According to a BCG report, only 19% of VCs have some kind of scientific or technological competence. And that creates a translation problem between deep tech founders and investors. To close that gap, Arkady Kulik and his cofounder, Tamaz Khunjua, built RPV, a venture fund that brings scientific expertise to the market and helps scientists become s…

If a VC is excited about a deep tech company upfront, what can we do to temper our enthusiasm and make a rational decision on whether to invest? Maryanna Saenko is Cofounder and Partner at Future Ventures, an early-stage VC firm that focuses on mission-driven companies at the cutting edge of disruptive technology. Future Ventures looks to back visi…

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? Greg Castle is Founder and Managing Director at Anorak Ventures, a firm that invests in early-stage deep …

How does a venture firm approach investments in deep technology? Seth Winterroth is Partner at Eclipse Ventures, a VC firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build companies that redefine physical industries. Seth has nine years of experience in venture capital, serving as Associate at GE Ventures before he joined the team at Eclipse. …

What inspires a venture firm to focus on deep tech? Ian Rountree is Founder and General Partner at Cantos, a venture fund that invests in potentially world-changing deep tech startups. Cantos focuses on hardware and bio investing at the intersection of climate and industrials, life sciences and AI, aerospace and defense, and next-generation computi…

Many independently minded, young scientists are too ambitious for academia… But the startup world isn’t quite right for them either. How might decentralized science provide a space for these innovators to do their work? Niklas Rindtorff is the classical scientist behind LabDAO, an online home for inventors that builds open tools for scientific rese…

In academia, most scientists publish their ideas and stop there. But if we want our breakthroughs to benefit society, we have to take it a step further. So, what does it look like to commercialize scientific research? What mindset do academics need to work at the intersection of science and industry? Ben Lamm has a career of building successful dee…

Why invest in decentralized science? James Sinka is a classically trained chemist and materials engineer and DeSci investor at Orange DAO, a fund for crypto projects supported by an alliance of Y Combinator alumni. On this episode of Boost VC, James joins us to discuss where he sees opportunities in DeSci, describing the benefit of publishing null …

Under the current centralized system, drug development happens in silos. Pharmaceutical companies don’t share information. Scientists run the same failed experiments over and over again. And the process of bringing a drug to market typically takes ten-plus years. But Paul Kohlhaas and Tyler Golato are building a new way to do drug development. A sy…

The internet has given content creators of all kinds a way to monetize their talents. Writers have Medium. Teachers and vloggers have YouTube. But scientists don’t have a platform to earn money for their research. That’s why Dr. Jocelynn Pearl calls scientists the ‘unappreciated creator class.’ And that’s why she’s working to further the DeSci move…

Only 1% of first year PhD students become research professors. This creates a hypercompetitive environment where scientists will do whatever it takes to get funding, even if that means tweaking statistical analyses to make their findings seem more significant. But decentralized science is working to address this egregious misalignment of incentives…

At Boost VC, we’re known for supporting early-stage blockchain startups. Why is that such an important part of our identity? Because institutional trust is dying. And that trust is being passed down to the individual through peer-to-peer technologies. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are solving for trust in our financial system. But what other i…

The system for publishing scientific research is broken. Academic success is measured by citations rather than scientific quality. And publishing companies have a monopoly on the knowledge scientists produce. Can we use blockchain technology to promote the verifiability of scientific findings? And make science accessible to everyone? Dr. Christophe…

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 eithe…

This episode features leaders from two different sectors who are working together to advance the decentralized science movement. Allison Deuttmann is the CEO of Foresight Institute, a nonprofit that benefits the development of high-impact technologies. It was founded back in 1987 and continues to pave the way for new work in science and technology.…

Today's episode is a collaboration with David Lang, executive director of Experiment Foundation and creator and host of Science Better. David and Jocelynn talk about crowdfunding for science, some of the twists and turns of building new platforms, and lessons learned from open science and citizen science communities. They also get into the idealism…

Ethan Perlstein started his company with Silicon Valley funding and a Bay Area lab, taking a traditional, centralized path to working on drug development and drug repurposing. But that was back in 2014. Today, his public benefit corporation (Perlara), looks like a very different business, made up of biotech consultants from around the world that wo…

It started with a tweet. A 25 year old woman named Mallory was suffering from an infection that had failed all antibiotic treatments. A researcher named Dr. Steffanie Strathdee was using Twitter to hunt for the impossible - a scientist somewhere in the world who might have the right phage - a virus that infects bacteria - that could save this patie…

