test. So the rocket engines that, like we use today, are only about 2% more efficient than the rocket engines that we sent, you know, astronauts to the moon with 50 years ago on the Apollo missions. So in 50 years we've gained about a 2% increase in efficiency, which is not much. Well, this engine, on the other hand, gains about 15% efficiency, and so it's just a total game changer. It's almost equivalent of going from like propellers to jets, like how much that impacted airplanes. It's the same thing. So going from a it's called a deflagration engine like a campfire burn in a chamber, which is what we've been using forever, so subsonic combustion, to detonation, which is supersonic combustion, and if you can detonate a propellant you extract more energy. It's just more efficient. And so we literally stand up that rotating detonation waves, so it rotates around and around in an annulus. If you go to our website you can see videos of it and with that detonation it's just more efficient. And so if you don't have to hear as much fuel, you can put wings and landing gear and all the things that actually would finally make kind of a rocket plane actually work. Chris: Wow, yeah, and I guess going that fast at me all I know is what I see, like on TV in the movies, that going mock speeds is challenging, I guess for pilots now, because it's only people in, you know, in jets that do it. But for passengers, I guess the cabin can be pressurized or contained where it's safe for the, or maybe that's where you're getting to, I don't know. Sassie: Yeah, well, so humans are really good at constant velocity. So once you get up to speed and you're going the same speed, I mean you know an airplane, you don't feel like you're trying to get there. I mean you don't feel like you're traveling what? 800 miles per hour across the globe or whatever the speed is. You know it's acceleration, like when you have G's, that that's what we're not as good as handling. So our vehicle, our plane experience, you would take off and it would be about kind of a 10 minutes of that takeoff experience where you're in the back of your seat, but then you'll hit constant acceleration, just like an airplane. So it's no different. I mean, think about astronauts in space or traveling what Mach 24, Mach 25, and orbit constantly, and you know that it's just the acceleration that's the hard thing. So okay, we've got one of the joys of being here in Houston is you know we've got Johnson Space Center down the road from us and you know we've had their human factors team look at you know our kind of trajectory and they've said oh, you're totally fine, you've got no problems at all. Chris: That's nothing. Right, yeah, exactly so. You have an idea and I love the story of on a balcony in Japan and just it's interesting to me because so many entrepreneurs they may not be in that same setting, but it is this conversation about an issue or a problem and how to solve it and they have the idea right and it boiled down to its basics, no different than what you and your husband were talking about. So how did you take that concept and the idea that, ok, Purdue proved it and turn that into Venus Aerospace? Sassie: Yeah. So as soon as Andrew came home and said, hey, they've proved it, I kind of looked at him. I said, do you have this? Because he intimately knew he was a former professor at Texas A&M, so we intimately knew how far academia could kind of push the technology. And we said, all right, we've got to go grab that technology and kind of pull it up and actually bring it to the world. So I incorporated the company and then I actually went and took a class on how do you raise venture capital. You know, while I have an engineering undergrad and an MBA, I had not ever, you know, raised VC money before. And so it was actually a group of women that I found they were teaching a course on how to one of the goals was to get more venture capital into the hands of female founders. So statistically, about 2% of venture funding goes to females, and so they were trying to help with that. So I took a class and learned how do you raise VC money and how to, you know, build a pitch deck and all the things. And then, as soon as we got Virgin Orbit to its first launch, we actually quit our jobs and went full time on Venus and we spent about. It took us about six months and, I think, 200 conversations, 200 pitches, until we finally, you know, found that investor that said, yes, I'm in, and we closed a seed round of $3 million in January 2021. And that was actually the same time we decided to move the company from Southern California to Houston. I'm a seventh generation Texan so wanted to get back home and Houston. One of the great things about Houston is it's got the Houston spaceport at Ellington Field and it's the Ellington Field. It's the only urban spaceport in America, which means, you know, we are literally firing rocket engines here at Ellington. You know our previous experience. You know Virgin Orbit our headquarters was Long Beach, but our testing all happened out in Mojave, and so Andrew, when he became head of launch operations, pretty much lived in Mojave. I was a single mom for a couple of years and we were, like you know, as a husband wife founding team. This is not like we have to find a place. We can do it all in one location. And Houston, you know, rose to the very top, and so we closed our seed round of funding and moved the family to Houston and it's been, you know, I really believe, the best move for what we could have done, you know, for the company. Chris: That's great. So let's talk a little bit about the challenges of raising venture capital money. I mean you obviously at 50,000 feet, you said 200 conversations before you got one bite. But you know, I have to believe. I know we have clients that go through this or come to us, you know, in the similar stage trying to capitalize on an idea of raising money around it, so they get a company off the ground. And I have to believe. Other listeners out there are curious as well. What are some of the lessons learned that you feel like you could pass on to someone that might either one help them understand what they're about to get into, or maybe it's. You know, I learned this and avoid doing this. It might make it your process easier, sure. Sassie: You know. So one of the things that Coach Tommy in learning is it only takes one, yes, right, and so you just need one person to believe in you, so kind of having that grit and just saying no, like Andrew and I knew we had a good idea, we knew we had something. One of the challenges was finding the right fit. You know so venture capitalists often have a thesis in terms of what they want to invest in. So if you're an enterprise, saas, software investor, you're probably not going to invest in a rocket company, and so it took a while for me to find, for us to find kind of those folks with the correct thesis and they get introductions to them. The other thing is we needed patient capital. So we're also not on this like super short journey. We're not going to throw a bunch of programmers in the room and, you know, spit out a program of a unicorn. You know we need time. We need time to build, we need hardware, we're capital intensive and so finding those people that understood those longer timelines, and we're okay with that. So that's one. The other thing I would say is we started off building our own pitch deck and thought surely the design doesn't matter, and fortunately we had a pretty early believer that said hey, I'm interested, I want to help you guys, but you need a better pitch deck. And so it kind of like crushed my soul to go pay a designer to build our pitch deck. But the minute we went from the one we designed ourselves to like a professionally designed one, our traction went way up. And so it and I look back in the pitch deck we have was horrible. In the pitch deck the designer built was beautiful. And so you know, I'm actually glad, I'm very glad we sent the money. Chris: I think that you know there's a lesson there for sure in the way I've seen it play out in a number of different scenarios with kind of startups because you need to figure out what's truly an expense versus an investment in the future of your business right and what you just described and hiring that professional. You're trying to say I can do this myself, I'm going to save a little money, but the investment you made, even though it seemed like an expense you probably were questioning whether you could afford, is actually a smart investment. That the return on that was crazy. And you know I can analogize that. Sometimes the startup legal stuff we tell clients or potential clients look, you're investing dollars, even though it seems like an expense on legal, but you're investing dollars and making sure your company's set up right. That will help you going forward. Sassie: Absolutely I completely agree. Chris: So you got the pitch deck going and and then I guess you continued on the road to pitch the idea to people. I also love kind of what you said about the honesty and being direct about what your business was and what this investment would look like and what it wasn't right. You weren't going to be returning a profit or return on the investment anytime soon. So you that I think you said someone paid capital or patient capital. Yeah, I love that. So you got that going. It was January, I guess, 2021, you said. And so take us now. How many employees have you grown to? Sassie: Yeah, so we're. You know that was January 21, 21, we're what? In March 24. So it's been three years. We've scaled about 70 full-time employees and we scaled really quickly. You know we did a $3 million seed and, what was fascinating, the minute our main investors are called Prime Movers Lab for our seed round put out a why we invested in Venus Aerospace. We got an incredible amount of well we would have invested. We would have invested. So we ended up capturing another 10 million in safes, so simple agreements for future equity. You know, built for a year and then the Prime Movers Lab actually did a preemptive A. They were like you guys are crushing it, here's 20 million more, keep going. And so, yeah, so we scaled pretty quick up to, you know, 50 ish. And that was an incredible challenge, like going from three where it's three people and a PowerPoint presentation, to 50 to 70 people like you. Just, you know you go. You've got to learn how to communicate better. It's no longer sitting around a kitchen table. You know. We literally started the company at our house and so everybody knew what was going on. Everybody was connected. I think once we hit 15 employees, we were like we have to find a location because we had two new people coming and we did not have a single spot in our house to put them Like we were about to start using our kids' bedrooms, and so that was the trigger. That was like, all right, we, you know, we ended up finding the hanger at Allington. But yeah, scaling is a fascinating, you know, and every stage, you know, it just gets a little bit different the minute you think you have it figured out. You grow again, and so we've started about 70 now for the last year, which I think has actually been really healthy for us because it's allowed us to build kind of better systems and processes into the organization for decision-making and for budgeting and all the things that I think will help us as we go to raise our next round of capital and want to really accelerate and start building, you know, mach 5 drones. We've got all the pieces in place to help us with that. Chris: So that you know you described, I think, any fast-moving business the challenges that scalability and managing it right, keeping your arms around it so it doesn't get out of control. I guess that's very hyper growth that you went through. So what were some of the things that you had to do through the hiring process to make sure you were making smart decisions on these hires while you were still trying to build processes and systems in place to kind of manage it once they were all there? Sassie: Yeah, you know, one of the things we early on put we call it the Venus values into place, kind of our culture and who we are and how we operate is just as important to us as the technology that we're building, and so we call it the Venus flight plan and so every kind of and it's all related to, you know, flight. But we do a lot of, we did a lot of culture. Yes, we want to make sure you can fit technically and can you do the skills, but then are you going to be a cultural fit? And so you know, even from an interview perspective, we'd have people doing technical interviews and understanding their technical skills. But then a cultural fit, are they really going to fit in culturally? And I actually think that is key. And then I do tons like I'm constantly I feel like I'm a broken record but talking about our values and who we are and how we're going to treat people, you know, I think the aerospace industry as a whole is often very broken. It was born out of war and it's. You know, I found myself at 38 as the oldest female engineer at Virgin Orbit and I don't know, I don't think 38 is that old. Chris: So I don't think so either. It seems like we're getting young, right now. Sassie: Yeah, so you look around the room and there'd be a ton of, you know, 25 year old female engineers a few 30, and by the time they're 40, they're all gone. And so you know we it was like what's wrong with the industry that you know there's no 40 year old engineers, that they all flee. And so we were very intentional. I mean, we actually named the company Venus because she's the only female planet. All the other planets Mars, jupiter, saturn, mercury they're all Roman gods, whereas Venus is a Roman goddess, and then she's also the goddess of love, and so we have a premise of like what would it actually look like if we love our employees as well? And so you know that's. I think that's been one of the key tenants of like kind of who we are as a company. You know we want to build that family friendly, female friendly aerospace company and that you know those shouldn't be in dissonance with one another, but they often are. Yeah, that's brilliant. Chris: Yeah, what you kind of started with. And to totally agree, culture's keen and I think it's important you know that. You emphasize that in the way you did and I hope our listeners took note. We believe here is the same thing. When we hire, yes, you have to have the technical skills and that's kind of a given and you can interview for that and test for, you know, while someone's here, through your training programs and whatnot. But culture, it doesn't matter how good you are technically, if you're not a cultural fit, you will never work. If the company is really committed to culture, right With this inclusive and loving the employees and wanting that environment where people want to be. Actually, I think Jack Welch said it, if you have a real high performer, that's not a cultural fit. He calls that cancer, right, and that can. We all know what cancer can do to things. So you can't allow that into your organization. But I think it's great with your focus on that. So what are some of the things that you do to make sure the culture is one defined but two cultivated and nurtured? Sassie: Yeah, so we do, you know, values shout outs. I mean, everybody has the Venus flight plan. I literally have it here on a mouse pad, you know. It's like this is who we are, it's on our website, it's on our screen savers kind of plastering around, and then we do a lot of Venus values shout outs. So we have like kind of managers and we expect like we want shout outs on certain places. You know we do awards. Anytime I send a communications email out to the company, I always, like, put some reminder about a Venus value. So I've just I just constantly say that, say it over and over, like this is who we are, this is how we operate. I feel like sometimes I'm a broken record, but you know they say you have to say something seven times before someone really hears it, and that's been a huge lesson for me, Like things that I feel like, oh, it's obvious, this is what we're going to go do as a company. This is our strategic goal. Well, I'm talking about it all the time to investors, but I realized sometimes, you know, our team might not be hearing it, and so that's been. Probably one of the biggest learnings is just how often you just have to say the same things over and over again. Chris: Yeah, I think you're right. I think it's that repetition and certainly top down, it has to be at the tops to become to infiltrate the entire organization. And I believe what I've experienced here is when you start tying your values and the behavior that you say defines your culture to behaviors that others in the organization are doing, so your shout outs as an example, right, when you say you know, jane did such a great job on this task and it demonstrated this value, right, people start personalizing going. Okay, I see what that value means in action. That's. I think that's great. And you said something there at the end I think is so true, cause your job is so external sometimes and I can relate to this you sometimes forget how important it is to make sure all those great things you say externally to keep the company going, that you're saying them internally to remind everyone how great the organization is and you know how important it is to keep this thing going. Oh for sure, for sure, what? Let's talk a little bit just about any challenges you've faced getting this company up and going and kind of what the lessons learned have from that and how it's kind of made you or the company