Positive Sum

If today’s robotics startups achieve their ambitions, they’ll unlock $1tn in revenue and disrupt nearly every industry. There’s immense value in getting more robots into the world. But when will robots go mainstream? Attention is shifting to this frontier: -There was an 897% increase in robotics AI funding last year. -Waymo has grown from a research project to a $45bn company. -Humanoid startups have their first paying customers. But what will it take to build commercializable AI for robots? And where are the investable opportunities today? This week, @ColossusReview draws on our work as investors to answer these questions.

Last year I met @UbertiGavin and had a series of fascinating conversations on future of AI hardware and software (including one on the podcast that I still recommend). His company, Etched, had set out to build the first ASIC for transformers that does one thing and one thing only: run lightning fast AI inference to enable any AI app you can think of that current speeds make impossible, because things run too slow and/or too expensively. Today, I’m excited to share that Posive Sum has co-lead, with Primary Ventures, their $120M Series A financing, alongside Peter Thiel, Stan Druckenmiller and many other great investors I highly recommend reading this announcement thread and memo and then start imagining what AI apps will be able to do when they are orders of magnitude faster and cheaper than even the next gen NVIDIA GPUs—real time video, real time voice interactions, agents and everything else we are all so excited about as users. I think Etched has a chance to be an incredible enabler of people’s ideas, products, and companies.

Manufactured captured my imagination. What if they rebuilt the scale advantages that conglomerates enjoy, and brought them to SMBs through technology and a global network of trusted partners?

A random appreciation thread @tylercowen - new book is so good, I sincerely wish there was a Tyler in every field. Unbelievably prolific. Hard to imagine a more “alive” mind. @tferriss - I think he’s just past 10 years of his podcast. So prolific. He probably opened more rabbit holes for me (because of his own curiosity) than anyone. @dwarkesh_sp - the best prepared interviewer today. I predict his podcast ends up on Mt. Rushmore. He’s only 23. Incredibly inspired by him at the moment. @samteller - not a public figure, but leading such an interesting life with so much humor and grace and FUN @jeremygiffon - I’ve spent more days with him than not in the past 6 months and I’m blown away by his ability to understand people and situations in novel and helpful ways. 🐐 potential in finance/investing @laurenoshag - simple the best. Marry young if you can, you get to grow up together. @JoshuaKushner - he’s showing me what it’s like to look at opportunities and increase the scope of ambition and impact @GrahamDuncanNYC - not sure anyone has influenced my approach to business and investing more. The best writing out there, someone who I’m always craving a conversation with @FoundersPodcast - my favorite maniac on a mission. A lifelong partner in the making @zebriez - only discovered her recently but find myself returning to her writings on taste and culture often @samhinkie - wisest person I know @BrentBeshore - my longest term partner, who has taught me what a partnership can be @psumvc and @joincolossus and @CapitalCamp - teams are getting better and better, a lot to come soon from us. @samcates, Alison, @gabi_imarques, Chelsey, Donald, Joe, @ReustleMatt, @domcooke, Joe, Joanna, @Clayton_Dorge @beyroutey - not sure I’ve ever come to respect someone’s investing views faster. @milesgrimshaw is the other that fits that description. Wait, Kevin Kelly (SH) too. And Carl Kawaja @ScottWilson_CIO, @ajkurki, Jay Page, Eric Laumann, many others…partners with conviction @GuptaRK22 - wish I could write like him, have his infectious positivity, or 5-tool skillset @AliBHamed - how many people do you know who build a $2-3B asset manager, from scratch, by age 30? Blows through obstacles and a true investing junkie. @jposhaughnessy - joy and curiosity can increase with age @HenryLSchuck - the operator who has taught me the most this year. @johnhfio on ideas and @jwmares on mission @BoydVarty - Anam Carra @altcap - giving back @gilbert and @djrosent making business podcast art @eldsjal - I could go on and on about Daniel. Most don’t know the half of how impressive he is as a builder, investor, friend. Constantly wondering “what would Daniel do?” @collision - living evidence that you can be both infinitely and broadly curious AND devote yourself to building one thing @mattcohler - what I’d do to work with him! @billderness - partner in crime @PalmerLuckey - the next Elon? Brad Jacobs - think big and move fast Michael,Tom, Bob, @jlowin, Gavin, Mark, IGSB and PFC, Michael M, @ericgolden, Rick & Paul, Alex K, @humankarp, @ThomasDigan @GregoryFStewart @tseides @david_perell @hilarybmiller @gabrielleydon so many others teaching me about building Pierce and Maeve I could go on and on. I’m leaving out so many. This is stream of consciousness sorry for the people I missed. I spent first 10 years of my career on data. Now it’s all people with data playing a supporting role. It really is just about people and relationships, isn’t it?

Offsite #4: Our team finally made it to Seattle! ☔️⛰️⛴️ Thank you Alison for hosting us at our third Positive Sum home

It’s always day one. Today, we launch a brand new @eightsleep app: simpler, easier, and more powerful than ever. Explore the key new features ⬇️

Come work with us!!! psum.vc/research

We will be posting a new job opening to come work with me and the team at Positive Sum on Monday. I’m really excited about this person, and what they’ll do with us. Appropriate for a business and investing fanatic who loves doing research. In person is required. Stay tuned!

@psumvc office is quickly becoming my new favorite spot 👀

Incoming swag from ⁦@psumvc⁩

More on our blog: positivesumvc.com/our-investment…

Today we announced our investment in @PassthroughInc. 💥 Passthrough is making private market investing easy by automating workflows for investors, fund managers, and fintechs. We are thrilled to continue partnering with @_timflannery and the entire Passthrough team!

We think Passthrough will ultimately power the interfaces between LPs and GPs, providing a true system of record and making everyone’s lives so much easier. Built by an ex-Carta team that absolutely CRANKS

Starting 2023 strong 💪💪💪 Great to have all the team together in SF!!! instagram.com/p/CnpQ-ZquMvY/…

We're excited to announce that we have raised $32 million in our Series A1 funding round. This funding will allow us to meet the growing demand for our embedded IoT connectivity solutions from enterprises and developers around the world: hubs.ly/Q01x7Q1F0

More on our blog: positivesumvc.com/our-investment…

Today we announced our investment with @blueswireless. 🎉 Blues is connecting the world’s assets by making it incredibly simple for developers to communicate with devices. We are so excited to be partnering with @rozzie and the entire team at Blues!

Positive Sum (@psumvc) year in review: Team: 2 —> 7 people AUM: ~$100M —> ~$300M 5 new investments, led all (1 seed, 3 series A, 1 series B) New HQ, soon to be revealed Fully codified investment process Launched first product for founders, soon to be revealed

2022 here @ Positive Sum!

🇺🇸Happy Veterans Day!!🇺🇸 Ft. Joe Parker, our COO - Thank you for your service, Joe! @psumvc instagram.com/p/CkqZo2muDFT/…