This episode brings you into conversation with Ben Hills (0xboodle) and Darren Zhu to talk about how the principles of the web3 movement might give scientific publishing a much-needed upgrade. Co-hosted by Jocelynn Pearl (UltraRare, Lady Scientist Podcast) and Vincent Weisser (VitaDAO), we dive into the thinking behind what Darren and Ben have writ…

We're bringing you into conversation with Niklas Rindtorff and Arye Lipman, two of the leaders behind LabDAO (https://www.labdao.com/). Hosted by Jocelynn Pearl, we dive into the ideas behind LabDAO and what the team hopes to accomplish with this decentralized endeavor. Future UltraRare x VitaDAO collaborative episodes will feature conversations at…

Dr. Edward Lu is an astrophysicist and former NASA astronaut who logged 200-plus days in space between 1995 and 2007. Today, he serves as the Cofounder and Executive Director of the Asteroid Institute at the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid impacts. On this episode of Boost VC, Ed joins us to discuss what mak…

A total of $2T in apparel is sold online each year. But 30% to 40% of that apparel is returned. So, what if consumers could snap a couple of photos with their smartphone camera and get clothes that are the right fit for their body? Vadim Rogovskiy is the Cofounder and CEO of 3DLOOK, a deep tech startup solving the problem of apparel returns for ret…

Design is about much more than just making things look good. Design is valuable because it translates the complexities of technology to us mere mortals. It serves as a way to educate the market and make tech easy for everyday people to use. But what is the design process that gets us to that end? Daniel Scrivner is the CEO & Chief Design Officer at…

Orla Harris is the Cofounder and COO of SideQuest VR, an early-access testing platform for virtual reality with headquarters in Northern Ireland. Orla and her team provide tools that enable developers to grow a community around their app and solicit feedback from users in the early stages of development. Prior to SideQuest, Orla spent eight years w…

When serial entrepreneurs Thibauld Favre and Joris Delanoue joined forces to build the future of fundraising, the Frenchmen chose San Francisco as their home base in large part because of its investor mindset. So, how do Silicon Valley VCs think differently from other investors around the globe? Thibauld and Joris are the Cofounders of Fairmint, a …

More and more people understand that crypto is going to be big. But they don’t really know why. And they don’t want to be forced to turn all of their money into cryptocurrency right off the bat. So, what if there was a way to demonstrate the benefits of the technology with US dollars and then migrate users to digital currency over time? Andy Brombe…

Most founders avoid dealing with Uncle Sam unless absolutely necessary. But what if you could engage the government as an investor in your startup? Sedale Turbovsky is the Cofounder and CEO of OpenGrants, the most powerful grant search tool in the US. The OpenGrants team is on a mission to unlock billions of dollars in grant funding for the best st…

Here at Boost VC, we define a startup as an organism in which the founders work to attract the smartest, most dynamic people to solve the problem they believe is most important. Yes, their ultimate goal is to build a product. But more importantly, they are building a talented team that will actualize that product together. CEO Sam Cole and CPO Same…

By Maddie Callander

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have been on the forefront of two internet revolutions, social networking and cryptocurrency. So, what do they think is the next big thing? Cameron and Tyler are the Cofounders of Gemini, a next-generation cryptocurrency exchange and custodian that allows users to buy, sell and store digital assets. The brothers are fam…

Despite being raised in the tech startup world, Jesse Draper didn’t believe she could BE that. Because she didn’t see women entrepreneurs, it didn’t seem like an option. So, Jesse started seeking out female founders—first to interview and later to invest in. And now, she runs a venture fund that is like the Batwoman-Signal for companies with female…

A lot of founders are focused on making their solution accessible to everyone, so they offer it for free. But you’ve got to make money if you want to build and sustain a successful business. So, how do you identify who sees the most value from your product or service and design a business model accordingly? Emily Dong is the Founder and CEO of Snou…

Finding VC in an I-Don’t-Know Moment—with Dillon Liang Are you curious about how different industries work? Would you like to learn something new every day? Then a career in venture capital might be a good fit. Dillon Liang is a Junior VC at Bullpen Capital, an early-stage, post-seed venture fund based in Silicon Valley. His resume prior to Bullpen…

In the early stages of building a startup, the founders are doing all the things—all by themselves. But as a company grows, the most successful founders evolve, taking on whatever role is necessary to move the business to the next level. So, what does that journey look like? And what do you need to know as a founder in the early stages of building …