stronger, cause you went through a rough patch or two. Sassie: You know, I say one of our biggest challenges we've been hitting is regulatory. So we're trying to fly a supersonic. Well, we actually flew a supersonic capable drone a couple weeks ago but we had to throttle it down to below Mach 1 because we didn't have the regulatory clearance to fly supersonic. It's illegal to fly supersonic over land without authority. Yeah, I mean the sonic boom does. It's legit, it does make a noise and so you know, they outlawed that back, I think the 50s or 60s, and so there are places, there are ranges in the United States that you can fly those speeds, but you have to get government approval and it's, you know it's been. Yes, you can go fly here, but it'll be three years. Well, we're a startup in three years like we're out of cash or we're growing super fast, and so that's regulatory hurdles have probably been one of our biggest challenges. That I kind of didn't expect. And then you know we're building technology that right now is one of the top priorities for the Department of Defense, and so in my mind you would think that DoD would be just throwing cash at us, but it's been very small. You know, we've got a little bit of DARPA money and a little bit of NASA money and a little bit of AFWARX Air Force money, you know, but not to the extent of what you know, based on the priorities of what you would think it is. And so I've had to learn, like, how do you play the DoD kind of Congress lobbying game and I call it a game because I feel like it is a game- and so I don't. Chris: I don't envy you at all, but I game, I think is the right way to say it sadly. Sassie: Yeah. So you know kind of learning that it's not necessarily a meritocracy, it's not the best technology wins, but it's. You know, do you have the right relationships? And were you in Capitol Hill at this time and we've been talking to this person? And the minute you build that relationship, then that person leaves that group and then you got to start over again. And so I joke, I've learned. I've had to learn how Adventure Capital World works and then the minute I figured that out, it's like now I've had to go figure out you know how congressional budgets and DoD and how all that works, and you know. So it's been. I've learned more in the last three years than I've learned, I think, in my previous 40, just because it's fascinating, but it's been a lot harder, I think. In my mind I thought the DoD, like if you build great tech, they will come, and that's not necessarily the case, and so we've had to start really building the right relationships and brought in a team that knows how to do government relations and so it's been a big learning curve. Chris: Yeah, you hate to hear that bureaucracy can get in the way of something so innovative and potentially transformative, but at the same time, I don't know anyone's gonna be shocked by that either. Right, it's kind of a sad statement. Sassie: Right, and there are lots. I've got to give the DoD credit. There's lots of groups are really pushing on innovation and recognizing that hey, we need to change and you know, one of the things that makes America great is our innovative ecosystem and how we can. You know the startup world and the venture capital and you know what happens in Silicon Valley and other places, and so there are definitely folks within the Department of Defense that recognize that's kind of the. That's what the US is, super power is, and how do we leverage it. But it's just a really slow flywheel and we'll get there. I know, because I know what we are building is so important that you know we'll be able to knock down the right barriers. But it's just been. It's been harder than I think I expected it was going to be. Chris: Yeah, it seems that way. So, as you were talking about that, I'm curious are there competitors to Venus out there, like others, that either have a similar or they've gotten permission to use the same technology, and not just necessarily in the US and other countries? Is this kind of like a you know back, going back to the 50s and 60s, when it was a race, you know, us and Russia were racing to the moon? Sassie: So in terms within the United States, you know. So, venus, our whole premise is that if you want to go really fast with a plane, instead of being a fast jet you should be a slow rocket. You know so our last rocket went mock, like when we were at Virgin orbit. It would go mock 10, split in half and then go on to mock 25. And so you know, when we're seeing mock four or even mock nine, that's slow compared to what our last last vehicle did, and so there's nobody else that's using the engine technology that we are to build fast, fast or slow rockets, and so we're kind of the only one in that realm. Like there are some other companies trying to build really fast jets. But we always say Top Gun Maverick was the perfect marketing story for us because, assuming you saw it, what happens in the very opening scenes of Top Gun Maverick? Chris: Yeah, he goes faster than what they told him he could, or why right he pushes? Sassie: he tries to push his plane to mock 10 and he literally melts his vehicle. Because if you fly fast through the soup of the atmosphere, you know it creates an incredible amount of friction and it creates an incredible amount of heat, and so it's really hard. And so, because you're a jet, the difference in a jet and a rocket is a jet has to bring. You know, go to campfire one to one. What do you need for a fire? You need fuel, oxygen and a spark. So a jet gets its oxygen from the air, which means it has to fly low enough in the atmosphere that can. It can feed its jets, which means it's got to fly through the soup. Right, we're a rocket, we're carrying our own oxygen with us in a tank, and so we can go up higher in the atmosphere where it's not as soupy, and thus fly where it's way cooler, so our vehicle won't melt. It's actually a much easier problem. So nobody that we know of in the world is looking using the engine that we're using for in the ways that we're using it Now. There are other people using this rocket engine, possibly for, you know, orbital launches, or you know we're working with NASA because they're really interested in it as a moon lander. But you know, we think we're the only ones. Now, that's not to say that some of our competitive you know, near peer competitors are not also looking at the same technology. Chris: Gotcha. Let's go back, because you said something that I found interesting you know we're going to get your take on it and that was around females in this industry and how you looked around at 38 and you were the oldest and that there aren't any in there Once you get to mid to late 30s, into the 40s. What is it? Do you think that was, or still is, maybe driving women out of the aerospace industry after you know they're in it for early, an early stage of life? Sassie: You know I've done a lot, spent a lot of time reflecting on this and I wish I knew the exact answer. I think I think it's multiple. I think one of them, when you don't have mentors, when you don't have someone older than you to mentor you and show you how it's done, you know, you decide like hey, maybe it's not worth it. I think some of it is. I mean, it wasn't unusual to have an 8pm meeting on a Thursday night when I was at Virgin Orbit sometimes, and so you know, if you're a mother and have young kids at home, like that's really hard. So just hours and expectations of hours, I can. You know. I think, as much as I would love to say it starts at a young age. There's no messaging sent to young kids, to young girls versus young boys, of like hey, you should be playing with these types of toys and boys can play with rockets. And I don't know that. I don't think society intentionally means to do that, but I think those messages still happen. I mean, I can tell you this happened recently. I was, we were given a tour here at Vina and it was with a group of very respected angels that went to a very respected university, I'm not gonna see what it is. And this gentleman came up to me and I introduced myself we hadn't started to tour anything and I said hey, I'm the CEO of Venus Aerospace. And he turns to me and he says you don't look like a very typical aerospace CEO. This is you know what 2024. Like I was so shocked by it, I didn't say anything and I wish now I'd said well, what makes me look different? Like what does an aerospace CEO look like? But that is still, I'm typically the only woman in the room when they're presenting for Venus as a founder of an aerospace company. It's just I wish I had better answers. You know, I've, even I've spent some time talking with some people that do kind of education on, you know, stem education and some of it. They even say, like you know, a lot of the engineering education is built based on how men learn, like men and women actually learn differently, and so based on how they teach, because it's been, you know, taught since, you know, for a thousand, hundreds and hundreds of years. Engineering is often taught with more how the male mindset works, and so it just tends women to be like, yeah, we're not going to go that route. Interesting. So I think it could need some changes in the academic system. But I mean, having come from a world where my husband was a professor, like there is no incentives for a professor to change how he teaches or she how she teaches. Sure, they're. They're actually, especially at a tier one research institution. They're there to, you know, do research and teaching just happens to be this little side gig, right. It's something they have to do right. It's something they have to do, not exactly? Chris: Yeah, I'm still a little shocked by the comment you got a couple of weeks ago. But so let's talk. You know, maybe digging a little bit on your own personal journey, because you're I think you said a mom of two, correct? So you know how have you managed that and navigated through. You know, still being a mom to those two, while you, I guess, one when you worked at Virgin. It couldn't have been easy, but even more challenge embarking on a startup and you know the growth that you told us about from zero or three to 50 so quickly and that. How have you tried to balance and manage your time, because I know there's clients in our firm, of our firm and listeners of this podcast that are in that same position. Sassie: Yeah, you know, I wish I could say it was easy, but it takes a lot of intentionality. So our company vision is home for dinner. We want to fly you across the globe and have you home for dinner. If you work for us, we want you home for dinner. And that's because we have, you know, as a husband and wife team, we have, you know, the two daughters that it's like we've got to be home for dinner with them because you know one of them is in high school and she's going to be out, hopefully, god willing, out of the house in a couple of years, and so we just put that in as a value from the very beginning. And so we are home, we eat dinner around the kitchen table with them almost every night I can't, you know, I can't say every night, but most of the time. Chris: No one would believe you if you said that. Sassie: Yeah, no, we don't. I mean, I just came back from two weeks of almost straight traveling and I did. I was heading to another event and I came out with my suitcase in the morning and my daughter literally looked at me and said, mom, you're leaving again. And so there are times that's hard, I can't say, I can't say I've got to figure it out, but it's being that being super intentional. And then when I do have time with them, you know, just making sure I make the most of it. It's like, you know, we do not at dinner ever have our phones out. We don't talk about Venus at all, because it's the last thing they want to hear about, you know. And then I do try we have tried to kind of sometimes bring what we're working on into their world. So I got to fly my younger daughter out to one of my events and she got to see me on stage and see what that world looks like. And so you know, getting them to understand like what we're doing, you know we've been trying to be more inclusive of that for them. Chris: I think that's great. I mean, to your point, everything's a balance, right, but I think that balance of not talking about business with them or around them all the time is smart. But introducing and incorporating a little bit about what mom and dad do isn't a bad thing. So it gives us some context about, because all they know is you leave the house and you're gone, right, and then you come back and introduce some context to that? Sassie: Well, one of my favorite stories we did. Actually we were trying to hire somebody, you know, maybe six months, a year ago, and so we were told the girls at dinner we were like, hey, we're trying to hire this person. You know, what do you think we could do to incentivize them to come? And my younger daughter was like well, what if you give them cookies? Chris: I was like you know everybody likes cookies. Sassie: That's true, So-. Chris: That would get me Exactly. Yeah, the innocence of that is, I mean, that's magical. So yeah, busy schedule, we balance this. How would you describe kind of your leadership style? Sassie: Well, that's a really interesting question. I try to lead how I would want to be led with super high integrity, positivity. I actually one of the analogies we use a lot is giving away our Legos. So I've really had to learn. We started the company and I was doing everything. Well, not the technical stuff, but I was setting up accounting, I was doing payroll, I was doing HR, I was doing all the fundraising, and so, as the company grows, I will never have more responsibility. Today is the most responsibility I will ever have, because hopefully, we'll continue to hand away Legos and so trying to really encourage people to share their Legos like the story we use all the time is, if we want to build the largest Legot Tower possible, the best way to do it is for everybody to contribute and build, and so in that case, I have to share my Legos. Chris: I love analogies. That's a good one for building a business and you're right, I think it's hard. It starts with trust, right? You have to be able to get to a level of trust to give a Lego away to someone, to take over HR, to take over accounting. Sassie: And my goal is to hire everybody smarter than I am and that's more of an expert in their area than I am, because if that's the case, then Venus will be so much better. And so I ultimately want the very best in whatever role it is, and let them have it, because they're going to be so much better equipped to do that role than I ever was. Chris: It's a great goal. Well, the story is fascinating, sassy. I can't wait to continue to watch where y'all take this, and what do you I mean unique and special opportunity right? You're literally going to change an industry. Sassie: I always say it's the adventure of a lifetime, and Andrew and I were two engineers with an idea, and it really shows the power of the American dream that there are investors out there I mean, we're not billionaires and so that there are investors out there that understand what a world changing technology can do and that are willing to back entrepreneurs and then continue to support us and help us grow. To me, it's what makes America by far the greatest country in the world. Is this type of ecosystem that happens, so it's truly just such an adventure. Chris: Let's have a little fun before we wrap up. So what was your first job? We were growing up? I was a lifeguard. Okay, and do you ever have to save any lives? Sassie: I had one time a little boy that just had walked too far out and was up under underwater. I wasn't even on duty and I would happen to be walking by and his mom was screaming and I just jumped in the water and grabbed him. Chris: Okay. Sassie: So thankfully, that was the extent of my life saving. Chris: Very good. So this is going to be an interesting question. Seventh generation Texan. You told me yeah, so do you prefer Tex-Mex or Barbecue Tex-Mex? All right, I think that's spoken like a seventh generation Texan. Sassie: I like Barbecue, but yeah, deep down anytime when we didn't live in Texas and like we lived in California, virginia, all over, the first meal that when I would come back and like stay at my parents' house, was always like greasy Tex-Mex. Chris: I can identify with that. Look, the question's not meant to be easy. It's a tough one. I mean, most people struggle, as I do, because I like them both. But you're right, that may be the best barometers what's the first meal after you've been away? Yeah, so all right. So, given what you're doing and the pace at what you're growing this company, this may be hard for you to envision. But if you could take a 30-day sabbatical, where would you go and what would you do? Sassie: I am an outdoor person, so I would go somewhere in the middle of no weather I don't know if it would be up into the mountains or on a foreign. I'd probably want to hop between like an island and like surf and snorkel and scuba and play in the water and fish and then be up in the mountains and hiking or skiing. Anything that gets me away from technology and out into nature would be my what I'd want to do. Chris: Okay, that's good, that's good. Well, sassy, thank you for taking the time. Yeah, as I mentioned, yeah, we're in a really yeah, this is March of 2024. This is International Women's Month. I can't think of a better guest to have on the podcast than you out there, showing women by example how you can be a successful entrepreneur. So, thank you. Sassie: Thank you, thanks for having me.

