Think Sci-Fi.

In the fast-paced world of venture capital, where innovation meets investment, a critical chasm often hinders progress - a mere 19% of venture capitalists (VCs) possess scientific or technological expertise. This discrepancy creates a significant translation problem, particularly for visionary deep tech founders seeking funding and understanding from potential investors.

Deep tech investments hold immense promise and often spark enthusiasm among venture capitalists. However, balancing that excitement with rational decision-making is crucial to ensure the best possible investment choices. In our latest episode, Adam Draper talks with Maryanna Saenko, co-founder and Partner at Future Ventures, an early-stage VC firm that focuses on mission-driven companies at the cutting edge of disruptive technology. Maryanna shares her thoughts on how to navigate the initial excitement and make informed investment decisions in the world of deep tech startups.

Deep tech founders are either technically gifted or great at building a business. But it’s seldom both, at least in the beginning. So, what should venture investors pay attention to when we’re choosing founders in these disruptive technologies?

On this episode of Boost VC, Adam is joined by Greg Castle, Founder and Managing Director of Anorak Ventures, a firm that invests in early-stage deep-tech startups. An entrepreneur and corporate marketer turned VC, Greg has invested in 120 companies, including Oculus, Flexport, and Mux. Greg explains how his view of venture investing has changed since he wrote his first check, explaining what he looks for in a founder and how he evaluates deep tech startups differently. 

Eclipse Ventures is a VC firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to redefine physical industries through deep tech innovation. Seth Winterroth, a Partner at Eclipse, brings nine years of venture capital experience, having previously worked at GE Ventures.

In a recent episode of Boost VC, Seth shares insights into how Eclipse approaches investments in emerging technologies and develops their investment thesis. Eclipse focuses on small teams of engineers who solve complex development problems, with a particular emphasis on industries operating in the physical world, which constitutes around 80% of global GDP.

Ian Rountree, the Founder and General Partner at Cantos Ventures, is one individual who is genuinely inspired by deep tech and its transformative potential. Cantos is a venture fund that invests explicitly in startups working on deep tech solutions with the aim of addressing global challenges and making a meaningful difference in the world. Their focus areas include hardware and bio investing at the intersection of climate and industrials, life sciences and AI, aerospace and defense, and next-generation computing.

On this episode of the Boost VC podcast, Niklas Rindtorff discusses the power of decentralized science, or #DeSci, in providing a space for ambitious scientists who don't fit into academia or startups. DeSci acts as a connective tissue between research organizations and tech ventures, bridging the gap and enabling inventors to pursue their work.

LabDAO, Niklas' brainchild, equips scientists with tools for remote work, focusing on computational biology. His inspiration came from facing bureaucratic hurdles with inventions. He emphasizes measuring impact through patient outcomes rather than citations.

On this episode of Boost VC, Ben and George join us to explain how bringing back the woolly mammoth addresses climate change and explore their approach to the ethical concerns around de-extinction. They discuss the benefits of Colossal technology beyond Arctic rewilding, describing how their work helps endangered animals and promotes conservation.

On this episode of Boost VC, James joins us to discuss where he sees opportunities in DeSci, describing the benefit of publishing null results and how open science helps us get to the truth more quickly. James explains how the Orange Fund and Orange DAO work together to finance crypto projects and shares his advice to scientist-founders on generating your own luck through action.

On this episode of Boost VC, Paul and Tyler join us to explain how their personal experiences with the failures of healthcare inspired their interest in changing the system. They discuss Molecule's end-to-end ecosystem for bringing drugs to market, describing how their IP-NFT both protects innovation and makes it more open, sharable and collaborative.

Listen in for insight on Eroom's Law and learn how open science leads to enormous efficiency gains in the drug development process.

On this episode of Boost VC, Jocelynn joins us to explain how DeSci solves for speed of translation and communicates science better than existing systems, exploring how the movement might specifically facilitate breakthroughs around rare disease. Jocelynn discusses how academia owns the best scientific minds without rewarding them appropriately and describes how DAOs offer alternatives to classic academic publishing and drug development.

Listen in as Jocelynn makes the case that scientists are the unappreciated creator class and learn how access to the right advisors and capital can accelerate the decentralized science movement.

On this episode of Boost VC, Patrick joins us to discuss the misalignment of incentives in science and describe the problem with using bibliometrics to determine who receives funding. Patrick explains why decentralizing science is so important, exploring how DeSci will increase the adoption of open science practices and accelerate innovation in the space.

Listen in to understand how DeSci can pressure large academic journals to pay content creators for their work and learn how ResearchHub is leveraging Web3 to make capital available to scientists.

On this episode of Boost VC, Chris and Philipp join us to explain what inspired their interest in decentralized science and explore what differentiates success for science versus individual scientists. They walk us through the goals of the open science movement and weigh in on how DeSci tech provides new ways of funding research and makes scientific knowledge available to everyone.

Listen in for insight around the grassroots movement known as metascience and learn how DeSci is working to improve the quality of the scientific record and reward scientists for the value they create.

The media is filled with experts comparing today’s market with the dot-com crash of 2000. But few, if any, of these experts actually lived and worked through the dot-com boom and bust.

Marc Andreessen is Founder and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Tim Draper is Founder and Managing Director at Draper VC. And both Marc and Tim were either running or investing in tech startups at the time…

Boost VC Co-Founder & Partner, Brayton Williams was the first member of Boost VC to buy a Bitcoin at but unfortunately also the first to sell. Since joining Adam Draper in 2012 to start Boost VC, Brayton has been deep in the crypto community and an expert in the space. You can learn more about him through these podcasts and by following him on twitter - https://twitter.com/BraytonKey

I got to sit down with Ed Lu and interview him. He has spent more than 200 days in Space and is the Executive Director of the B612 Foundation, a non-profit keeping the earth safe from Asteroids.

I got to interview Anjney Midha, Founder and CEO of Ubiquity6. Anjney started his career on the VC side of the table, and then left to solve a major technical challenge in the VR/AR space. One of the topics I breach with him in this podcast is about his perceptions on venture now that he is on the opposite side of the table.