Boost VC S5EP4 Streak CRM If You Can’t Be a Unicorn, Be a Workhorse—with Aleem Mawani Not every startup can be the proverbial venture unicorn. But just because a company isn’t valued at $1B or more doesn’t mean it’s dead. So, how do you build a profitable, growing tech workhorse? And how might venture evolve a new model that supports these business…

We learn more through experience. And we experience more through VR. In fact, virtual reality solves for many of the limitations of in-person learning, allowing students to practice new skills through simulation. What if the future of education is VR? Tom Impallomeni is the Cofounder and CEO of TribeXR, a startup that leverages VR to teach creative…

Most of us spend a significant amount of time cultivating our online assets. And yet, we don’t actually own our slice of the digital economy. Our social media accounts and even our personal websites can be censored or taken away from us at any time by the big companies that control them. But the decentralized web is different. Matthew Gould and Bra…

The old way of doing capitalism is about making money in the short term, and that way of thinking has caused a lot of destruction. But some venture funds are taking a new approach and deploying capital in a way that is net beneficial for society in the long term. So, how do we leverage this new kind of conscious capitalism to support the biotech co…

A whole lot of founders make the mistake of undervaluing their product. Some even give it away for free, not realizing that generating revenue is critical to proving out a business model and attracting venture investors. Healthcare education startup GIBLIB struggled to gain traction until the team shifted to a subscription-based platform, and now t…

How is an early-stage VC a lot like Shane Battier or Andre Iguodala? When they are on the court, they make the players around them better. That’s how Michael Sidgmore sees his role as a pre-seed and seed round FinTech investor: He’s the sixth man, coming off the bench to serve as the glue that helps his team get to the next level. He may not be in …

An Amazon study revealed that 100ms in latency cost them 1% in sales. Meanwhile in crypto, it can take as long as a week to set up a CoinBase account! Imagine how conversion rates would skyrocket if the industry tackled latency and solved for the two greatest voids in the market: fiat on-ramping and scalability. So, what blockchain startups are mak…

The best venture investors bring more to the table than capital. The most successful venture investors serve as active advisors, mentoring unproven entrepreneurs and propelling startups forward. So, what do such founder-driven investors look for in emerging talent? How do they teach the fundamentals of operating a business? How do they identify and…

CEOs in the deep tech space are deeply passionate about what they are building. But these brilliant technical minds tend to be less passionate about sales and marketing. So, how can a VC with a background in branding inspire his founders to invest in marketing material that reflects the power and beauty of what they’re building technically? Greg Ca…

If you’ve ever wished you could fly, your dream is within reach. The jetpack industry, though still small, has developed to a point where a handful of startups are consistently carrying out safe flights and building businesses around the superpower most of us have daydreamed about, but never recognized as a realistic possibility. David Mayman is th…

Prior to 2016, no proper study had been done around the economics of the ocean. At the time, the ocean economy was estimated at $1.5 trillion and expected to reach $3 trillion by 2030. In fact, the ocean has the potential to solve several of humanity’s biggest problems, and the opportunities in ocean tech are as vast and deep as the ocean itself. L…

If you look at the numbers, VR appears to be on the precipice of mass adoption. 60 virtual reality titles have generated more than $1M in revenue, with the top-grossing games making $10M-plus. Millions of headsets are in circulation, and we’re seeing 3K to 5K concurrent users per popular title. Governments are investing billions to develop VR techn…

“Clearly, the killer use case, the most valuable thing 6DoF can do is allow two or more humans to interact—just be with each other from wherever they are.” The internet has succeeded in connecting people to machines and information. So, what’s missing? Anjney Midha argues that the element of human interaction is what the web lacks, and he is on a m…

The world of cryptocurrency is fascinating. It is also noisy. And if you are trying to learn more about digital currency or blockchain technology, it’s necessary to sift through a lot of misinformation to get to the good stuff. So, how do you know who to listen to in a space where everyone seems to be shouting from the rooftops? Is there a media ou…

The most popular criticism of the crypto space is its lack of stability. What if you could solve for volatility, leveraging a decentralized stablecoin to mitigate the risk associated with a cryptocurrency portfolio? And how would a market risk manager from the traditional finance and investment industry assess the current risk profile of the blockc…

While the rules of traditional marketing are clearly defined, marketing in the cryptocurrency space is a whole new ballgame. How do you approach promotion in a decentralized market? What are the best strategies for driving traffic to your site and building a strong community around your brand? Jordan Spence is the CMO of MyCrypto, an open-source, c…