Episode 80. Amy Kruse is Chief Investment Officer at Satori Capital and a Venture Partner at Prime Movers Lab. Amy completed her PhD in Neuroscience at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After leaving the bench, Amy spent time as a Program Manager at DARPA and has worked in various operating roles in the neurotech industry.

Jane Poynter spent two years and 20 minutes in a biosphere back in the early 1990s. (There's a documentary about it.) Later, Poynter set her sights on a mission to Mars. Wired wrote in 2014, “Meet the Couple Who Could Be the First Humans to Travel to Mars.” The story was about Poynter and her husband, Taber MacCallum. These days, the duo is working together on building a hydrogen balloon that will take tourists to space for $125,000. Poytner came on the podcast to talk about her startup, Space Perspective. We also discussed SpaceX, Elon Musk, Virgin Galactic, and the state of the adventure tourism industry in light of the deep sea deaths on a OceanGate submersible headed to the Titanic. On the show, Poynter said that Space Perspective, which has about 130 employees, has raised almost $70 million. Prime Movers Lab and LightShed Ventures are major investors, Poynter said. She told us that she hopes to commercial operations “around the end of 2024.” Venture capitalist, chief of staff newsletter author, and AI event host Ali Rohde joined me as a guest co-host for the episode. (She's a friend of the show and I'm exploring different podcast episode formats. I always welcome your feedback and advice. In that spirit, I'll mention that I'm still looking for a podcast producer.)Think of the episode as part two in my exploration of space startups. Last week, I talked with Delian Asparouhov, the co-founder of Varda Space Industries. This week, we interrogate space tourism. Give it a listen.Highlighted ExcerptsThe transcript has been edited for clarity.What if anything did you take away from the OceanGate situation?Jane: What's fascinating is we got almost no customer questions or refund requests due to the OceanGate accident. It's incredibly different from what we do. Also, in the 60+ years of deep ocean submersible operations there had never been a fatal accident until that incident. You have to ask why. I don't want to focus on OceanGate specifically, but the big takeaway for us was that we embrace regulatory oversight. We want the FAA and Coast Guard to work with us since we also operate at sea. We go so far beyond any standards they would set that it's good for us and the industry to have that accountability and transparency. That was the main takeaway: We welcome reasonable regulations and oversight.Space tourism more akin to safaris than Virgin GalacticJane: It's interesting that you talk about Blue Origin and Virgin not being competition because the experience is so differentiated from what we offer. Our experience is more akin to incredible safaris, trips to Antarctica, and other wonder travel that deeply transforms people. That's why we priced our tickets at $125,000. It's in line with those kinds of life-changing experiences. When Antarctica tourism opened up, there was a huge demand from people willing to pay high prices for a once-in-a-lifetime trip. We're seeing incredible excitement and demand from customers wanting to go to space with us. We have an event coming up soon with over 100 of our explorers gathering here, and they all want to connect with each other too. We're building a real community around spaceflight and this experience. It's going to be such an extraordinary, bonding experience for people. I truly believe it will bring people together in a deep way.You mentioned Blue Origin, Virgin, and SpaceX — obviously some of the first names people think of when space is mentioned like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. They are controversial figures, likely quite different from our target customer base. But I'm curious. What do you think about them? Are you grateful for how they've helped popularize and mainstream space travel?Jane: Taber and I worked with Elon before he started SpaceX, so we have an interesting perspective. In the early days of SpaceX, space tourism was considered a joke and the idea that commercial companies could enable space travel or moon/Mars missions was insane. It was assumed that only governments could do that. Elon deserves a lot of credit; Gwynne Shotwell too. She's done an incredible job revolutionizing the space industry by lowering costs, improving efficiency and effectiveness, and showing us what's possible. SpaceX paved the way for the over 100 small rocket companies operating now, which never would have happened without that trailblazing. So while there are likely narrative or cultural elements we wouldn't fully align with, overall we are absolutely grateful for the pivotal role SpaceX played in advancing commercial space and making it seem achievable.What excites you about exploring space?Jane: When I think about space exploration, I don't view it as leaving Earth never to return. I actually quite like this planet! To me, space exploration is more of an extension of the perspective-broadening we do now. When people look down on Planet Earth from space, it's a mind-blowing experience. Now imagine yourself standing on the moon or Mars and seeing Earth. It's that exponentially more impactful. It will give people a wildly different perspective on what it means for all of us to live together. We should think of ourselves as one human family living on Spaceship Earth. As we venture farther out, it will become increasingly clear that we're holding up a mirror to humanity, seeing ourselves somewhere other than Earth for the first time. It's a wild concept. So that's how I view space, not as leaving the planet but expanding our perspective to appreciate that we're all in this together.How do you prevent accidents in the air?Jane: A common question we get is what happens if something goes wrong with the balloon? The balloon technology is incredibly well understood with a long legacy. Hundreds have been flown in the last 20 years without a single in-flight incident. However, we obviously need backup systems. We have a series of parachutes, similar to those used on SpaceX's Dragon capsules or other space vehicles. They are robust, proven parachutes. We have four total, with only two needed for a safe landing. The parachutes are only used in an emergency scenario because normally the ship ascends under the balloon and descends back onto the balloon, keeping the flight system consistent. This is a very safe approach, never transitioning between flight systems. We've focused on simplicity everywhere possible because simpler systems tend to be safer overall. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe

Jane Poynter spent two years and 20 minutes in a biosphere back in the early 1990s. (There's a documentary about it.) Later, Poynter set her sights on a mission to Mars. Wired wrote in 2014, “Meet the Couple Who Could Be the First Humans to Travel to Mars.” The story was about Poynter and her husband, Taber MacCallum. These days, the duo is working together on building a hydrogen balloon that will take tourists to space for $125,000. Poytner came on the podcast to talk about her startup, Space Perspective. We also discussed SpaceX, Elon Musk, Virgin Galactic, and the state of the adventure tourism industry in light of the deep sea deaths on a OceanGate submersible headed to the Titanic. On the show, Poynter said that Space Perspective, which has about 130 employees, has raised almost $70 million. Prime Movers Lab and LightShed Ventures are major investors, Poynter said. She told us that she hopes to commercial operations “around the end of 2024.” Venture capitalist, chief of staff newsletter author, and AI event host Ali Rohde joined me as a guest co-host for the episode. (She's a friend of the show and I'm exploring different podcast episode formats. I always welcome your feedback and advice. In that spirit, I'll mention that I'm still looking for a podcast producer.)Think of the episode as part two in my exploration of space startups. Last week, I talked with Delian Asparouhov, the co-founder of Varda Space Industries. This week, we interrogate space tourism. Give it a listen.Highlighted ExcerptsThe transcript has been edited for clarity.What if anything did you take away from the OceanGate situation?Jane: What's fascinating is we got almost no customer questions or refund requests due to the OceanGate accident. It's incredibly different from what we do. Also, in the 60+ years of deep ocean submersible operations there had never been a fatal accident until that incident. You have to ask why. I don't want to focus on OceanGate specifically, but the big takeaway for us was that we embrace regulatory oversight. We want the FAA and Coast Guard to work with us since we also operate at sea. We go so far beyond any standards they would set that it's good for us and the industry to have that accountability and transparency. That was the main takeaway: We welcome reasonable regulations and oversight.Space tourism more akin to safaris than Virgin GalacticJane: It's interesting that you talk about Blue Origin and Virgin not being competition because the experience is so differentiated from what we offer. Our experience is more akin to incredible safaris, trips to Antarctica, and other wonder travel that deeply transforms people. That's why we priced our tickets at $125,000. It's in line with those kinds of life-changing experiences. When Antarctica tourism opened up, there was a huge demand from people willing to pay high prices for a once-in-a-lifetime trip. We're seeing incredible excitement and demand from customers wanting to go to space with us. We have an event coming up soon with over 100 of our explorers gathering here, and they all want to connect with each other too. We're building a real community around spaceflight and this experience. It's going to be such an extraordinary, bonding experience for people. I truly believe it will bring people together in a deep way.You mentioned Blue Origin, Virgin, and SpaceX — obviously some of the first names people think of when space is mentioned like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. They are controversial figures, likely quite different from our target customer base. But I'm curious. What do you think about them? Are you grateful for how they've helped popularize and mainstream space travel?Jane: Taber and I worked with Elon before he started SpaceX, so we have an interesting perspective. In the early days of SpaceX, space tourism was considered a joke and the idea that commercial companies could enable space travel or moon/Mars missions was insane. It was assumed that only governments could do that. Elon deserves a lot of credit; Gwynne Shotwell too. She's done an incredible job revolutionizing the space industry by lowering costs, improving efficiency and effectiveness, and showing us what's possible. SpaceX paved the way for the over 100 small rocket companies operating now, which never would have happened without that trailblazing. So while there are likely narrative or cultural elements we wouldn't fully align with, overall we are absolutely grateful for the pivotal role SpaceX played in advancing commercial space and making it seem achievable.What excites you about exploring space?Jane: When I think about space exploration, I don't view it as leaving Earth never to return. I actually quite like this planet! To me, space exploration is more of an extension of the perspective-broadening we do now. When people look down on Planet Earth from space, it's a mind-blowing experience. Now imagine yourself standing on the moon or Mars and seeing Earth. It's that exponentially more impactful. It will give people a wildly different perspective on what it means for all of us to live together. We should think of ourselves as one human family living on Spaceship Earth. As we venture farther out, it will become increasingly clear that we're holding up a mirror to humanity, seeing ourselves somewhere other than Earth for the first time. It's a wild concept. So that's how I view space, not as leaving the planet but expanding our perspective to appreciate that we're all in this together.How do you prevent accidents in the air?Jane: A common question we get is what happens if something goes wrong with the balloon? The balloon technology is incredibly well understood with a long legacy. Hundreds have been flown in the last 20 years without a single in-flight incident. However, we obviously need backup systems. We have a series of parachutes, similar to those used on SpaceX's Dragon capsules or other space vehicles. They are robust, proven parachutes. We have four total, with only two needed for a safe landing. The parachutes are only used in an emergency scenario because normally the ship ascends under the balloon and descends back onto the balloon, keeping the flight system consistent. This is a very safe approach, never transitioning between flight systems. We've focused on simplicity everywhere possible because simpler systems tend to be safer overall. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe

