Andy Artz 🔮
2.1K posts
Andy Artz 🔮
@artzandy
early stage investor in physics & chemistry @darkartsvc previously @socialcapital, @omgpop, @ibm, @harvardphysics
San Francisco เข้าร่วม Aralık 2008
2.8K กำลังติดตาม5K ผู้ติดตาม
Yesterday was a lot of fun!
And as promised, today we’re sharing a bit more context on our new fund…
Our $22M first fund (2023 vintage) backed 14 core, engineering-led companies through a concentrated, high-conviction strategy.
In less than three years, nearly all of them have already raised at least one round of follow-on capital, totaling $260M+ in aggregate. We’ve even had our first exit, an unannounced 9-figure cash acquisition that has already returned 30% of this fund back to LPs.
That progress generated significant LP momentum for this new fund, enabling us to close on the majority of our target roughly 10 weeks after launch from an amazing group primarily consisting of endowments, foundations, FoFs, and strategic individual LPs.
This new fund expands our ability to back founders earlier and support them more deeply. It gives us more scale to write initial checks as large as $2.5M into our highest conviction opportunities and the flexibility to experiment in new areas we’re excited about.
This is the “catalytic” capital we talk about. It’s not intended to fund our founders’ entire journey, but it does help set a strong foundation for them to take the biggest swings.
From a market perspective, we see this as the front end of a much larger wave.
COMPUTE is accelerating solutions to previously unsolvable problems. COMMUNICATION is expanding global coordination. AUTONOMY is redefining what can be done without human constraint.
The convergence of these forces will shape the next generation of category-defining companies.
Anyway, back to work now! 🙏👊🚀
English
Andy Artz 🔮 รีทวีตแล้ว
Excited to announce KRAKacquisition Corp. (KRAQU)—a SPAC formed in partnership between @NatCapCentral , @krakenfx, and @tribecap, where I serve as CEO.
Throughout history, speculation has catalyzed lasting innovation: Dutch East India shares created equity markets. Grain futures built the Chicago Board of Trade. Junk bonds opened mid-market capital access.
The same pattern is unfolding in digital assets. Over $240 billion in private investment since 2016. 650M+ users globally. Stablecoins settling $136B+ in payments. What began as speculation is now crystallizing into infrastructure.
We're focused on companies building the convergence of DeFi and TradFi—payment networks, tokenization platforms, blockchain infrastructure, compliance solutions. Companies ready to scale in the public markets.
Fortunate to partner with @mooredant, @brevsin , and independent directors @artzandy, @bendavenport , @JReedRosenthal , and @nikichain.
Special thanks to: @superjz @arjunsethi @LaurenP0ST @LunaPRofficial
English
the space drug making people that are actually hypersonics research people shitting on the space data centre people who are actually low latency / high throughput compute for other satellite operations people is a funny look
Andrew McCalip@andrewmccalip
Some ideas sound so insane they trick you into thinking they must be brilliant. “Data centers in space” is one of those. While we have solely chemical propulsion, this is an economically terrible idea. This is the kind of techno-optimism that confuses spectacle with progress. If anyone has a physics based spreadsheet they want to share showing the contrary, I would love to see it.
English
The team that @ZachBDell & @JLopas are building at Base is world class. When you walk through the office you hear it:
“Energy has become the economy’s core constraint.”
"Power is the most important product in the world."
"Rate limiting prosperity by a lack of electrons is not an option"
"We’re building the future of power so human progress can accelerate"
The gird is the weakest link in America's energy system. We can produce plenty of cheap electricity, the harder challenge is moving it efficiently & affordably. AI, robotics, manufacturing none of it works without a modern grid.
That's what the Base team is solving.
Zach Dell@ZachBDell
Today we are announcing our $1B Series C, but money isn’t the story. The story is what we’ll do with it, and the scale of the challenge ahead. Our mission isn’t constrained by capital, supply, or demand. It’s constrained by talent. To build America’s next great power company, we need the engineers, operators, and creatives ready to take on the challenge to join us. Power is the most important product in the world. It runs through everything: our homes, hospitals, schools, factories, and future. And the grid that delivers it is breaking. At Base, we’re building the future of power so human progress can accelerate. In the past two years, we’ve grown from an idea into one of the fastest growing energy companies in America. Now we’re entering a new phase of growth. Our first manufacturing site is rising in the heart of Austin, inside the former Austin American-Statesman printing press. Here we’ll build our own hardware to meet surging demand and scale nationwide. This is a key step in putting a battery on every home in the country. Few teams get to say their work powers human progress. We do. With a billion dollars of fuel, our next wave of growth will be defined not by capital, but by people who choose to step up, take ownership, and build the next great American power company. The old system is breaking. Come build the new one. Our Series C was led by Addition, with participation from both new and existing investors including Trust Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed, Andreessen Horowitz, Altimeter, StepStone, Elad Gil, 137 Ventures, Terrain, Waybury, Ribbit, CapitalG, Spark, BOND, Lowercarbon, Avenir, Glade Brook, Positive Sum, and 1789.
English
English
The results below are the culmination of a 40-week Phase 2 study in nAMD (neovascular Age-related Macular Degeneration) and DME ( Diabetic Macular Edema) for @AshvatthaTx drug MGB.
