Hi! I’m a VC investing in frontier technology at the seed stage.
I landed in venture at Compound after an atypical background of doing marketing and SaaS market research at a startup acquired by Gartner, studying data science, and a little bit of everything at a startup focused on creating experimental educational initiatives for cutting edge STEM fields (think computational neuroscience for the NIH, or aerospace for NASA). The common thread through all of this has been a lot of self-directed learning. I also dropped out of university, community college, and a bootcamp.
Our firm takes a very thesis-driven approach to investing in new technology, which entails digging into white-papers and other research, and finding hubs where the seeds of these developments are growing. Some of the areas I’ve focused on most are: near-term quantum computing and hybrid quantum-classical algorithms, trucking and logistics, edtech, game engines and infrastructure, personalized medicine and healthcare (especially women’s health & food as medicine) privacy-preserving machine learning (federated learning, for example), and lab automation.
I also angel invest with Audrey Capital! You can find my shorter form thoughts here on Substack.
INTERESTS
Inspired by Devon Zugel – a few things I like to think about and/or I want to learn about
- How we define truth, and how this contrasts to how we’ve done so historically, and how it relates to science and faith
- Education and it’s ideals
- Non-verbal communication
- The overlap of machine learning, education, neuroscience, and developmental theory
- Dance
- Linguistics
- Theology and religious history
- Quantum information theory
- The handcrafts that underly clothing & fashion – textiles, beading, printmaking, etc.
If you want to see what I’m researching related to frontier tech and Compound, check out our twitter research page or my are.na repository of loose strands.
PROJECTS
One time I helped raise $47M to try to buy the US Constitution with 30 other core contributors and ConsitutitionDAO. (Someone made us this song, too!)
PODCASTS
This Week in Startups (May, 2022)
How I got into VC, we approach frontier tech and research driven investing, our investment in Pear Bio (organ-on-a-chip + CV for better chemotherapy recommendation).
ConstitionDAO (March, 2022)
A story about a strange auction for perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in America.
What’s Happening in Fintech Today (December, 2021)
Buying the US Constitution, DAOs, and what I’d do differently next time.
The Vance Crowe Podcast (May, 2020)
Some thoughts on ritual, AI, how I got into venture capital, fashion, and how I use Twitter.
The Other Life Podcast (August, 2020)
On joining VC, my experience with Lambda School and atypical education paths, being a Christian in tech, and using Twitter to learn.
Hope in Source Podcast (May, 2020)
What does flourishing look like? I joined Henry to chat about faith in a less reductive way (than many of us may of grown up with). On rationality, the Church as a body, education, liturgy, family, being productive, and simply doing things for its own sake – all tying back to a picture of shalom!
Housekeeping
You can find some of my older writing on my Medium, here.