Our Social Media Pages, follow us and engage with the Pill-grim community!Join our Entre CommunityInstagramTwitter YouTubeTikTokLinkedInAnd now for this week's prescription:On this week's dose, (1:50) you will hear about Peppermint, a new online community for adults 55+, and their $8M seed round from Primetime Partners and Redesign Health. Next, (8:14) you'll hear about Dalan Animal Health, the pioneering biotech company that recently raised a $4.5M Series Seed 3 led by Prime Movers Lab. The company developed and launched the world's first honeybee vaccine. Lastly, (13:45) stick with us for a breakdown on Resistant AI, a Prague-based startup that helps protect financial services firms from the evolving financial crime landscape. The company raised an $11M Series A extension from Notion Capital and has won b2b Digital Crime Fighter of the Year awards.Sources:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230719845294/en/Peppermint-Launches-Groundbreaking-Online-Community-to-Promote-Peer-Connection-Engagement-Amongst-Adults-55https://join.mypeppermint.com/ https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230627720385/en/Bee-Vaccine-Pioneer-Dalan-Secures-4.5M-to-Fuel-Global-Expansion-and-Product-Developmenthttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/bee-vaccine-pioneer-dalan-secures-130000686.htmlhttps://www.dalan.com/https://resistant.ai/news/resistant-ai-extends-series-a-to-27.6mhttps://news.fintech.io/post/102ii3v/resistant-ai-raises-11m-in-series-a-extension-fundingMusic Credit: Chapter One by Cole Bauer and Dean Keetonhttps://www.colebauer.com/https://www.instagram.com/deankeeton/?hl=enDisclosure:The views, statements, and opinions, expressed herein by the hosts and guests are their own, and their appearance on the podcast should not be construed as reflecting the views or implied endorsement of Independent Brokerage Solutions LLC or any of its officers, employees, or agents. The statements made herein should not be considered an investment opinion, advice, or a recommendation regarding securities of any company. This podcast is produced solely for informational purposes and is not to be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy a security.

Today I am speaking with Dr. Amy Kruse.She is a neuroscientist, General Partner, and Chief Investment Officer at Satori Neuro, a venture capital fund focused on mental health, neurotechnology, and human flourishing.Amy earned a Bachelor of Science in Cell and Structural Biology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She went on to serve as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where she oversaw the agency's first performance-oriented neuroscience programs and orchestrated scientific breakthroughs in augmented cognition, accelerated learning, optimized imagery analysis, team neurodynamics, and neuromodulation.After DARPA, she served as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Cubic Global Defense and Chief Scientific Officer of Optios.Prior to joining Satori Neuro, Dr. Kruse was a General Partner at Prime Movers Lab, where she led the fund's life sciences investments in human augmentation and longevity.In this episode, we talk about:* The neuroscience of learning;* How to improve human performance and mastery;* The connection between meditation and psychedelic research; and* The varieties of neurotechnology.Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google, or Apple.Credits:* Hosted by Zach Haigney * Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari* Find us at thetripreport.com* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com

What does a space station, a lunar lander, a nuclear reactor, and a fleet of cislunar space vehicles have in common? They're all part of serial space entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian's holding company IBX.IBX consists of:Axiom Space, which provides private flights to the ISS and is also developing a commercial space station.Intuitive Machines, which is developing autonomous lunar landing systems.X-Energy, an engineering company working on nuclear reactors and fuel design.Quantum Space, which provides payload transportation, critical data, and infrastructure services in geostationary orbit and cislunar space.This week's Pathfinder podcast features IBX's Chief Investment Officer, Anton Brevde. Anton was previously a general partner at famed deep tech venture fund, Prime Movers Lab, where he led  space investments. Payload went under the hood to understand how the four companies relate to one another and discuss the current state of the space economy, particularly:Anton's role managing the business and capital needs of four highly complex businessesFundraising for space companies in today's market environmentThe role of government as a provider of non-dilutive fundingThe most common do's and don'ts for space foundersAnd much more…This episode is brought to you by Epsilon3, software for complex engineering, testing, and operational procedures. Learn more at https://www.epsilon3.io/• Chapters • 00:00 - Intro and Epsilon3 Ad 01:12 - Experience at Prime Movers Lab (PML) 06:47 - PML's investment philosophy 08:58 - New role at IBX10:37 - Why the increased focus on the space industry? 12:36 - Responsibilities of a Chief Investment Officer 14:42 - Common thread between IBX companies19:26 - What is X-Energy?22:57 - What is Quantum Space26:06 - Epsilon Ad break 26:36 - Categorizing the space industry for an investor 32:36 - The current state of the space economy35:55 - Government intervention in space41:05 - The role of government in funding needs 49:49 - New innovations in the industry to be excited about51:56 - What do you look for in founders and what makes them successful?56:41 - Common founder mistakes 01:03:05 - Where to find Anton's blog• Show notes • IBX's website — https://i-b-x.com/Anton's blog — https://anton78704.medium.com/Anton's socials — https://twitter.com/anton_brevdeMo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam Payload's socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes • About us • Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We're also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers. Today, we're a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)

In der Mittagsfolge sprechen wir heute mit Prof. Dr. Markus Roth, Chief Science Officer von Focused Energy, über die erfolgreich abgeschlossene Series-A-Finanzierungsrunde in Höhe von 11 Millionen US-Dollar.Focused Energy ist ein Startup, welches eine laserbasierte Kernfusion zur Marktreife bringen will, um eine sichere, klimaneutrale und nahezu unerschöpfliche Energieerzeugung zu ermöglichen. Das Unternehmen nutzt dafür die in den vergangenen 30 Jahren in der Fusionsforschung gesammelten Erfahrungen. Der Ansatz zur Fusionsenergie basiert auf der am Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory entwickelten Methode, wo im Dezember 2022 der erste Nettoenergiegewinn aus der Kernfusion erzielt wurde. Das Team besteht aus Expertinnen und Experten einschlägiger Forschungsinstitute und Universitäten in Europa und den USA. Focused Energy ist ein im Jahr 2021 aus der TU Darmstadt von Dr. Anika Stein, Markus Roth, Thomas Forner und Todd Ditmire ausgegründetes deutsch-amerikanisches Unternehmen mit Sitz in Darmstadt und Austin (Texas).In einer Series A hat das Startup nun 11 Millionen US-Dollar unter der Führung von Prime Movers Lab sowie den bisherigen Investoren VCP Capital und Tony Florence eingesammelt. Damit steigt der Gesamtbetrag der Investitionen und Förderungen auf 82 Millionen US-Dollar. Im Mai gewährte das Energieministerium Focused Energy einen Zuschuss von 3 Millionen US-Dollar im Rahmen des Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. Das Unternehmen erhielt außerdem einen SPRIN-D-Preis in Höhe von 50 Millionen US-Dollar für die Entwicklung der Infrastruktur für die Laserfusion in den nächsten fünf Jahren. Darüber hinaus erhält das Unternehmen 3 Millionen US-Dollar vom Land Hessen. Die frischen Mittel sollen für die weitere Erforschung und Kommerzialisierung der Kernfusion investiert werden.Hier geht es zur Webpage von Focused Energy.

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute  Robina von Stein, Investor bei Contrarian Ventures. Robina kommentiert die Runde von 1Komma5 Grad und Focused Energy.Das deutsche Energie-Startup 1Komma5 Grad hat in einer Finanzierungsrunde 215 Millionen Euro eingesammelt und wird damit nur 23 Monate nach der Gründung zu einem Einhorn mit einer Bewertung von über einer Milliarde Euro. Die Firma plant, das frische Kapital in die Technologie zur Vernetzung der Stromproduktion, den Verbrauch und den Handel zu investieren. Zudem sind weitere Zukäufe vor allem in europäischen Ländern geplant. Zu den Investoren gehören namhafte Unternehmen wie G2VP, Porsche Ventures, Haniel, Eurazeo und b2venture. 1Komma5 Grad plant, den Umsatz im Jahr 2023 auf bis zu 600 Millionen Euro zu steigern und plant weitere Zukäufe in Spanien, Italien, Österreich und der Schweiz. Das auf Laserfusion spezialisierte Unternehmen Focused Energy hat in seiner Series A zusätzliche 11 Millionen US-Dollar eingesammelt, wodurch das Gesamtinvestment auf 82 Millionen US-Dollar erhöht wurde. Die Runde wurde von Prime Movers Lab sowie den vorherigen Investoren VCP Capital und Tony Florence angeführt. Focused Energy plant, die Mittel zur weiteren Erforschung und Kommerzialisierung der nuklearen Fusion als sichere, klimaneutrale und nahezu unerschöpfliche Energiequelle zu verwenden. Das Unternehmen, das von Chief Science Officer Markus Roth und CEO Thomas Forner geleitet wird, ist ein Spin-off der Technischen Universität Darmstadt und strebt an, in wenigen Jahren eine saubere Energieerzeugung durch laserbasierte Kernfusion zu ermöglichen. 

