Founder/GP Wave Function Ventures investing in early stage deep tech. Former SpaceX engineer on Falcon 9 reentry and Co-Founder/CEO Talyn Air, Y Combinator.
Los Angeles, CA
Joined March 2009
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Stoked to get to finally announce Wave Function Ventures $15M Fund 1! Wave Function was created to partner with deep tech founders building hardware solutions to the world’s most important problems. I'm 9 investments in, with 15-20 left to go.
When Wave Function invested in @_Andrenam_ 2 years ago it was some pool noodles and a microphone. Now they're mobilizing sensors on real life deployments and moving into the next phases. Awesome work @mateocernosek and @alex__chu__
Stoked to be backing @DrStarson and Stellios! On the way to doing big things. And surrounded by a great group of fellow backers
@MorganSchwanke
@CubitCapital
@FinnMurphy12
@shervin
@Nebularvc
@PeterDiamandis
@lpolovets
@JonnyNemo
@sigalitperelson
@dspector
@Mana_Ventures
@shaunmmaguire
@BrandonNeman
@JonnyNemo
@_bart_m
@atomsandbitsxyz
@primal_capital
@OBatygin
Here is or first media announcement! We are just getting started! ❤️🇺🇸🚀
prnewswire.com/news-releases…
Similar dynamic occurs investing in companies. First check can give other VCs permission to say yes.
A new GP has to prove a track record. Proving a track record requires capital to do deals. That's the chicken and egg every emerging manager hits.
Doug Beyer on how an anchor investor breaks it:
"Some LPs want there to be deals in the portfolio. With an anchor investor, it allows that GP and their team to go out, get some deals done, and put it into the portfolio so other LPs can come in in future closings."
The anchor isn't just a check. It's permission for everyone else to say yes later.
This seems promising for a harmonious AI future.
interpretability might be the most important scientific problem in the world right now, as I don't think we can solve alignment if we don't know what we're building. I think I have good news about it. I co-authored early work in mechanistic interpretability at OpenAI and came away pessimistic, because neural networks appeared to fold into arbitrary tangled knots. years later, I started openai's first large-scale automated interpretability project, finding about 2% of neurons legible with the primitive tools we had
with modern agentic tools and a much closer look, the picture looks totally different. the vast majority in models up to trillions of parameters are legible, and their circuits beautiful. many famous examples of tangled neurons turned out to be misunderstood. The roadblocks I expected mostly aren't there. I now think ambitious interpretability will be solved by the time we need it most, and possibly quite soon, as automated scientists keep improving. it may be a bitter lesson for interpretability: the simple thing, at absurd scale, works
already-clean.goodfire.com/
Great list, and contains 2 Wave Function Ventures portfolio companies. I suspect a couple more will be on it next year. @tylermakespower @Owenby
Today, we are excited to announce the first annual Austin Deep Tech 50.
Austin has become the hub for some of America's best deep tech founders, so we brought together 8 VC firms with a local presence — @overmatchvc, @valor, @8vc, Banner VC, @BCapitalGroup, @TheAmbitionCap, @ensemblevc, and Trust Ventures — to vote on the 50 startups making the biggest impact.
Together they've raised $10B+ in the last 12 months.
Full write-up: overmatch.substack.com/p/202…
The full list 🧵👇
Jamie Gull retweeted
Thank God @Owenby is building Resolute Grid right here in Texas. They are shipping at breakneck speed. Special reveal later this month!!
Epic teaser
“People have been saying” : “you can just do things”
@JoshuaSteinman @hardaway_cam @lacostejonathan @jamiegull
Jamie Gull retweeted
Guy started this week who spent 12 years on a Navy Nuke
Another guy from a *big* nuclear startup accepted an offer
Tobe Energy Corp has 3 nuclear engineers??
2027 gonna be a big year for energy.
Great piece on @maglutheavy by @jasonjoyride . Check out how Maglut is going to reshore rare earth processing capability back to the US. 🇺🇸 Great work @azharayer and Curtis Wu.
Rare earths aren't actually rare, they're as abundant as copper. What's scarce is the ability to purify them, and that's what China controls: over 90% of it.
@maglutheavy founders are borrowing a technique from biotech to modernize rare earth purification. S3 went inside their lab to see their unique take on chromatography.