Over 50 million people worldwide suffer from these diseases many of whom are untreated. Over 50% of those treated drop out of treatment because the standard of care is to inject people in the eyes which is a painful burdensome therapy for patients and their caregivers (over 50% have bilateral disease so have both eyes affected). The cost of treated patient is $17,000 to $36,000 per annum.
The data shows that MGB works subcutaneously (no more needles in the eye!) in patients with bilateral disease. Patients have told us they're eager to see this in their hands, providers (especially retinal ophthalmologists) are encouraged because they can see more patients thanks to the more convenient therapy, and payors are eager to cover patients at lower costs.
We're excited for the next pivotal study that we hope will take it into the hands of patients. Onward!
English
English
English
Excited to share details of what we are working on @nudge for the first time today.
Our mission is to improve everyday life by developing the best technologies for interfacing with the brain.
Nudge@nudge
Our mission is to develop the best technology for interfacing with the brain to improve people’s lives.
English
other people have figured out how to get PMF living other places, but I haven’t so it’s time
English
Always such a pleasure to catch up with OG Mattermark customers! Thanks for hanging with me in Denver @artzandy 🏔️ 💫
English
@rrhoover what neighborhood? renting to a family with young kids? interested!
English
A home for the academy at the world's center of innovation 14/16
English
I moved back to SF 😁
No spending time in LA or NYC, very excited to be back home, spending all of my time with SF based founders, and watching my dog adjust to freezing cold water.
Let’s grab a coffee or eat good food!
English
The 1517 way isn’t just about how we work with founders…it’s about how we run our fund:
We invest as much as we can in startups. This is why we have only taken 50% of our management fees (2% total) and plowed the rest into startup founders.
A substantial portion of our budget goes into community events (including travel stipends), founder perks, and travel to see makers in person.
While salaries are lean, all full time team members have carry in the funds and SPVs — incentivized by incredible founder outcomes.
Building a firm and legacy takes focus, discipline, and strategy.
English
capital treadmills (perpetual dilution) vs. capital catapults (front-loaded, finite dilution)
What appears to be disciplined, prudent investing (the gradual drip-feed) in marketplaces/software is actually a trap that can lead to worse outcomes than the seemingly riskier approach of larger, concentrated bets on deep tech.
Aaron Slodov@aphysicist
so, the whole "hardware is capital intensive" bit is basically fake, got it
English
After 3 years at SpaceX, and 5 years at Swarm, I’m on to my next adventure! I’m proud of what the teams achieved both with Starlink’s Direct to Cell program and Swarm, bringing ubiquitous connectivity to the world, and know the teams will continue to have a tremendous global impact. I’m excited to shift my focus to the energy space next, and particularly interested in how nuclear energy can help us achieve a clean energy future. If you’re working in these areas please reach out, I’d love to connect!
English
@celinehalioua do you have a sense of the shape of the curve?
do you suspect that p(success) and approval times are linear, logarithmic, s-curve, or concave down/inverted quadratic wrt staffing?
English
i got yelled at by my advisors so wont be posting this. sorry yall ... maybe one day when im not a fiduciary to Loyal & the dogs
the tl;dr was we need to INCREASE FDA staff to increase p(success) of new drugs & accelerate approval times
Celine Halioua@celinehalioua
this is basically done, will share 2morrow
English
Replace donotreply@ email addresses with pleasereply@ is probably the most obvious AI company to build...
English
@mbeisen @miklelalak curious what is your opinion on the current state of tech transfer offices?
English
“Why don’t universities pay research costs with their endowments” is a bad argument.
Grants aren’t charity. These are contracts where universities are being paid to carry out work on behalf of the public. Why shouldn’t the government be expected to pay the full cost of the work being done on their behalf?
Universities shouldn’t get everything they ask for - the government should absolutely only pay legitimate expenses, and I would fully support any effort to make sure that is happening.
And many university endowments are absurd, and the push to accumulate large endowments has poisoned universities. If the government doesn’t like how much money they’re sitting on, they can tax them. But don’t ruin science to punish rich universities.
If the issue is that people don’t want the government to fund biomedical research, well then don’t fund grants at all. Funding them, demanding that grantees do the work they’ve said they will, and then not paying for it is bullshit.
English
@nikitabier @HarryStebbings This earned you a follow
Central Region, Singapore 🇸🇬 English
Venture capital has become the polo of the 21st century for trust fund kids, sad to say.
English
@BraytonKey @BoostVC has it roughly followed the fred wilson math - 1/3 hits, 1/3 meh, 1/3 zeros?
English
Today is an awesome Monday for @BoostVC LPs.
We returned another 0.73x of cash back to LPs in Fund 1.
Fund 1 ($38m & 2016 vintage) now sits at 3.93x DPI. And many more multiples to go!
Few learnings:
1. When you are deploying a really great early stage fund, it won't feel that way at the time.
2. When you have high conviction, break your rules. Largest returns have been non core checks.
3. Investments that won were not competitive.
4. Founders first. Don't overthink the details.
5. Deciding to take liquidity is tougher than making the initial investment.
LFG!
Bonus: 6. Always buy Bitcoin.
English