Moonshots and Mindsets with Peter Diamandis ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Building something meaningful will be a decade-long process; you might as well build something that is going to meaningfully make people's lives betterThe power law of returns describes how the minority of companies you invest in will deliver the majority of your returnsIf you are a technical founder, the number one mistake you can make when approaching VCs is to only talk about the technology and not the customerDo not create technologies and then look for problems that they can solve; identify problems and create technologies to solve them Understand that many of the letters and names in venture capital are made up; do not get too stuck on any of the letters or namesUnderstand what matters to the audience that you are presenting to It is better to make micro-pivots that add up to a larger pivot in aggregate than having to make a single massive pivot at onceThe desire to grow personally and contribute to the world will endlessly fuel a person Successful founders are unwilling to accept “no” for their long-term mission but are willing to make micro-adjustments along the way when presented with new informationGreat entrepreneurs fail constantly, and their failures become learnings and fuel rather than fatal injuries Equating failures with growth is a mindset that breeds long-term successConsider the scope of the problem you are trying to solve if you are a first-time founder Consider attacking a smaller niche within an area that interests you if you are a first-time founderRead the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgIn this episode, Dakin and Peter discuss tips for new entrepreneurs, how to build a successful company and the power of venture capital for the economy. You will learn about: 04:37 | The story of Prime Movers Lab 22:25 | The 'do's & don'ts' for new entrepreneurs. 35:47 | Ambitious Vs. Conservative: creating balance for your company. Dakin Sloss is a venture capitalist, founder, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab, a VC startup that's become the world's leading partner in breakthrough scientific startups. Learn more about Prime Movers Lab. _____________ I only endorse products and services I personally use. To see what they are, please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: Levels: Real-time feedback on how diet impacts your health. levels.link/peter Consider a journey to optimize your body with LifeForce. _____________ I send weekly emails with the latest insights and trends on today's and tomorrow's exponential technologies. Stay ahead of the curve, and sign up now: Tech Blog _____________ Connect With Peter: Twitter Instagram Youtube Moonshots and Mindsets

Moonshots and Mindsets with Peter Diamandis ✓ Claim : Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org. Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- In this episode, Dakin and Peter discuss tips for new entrepreneurs, how to build a successful company and the power of venture capital for the economy. You will learn about: 04:37 | The story of Prime Movers Lab 22:25 | The 'do's & don'ts' for new entrepreneurs. 35:47 | Ambitious Vs. Conservative: creating balance for your company. Dakin Sloss is a venture capitalist, founder, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab, a VC startup that's become the world's leading partner in breakthrough scientific startups. Learn more about Prime Movers Lab. _____________ I only endorse products and services I personally use. To see what they are, please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: Levels: Real-time feedback on how diet impacts your health. levels.link/peter Consider a journey to optimize your body with LifeForce. _____________ I send weekly emails with the latest insights and trends on today's and tomorrow's exponential technologies. Stay ahead of the curve, and sign up now: Tech Blog _____________ Connect With Peter: Twitter Instagram Youtube Moonshots and Mindsets

Moonshots and Mindsets with Peter Diamandis ✓ Claim Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Building something meaningful will be a decade-long process; you might as well build something that is going to meaningfully make people's lives betterThe power law of returns describes how the minority of companies you invest in will deliver the majority of your returnsIf you are a technical founder, the number one mistake you can make when approaching VCs is to only talk about the technology and not the customerDo not create technologies and then look for problems that they can solve; identify problems and create technologies to solve them Understand that many of the letters and names in venture capital are made up; do not get too stuck on any of the letters or namesUnderstand what matters to the audience that you are presenting to It is better to make micro-pivots that add up to a larger pivot in aggregate than having to make a single massive pivot at onceThe desire to grow personally and contribute to the world will endlessly fuel a person Successful founders are unwilling to accept “no” for their long-term mission but are willing to make micro-adjustments along the way when presented with new informationGreat entrepreneurs fail constantly, and their failures become learnings and fuel rather than fatal injuries Equating failures with growth is a mindset that breeds long-term successConsider the scope of the problem you are trying to solve if you are a first-time founder Consider attacking a smaller niche within an area that interests you if you are a first-time founderRead the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgIn this episode, Dakin and Peter discuss tips for new entrepreneurs, how to build a successful company and the power of venture capital for the economy. You will learn about: 04:37 | The story of Prime Movers Lab 22:25 | The 'do's & don'ts' for new entrepreneurs. 35:47 | Ambitious Vs. Conservative: creating balance for your company. Dakin Sloss is a venture capitalist, founder, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab, a VC startup that's become the world's leading partner in breakthrough scientific startups. Learn more about Prime Movers Lab. _____________ I only endorse products and services I personally use. To see what they are, please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: Levels: Real-time feedback on how diet impacts your health. levels.link/peter Consider a journey to optimize your body with LifeForce. _____________ I send weekly emails with the latest insights and trends on today's and tomorrow's exponential technologies. Stay ahead of the curve, and sign up now: Tech Blog _____________ Connect With Peter: Twitter Instagram Youtube Moonshots and Mindsets

In this episode, Dakin and Peter discuss tips for new entrepreneurs, how to build a successful company and the power of venture capital for the economy. You will learn about: 04:37 | The story of Prime Movers Lab 22:25 | The 'do's & don'ts' for new entrepreneurs. 35:47 | Ambitious Vs. Conservative: creating balance for your company. Dakin Sloss is a venture capitalist, founder, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab, a VC startup that's become the world's leading partner in breakthrough scientific startups. Learn more about Prime Movers Lab. _____________ I only endorse products and services I personally use. To see what they are,  please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: Levels: Real-time feedback on how diet impacts your health. levels.link/peter  Consider a journey to optimize your body with LifeForce. _____________ I send weekly emails with the latest insights and trends on today's and tomorrow's exponential technologies. Stay ahead of the curve, and sign up now:  Tech Blog _____________ Connect With Peter: Twitter Instagram Youtube Moonshots and Mindsets Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to build a power plant in the U.S.? Here are three things to know.  First, connecting a wind farm, utility-scale battery, or other big source of power to the grid means getting in line. A typical project's wait time has increased from around two years in 2005 to four years in 2020, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  Second, the interconnection queue is a crowded place. In 2020 there were 1.44 terawatts of projects in the queue. That's more than the U.S.'s current fleet of generation. Third, dropouts are the norm. Only 25% of projects make it to completion. Projects withdraw from the queue for lots of reasons, but wait times are a big factor. During long waits, negotiations can fall apart and rights can expire, reports Emma Penrod of Utility Dive. Why the bottleneck and long queues? Lack of transmission is the single biggest factor. We need way more of it to bring power from rural areas with rich wind and solar potential to power-hungry population centers. But NIMBYism and a complex permitting process have slowed the construction of new transmission to a glacial pace. So while congress debates permitting reform, what technologies could help us get more energy on the wires? In this episode, guest host Lara Pierpoint talks to Liza Reed, electricity transmission Research manager for climate policy at the Niskanen Center, a think tank in Washington D.C. She's also a grid fellow at Prime Movers Lab. Lara and Liza explore ways to expand transmission capacity: Replacing steel-reinforced lines with composite-core lines to carry more energy, known in the industry as “reconductoring” High-voltage direct current lines capable of sending lots of power long distances (a common solution in China but rare in the U.S.)  Running transmission lines underground, known as “undergrounding” Building lines along existing rights of way, such as highways High temperature superconductors, which involve cooling wires down to carry more power Line monitoring technology that analyzes local weather, wind and other factors to detect which lines are cooler than expected, allowing grid operators to send extra power through them Improving grid studies that determine what kinds of upgrades are needed for interconnection  Federal permitting reform, which might allow more new transmission to be built Resources: Utility Dive: Why the energy transition broke the U.S. interconnection system Volts Podcast: Transmission month: everything in one place Canary Media: Manchin's permitting-reform bill splits Dems, pro-renewables groups Canary Media: New software can find more room for clean energy on transmission grids Canary Media: FERC has a new plan to connect clean energy to the grid more quickly Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media. Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more. Solar Power International and Energy Storage International are returning in-person this year as part of RE+. Come join everyone in Anaheim for the largest, B2B clean energy event in North America. Catalyst listeners can receive 15% off a full conference, non-member pass using promo code CANARY15. Register here.

What Is a BCI? And just as importantly, what isn't a BCI? This is an unusual episode and an incredibly fun one. Arun and JoJo enlisted some of the field's top folks to talk through what's in and what's out in this exciting field. https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyakruse2020/ (Amy Kruse) is a general partner at Prime Movers Lab and a self-professed Founder turned Funder (and a neuroscientist by training), https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-angle-6aa34850/ (Matt Angle) is the founder and CEO of Paradromics - developing high data rate BCIs, and https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-gerhardt-1583524/ (Marcus Gerhardt) is the co-founder and CEO of Blackrock Neurotech and is hoping that their BCIs will disrupt the standard for patient care for the 600 million people that suffer from neurological disorders.  This episode has it all - technical glitches, laughter, ruffled feathers (Arun's specialty), and some tantalizing discussions around definitions, dystopia, and delivering on the promise of this incredible technology.  Arun picks at and Matt defends the valuations of BCI companies - replete with funny characters and great voice acting. Amy chimes in with her point of view (plot twist: she's on the side of massive market potential) while Marcus makes the claim that BCI companies are, in fact, under valued. In short, this episode is pretty much your best chance at eavesdropping on a tantalizing conversation among some truly brilliant people on a fascinating topic.  SKRAPS is your podcast, where we on your behalf explores unsaid, under-appreciated and sometimes, untold stories of sparks of brilliance in science, technology and innovation. Show Credits Created & Produced by: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arun11sridhar/ (Arun Sridhar) & https://www.linkedin.com/in/jojoplatt/ (JoJo Platt) Editing: Arun Sridhar Social Media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastSkraps (@PodcastSkraps) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skrapspodcast (SKRAPS) https://twitter.com/skrappyscience (Arun's Twitter Feed) https://twitter.com/RockinRedSF (JoJo's Twitter Feed) You can help us fund the production costs by donating as little as $5 or £5 or in any currency of your choice as a one time or a recurring payment HERE

Welcome back to Neurotech Pub! In this episode we're talking about sleep–why we sleep, how sleep works on a neurophysiological level, and some of the emerging sleep technologies that are about to revolutionize this essential neural activity.  Our guests are Amy Kruse, PhD, General Partner at Prime Movers Lab, Ram Gurumoorthy, PhD, Founder and CTO of Stimscience & Somnee, and Luis de Lecea, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. This episode also features a video introduction to sleep stages by Paradromics Intern Zoe Lalji. This is essential viewing if you're unfamiliar with the stages of sleep and want to follow along later in the episode. Cheers!Show Notes:  00:00 | Episode intro with Matt Angle and Amy Kruse1:07 | StimScience in Fast Company5:05 | Learned Motor Patterns Are Replayed in Human Motor Cortex during Sleep6:43 | Connect with Prime Movers Lab7:01 | PML on Medium7:45 | Introduction to Sleep StagesReferences: Stages of Sleep Overview REM vs Non-REM SleepSleep WalkingBenefits of REM SleepConsequences of low REM sleepImportance of Deep SleepCheck out Zoe's nonprofit organization, ALS Heroes, and her Ted Talk12:24 | Pulling all-nighters12:50 | Amy Kruse, PhD13:00 | Ram Gurumoorthy, PhD13:07 | Stimscience, now Somnee13:30 | Luis de Lecea, PhD18:26 | Gordon Rule, PhD18:40 | Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004)19:50 | Why do we sleep?20:26 | Sleep drives metabolite clearance from the adult brain20:35 | Sleep & DNA Repair22:13 | Neural Activity can cause DNA damage23:22 | Jerry Seigal24:26 | DARPA Sleep Research24:55 | Fur seals and sleep25:08 | How do Whales and Dolphins Sleep Without Drowning?25:54 | Putting Humans in Stasis Is the Best Way of Getting Us to Mars27:36 | Sleep and Mortality28:09 | The Sleeping Brain: Harnessing the Power of the Glymphatic System through Lifestyle Choices28:27 | Giulio Tononi, MD, PhD28:45 | Sleep, Memory, and Plasticity28:52 | Sleep Cognition and Memory29:00 | Sleeping up and down the phylogenetic tree29:05 | Actually...worms do sleep29:20 | Decoding sleep29:36 | Fruit flies and their mini sleeps29:44 | Mapping sleep in the brain30:35 | Hypocretin-positive neurons31:17 | Clearly Matt slept through his midterm... again31:57 | The hypocretins/orexins: integrators of multiple physiological functions32:05 | Stress-sleep interactions33:30 | The Science of Narcolepsy35:08 | Equivalence of sleep deprivation and intoxication | Additional reference36:21 | Sleep Pressure: Homeostatic Sleep Drive 40:38 | EEG Visualization of electrodermal activity during sleep44:08 | Circuitry of Sleep Stages45:00 | Regional slow waves and spindles in human sleep | Local sleep in awake rats48:00 | Emerging Sleep Technologies1:00:56 | Hypothalamus and SleepWant More?Follow Neurotech Pub on TwitterFollow Paradromics on Twitter, LinkedIn, and InstagramFollow Matt on LinkedIn and Twitter

In this episode, our host Giovanni Lauricella and our guest Amy Kruse discuss the most investable skill set of an entrepreneur, her background in neuroscience, what areas they want to invest in, why they like to lead or co-lead a round, what round they invest in, determining if she really wants to work with someone and how that factors into writing a check, the importance of seeking advice from seasoned entrepreneurs and so much more. Amy Kruse LinkedIn Prime Movers Lab Website Project Medtech Website Giovanni Lauricella LinkedIn Project Medtech LinkedIn

Private Medical physicians Dr. Jordan Shlain, Dr. Natalie Walsh, and Dr. Hadi Halazun are joined by Dr. Amy Kruse, general partner of Prime Movers Lab, where she leads their life sciences investments. They discuss what constitutes good sleep hygiene, how to engineer our sleep as we age, and the new neuroscience therapeutics toolkit that taps into our more recent understanding of neuroplasticity and networks in the brain.

In this Space Café Radio -  SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Christie Iacomini, Vice President of Engineering at Prime Movers Lab at the LEO Kinetic Space Safety Workshop in Lausanne about threats and risks in Low Earth Orbit and how to move forward to a sustainable future in space.The LEO Kinetic Space Safety Workshop, 4-5 May 2022 in Lausanne aimed to provide specific solutions and pragmatic actions to enhance collisional space safety in low Earth orbit (LEO). The workshop brought together international experts, space practitioners and others to debate specific solutions over the course of two days. This workshop was organised by the eSpace Center at EPFL with the support of AXA XL, ClearSpace, LeoLabs, and Secure World Foundation.Space Cafe Radio brings our talks, our interviews, our impressions to you. In this format, you will hear conversations or the entire team of SpaceWatchers while being out on the road. Each show will have a specific topic, unique content and a very personal touch. Enjoy the show format and let us know your input to radio@spacewatch.global .

To kick off her series on women leading deep tech investments, VP at Boost VC, Maddie Callander, sat down with Prime Movers Lab General Partner, Suzanne Fletcher, to discuss her passion for deep tech and the opportunities that it presents. Suzanne Fletcher is a General Partner at Prime Movers Lab, which invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by the world's prime movers – the inventors who transform billions of lives across energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture. Fletcher started her career at Morgan Stanley as an analyst in the tech and BioTech spaces and spent a decade on the LP side before moving to the direct investing side, where she remains to this day.

What does the built environment look like in a net zero world? Find out on this week's episode of Cleantech Forward!Director of carbonNEXT Jason Switzer, Marty Reed of Evok Innovations, and Carly Anderson of Prime Movers Lab are joined by Scott Jenkins of ZS2 Technology. Scott pitches his technology to this panel of investors, and shares his thoughts on the barriers facing disruptive innovators, and his vision for the future of our built environment.Scott Jenkins is the CEO and co-founder of ZS2 Technologies. In that role, he works to accelerate the development and adoption of construction technologies which are stronger, safer and healthier for people and the planet.Learn more about the exciting technologies being developed by ZS2 Technologies.Cleantech Forward is supported by Gowling WLG.

Take a seat at the table as leading cleantech investors share their insights about impact investing. What are they looking for? What's the outlook for Canadian cleantech? What happens behind the scenes after a pitch meeting?In this episode of Cleantech Forward, carbonNEXT director Jason Switzer is joined by co-host Marty Reed of Evok Innovations, and Carly Anderson of Prime Movers Lab for a frank discussion about investing in cleantech. Find out more about Evok Innovations.See what projects Prime Movers Lab has its eyes on.Find out more about Canada's CCUS cluster at carbonNEXT.The Cleantech Forward podcast is supported by Gowling WLG.

When you think of startup companies advancing the state of technology, software is probably the first thing that comes to mind. But scientific breakthroughs are still coming in the world of atoms, and that’s what venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab invests in. To give us a sense of their vision for the future, the VC firm put together a “Breakthrough Science Roadmap” to describe what a life of abundance in 2050 might be like. In this episode of “Political Economy” I’m joined by Ramez Naam and Christie Iacomini from Prime Movers Lab to discuss that uplifting vision of tomorrow and how startups are working to realize it. Ramez is a computer scientist and Chief Futurist at Prime Movers Lab, while Christie is an aerospace engineer and Vice President of Engineering.

When you think of startup companies advancing the state of technology, software is probably the first thing that comes to mind. But scientific breakthroughs are still coming in the world of atoms, and that's what venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab invests in. To give us a sense of their vision for the future, the VC firm put together a "https://www.primemoverslab.com/roadmap/ (Breakthrough Science Roadmap)" to describe what a life of abundance in 2050 might be like. In this episode of "Political Economy" I'm joined by Ramez Naam and Christie Iacomini from Prime Movers Lab to discuss that uplifting vision of tomorrow and how startups are working to realize it. Ramez is a computer scientist and Chief Futurist at Prime Movers Lab, while Christie is an aerospace engineer and Vice President of Engineering.

When you think of startup companies advancing the state of technology, software is probably the first thing that comes to mind. But scientific breakthroughs are still coming in the world of atoms, and that’s what venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab invests in. To give us a sense of their vision for the future, the VC […]

First, Jason teaches Sunday VC School: how investors work together (01:54). In this segment you will learn. 1. How collaboration varies across investing stages. 2. How lead investors are determined and what their responsibilities are. 3. The strategies you can use to win deals (Jason explains the pitch he gives to founders with options). 4. The warning signs to watch for when working with other investors. 5. Tactics founders can use for lower-friction fundraising. Then, Molly chats with Ramez Naam from Prime Movers Lab in a This Week in Climate Startups segment (35:10). They discuss the declining costs of renewable energy, making the choice between advancing existing technologies and inventing new ones, how science fiction can make you a better investor and more.

First, Jason teaches Sunday VC School: how investors work together (01:54). In this segment you will learn.: How collaboration varies across investing stages. How lead investors are determined and what their responsibilities are. The strategies you can use to win deals (Jason explains the pitch he gives to founders with options). The warning signs to watch for when working with other investors. Tactics founders can use for lower-friction fundraising. Then, Molly chats with Ramez Naam from Prime Movers Lab in a This Week in Climate Startups segment (35:10). They discuss the declining costs of renewable energy, making the choice between advancing existing technologies and inventing new ones, how science fiction can make you a better investor and more. (00:00) Jason and Molly introduce the show (01:54) Sunday VC School - how investors work together (06:53) How collaboration varies across investing stages (08:43) Odoo - Get your first app free and a $1000 credit at https://odoo.com/twist (09:49) Why seeing other late stage investors be passive in a deal is a warning sign (11:20) How raising from more investors can be actually be easier than raising from a few (15:44) Lead investor responsibilities (20:09) Fellow - Sign up and get $1000 in credits at https://fellow.app/twist (21:38) How VCs can win over founders (26:44) Do VCs get offended by what order they get into a startup? (29:16) Will investors still invest if the founder picked another VCs term sheet? (31:33) Molly and Jason introduce the next segment (33:25) Revelo - Get 20% off the first 3 months by mentioning TWIST at https://revelo.io/twist (35:10) This Week in Climate Startups - Ramez Naam (37:55) Advancing existing technologies vs. inventing new ones (42:19) Early stage climate investing (46:43) The declining costs of renewable energy (52:52) Confronting climate tech skeptics (57:06) How writing science fiction impacts Ramez's investing Check out Prime Movers Lab: https://www.primemoverslab.com/ FOLLOW Ramez: https://twitter.com/ramez FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

Bay Area-based Diamond Age this week announced that it has raised $8 million. The seed round is led by Prime Movers Lab and Alpaca VC and features a slew of additional firms, including Dolby Family Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels, Towerview Ventures, GFA Venture Partners and Suffolk Construction. The startup looks to put a slew of […]

JJ Moi has been raised most of his life in Thailand and did his undergrad in industrial design there, majored in furniture design. Then back to San Francisco to do his masters in data visualization and worked as a UX designer for the past decade, mostly in startups, but also had a fair share in the public sector.Currently, he is working as VC design partner at Prime Movers Lab investing and working with startups that create breakthroughs in science that impact billions of lives such as in the areas of space transportation and autonomous vehicles, solar & nuclear energy, robotics & semiconductors, neuroscience & longevity, engineered food & automated agriculture.Tune in as he discusses his role, he cites some innovative products that he'd helped bring to market, design systems, work for the government, work directly with the founders and executives who are amazing scientists, and what are his roles? It includes but not limited to:Design playbooks to create the right set of beliefs and design principlesDesign review and pay extra attention to design details that the engineering and science teams might overlookUser research to validating user needsreducing waste and unwanted featuresPrototyping new ideas for analyzing ideas and user testingCreating a delightful user experience to support customer journeysCreate brand strategy and identity that presents a lovable brandHelp with recruiting and hiring for top design rolesLinks:Connect with JJhttps://jjmoi.com/ 

Joe Lonsdalewas an early institutional investor in notable companies including Wish, Oculus, Oscar, Illumio, Blend, Orca Bio, RelateIQ, Joby Aviation, Synthego, Guardant Health, and in 2016 and 2017 was the youngest member of the Forbes 100 Midas List. He is also the co-founder of Palantir, a multi-billion dollar global software company best known for its work in defense and finance. Most recently, he was a founding partner at Formation 8, one of the top-performing private funds and the precursor to 8VC. Dakin Sloss is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is the Founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab, the world's leading partner of breakthrough scientific startups. He has led investments in and is a Board Member at Momentus, Heliogen, Covaxx, Tarana, and Carbon Capture. Prime Movers Lab I is on track to be one of the top-performing funds of 2018. Prior to founding Prime Movers Lab, Dakin served as founding CEO of Tachyus and OpenGov. ————————————————————————— To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit *salt.org/talks* ( http://salt.org/talks ) Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci.

A SaaS platform company in the Solar Power Industry, Prescinto, has raised $3.5M in seed funding. Prescinto is looking at revolutionizing the solar power industry by improving efficiency of solar plants using AI and Machine Learning driven platforms that will help Solar Plants identify their root issues for underperformance. The Funding round was led by Inflection Point Ventures along with Venture Catalysts, Mumbai Angels and Lets Venture. This infusion of finances will help realize Prescinto's goals of improving Solar Power plants globally.UK based Home Care SaaS company that uses Machine learning has raised £4.5 million pre-Series A funding. The funding round organized by West Hill Capital was 50% oversubscribed. The funds will be used to roll out Machine Learning enabled care solutions for those in independent living conditions to help in efficiency of care given.As one of the most happening occurrences currently in the world, NFT marketplaces are exploding in popularity as collectors wade into the trading of nonfungible tokens on the blockchain. OpenSea, a startup in the field that was launched in 2017, has announced that it has bagged its latest funding round of $23M led by Andreessen Horowitz along with participation from other angels and firms including Naval Ravikant, Mark Cuban, Alexis Ohanian, Dylan Field and Linda Xie.Slapdash, is seeking to increase performance in the workplace by aiming to carve out a new niche for itself among workplace software tools. Sources say that slapdash has raised $3.7 million in seed funding from investors that include S28 Capital, Quiet Capital, Quarry Ventures, UP2398 and Twenty Two Ventures. Angels participating in the round include co-founders at companies like Patreon, Docker and Zynga.Kuda Technologies, has just announced that it has received $25M in Series A funds.The round was led by Peter Theil's, Valar Ventures, along with Target Global and other unnamed investors. Valar, a company that has invested in a number of fintech startups, is funding an African Startup for the first time. Kuda had raised a seed round of $10M led by Target Global just four months ago and is estimated to be the largest ever seed round raised by a startup out of Africa. Kuda's CEO, Ogundeyi said in an interview that they plan to use the new funds to continue expanding its credit offerings, and add more integrations as well as move into other markets.Fortify raises $20 M in Series B funding towards its composite manufacturing 3D Printing. Other companies in the field including Markforged, Desktop Metal and new-comer Mantel have all made big announcements recently. Now Fortify is making the round with a significant raise of a $20 million dollar Series B equity round. This round was led by Cota Capital with participation from Accel Partners, Neotribe Ventures and Prelude Ventures.Founded in 2018, Fort Robotics today announced a $13 million raise. Led by Prime Movers Lab, the round also features Prologis Ventures, Quiet Capital, Lemnos Labs, Creative Ventures, Ahoy Capital, Compound, FundersClub and Mark Cuban.

Greg wraps up his chat with Dakin Sloss, the Founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab. In part two, Dakin shares why his team is considered founder friendly and why their group is so attractive to investors.

This week, Greg hangs out with Dakin Sloss, the Founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab. Dakin's company made news last week when they announced that they had raised $245 million for its second early-stage investment fund. In part one, Dakin explains what his team was able to accomplish with their first round of funding, how they support dozens of scientific disruptors and why Prime Movers Lab exists.