(Re)Share | #11 - Hydrogen flight, Generative AI and love surveys
An occasionally weekly curation
Stuff worth sharing
Disruption and chill - A post from Stratechery, which covers the rise and debatable flatline of Netflix. No single organization, in my opinion, has had more impact to the entertainment world only to bungle a seemingly impossible lead; an ironic echo to House of Cards. This is a great read of the history of the build out, the near death battle with Blockbuster1 and the outlook of the forward looking streaming wars.
Infrequent flier miles - British aircraft manufacturer, ZeroAvia, successfully flew a hydrogen-powered aircraft. The flight only last 10 minutes and the plane itself has a max capacity of 19 passengers so this is a far way off from any meaningful impact in decarbonizing air travel, but still a promising development. I’ve spent a decent amount of time looking into non-fossil aircraft fuels and hydrogen does seem to be the only viable option for any significant use case.
The Dark Knight Returns for real - a16z released a two-part podcast asking some of their partners what the big 2023 idea is. This is pretty rehearsed and VC-hand wavy but I did find the 10 minute segment starting at 23:31 quite good. The focus is on small modular (nuclear) reactors, the benefits they pose and the structural limitations of the existing regulation, which make large scale reactors effectively impossible in the US.
Robotic overlords, right this way - Also from a16z, a very insightful overview of where the investment opportunities lie within the ever-changing generative AI landscape. Their assertion, which largely matches what we feel at Fly VC, is that specific applications will capture the lion share of value and enabling technologies (models, infrastructure, etc.) will largely remain in the hands of the tech giants. This is a commonly debated topic amongst my VC friends and certainly there are examples where this has proven wrong.
Genetic flux capacitor - Life extensionism and reverse aging has always seemed to be a fringe, pseudo-cultish interest for the super rich to waste a bunch of their cash, but this article has me second guessing. Bryan Johnson has turned himself into a living experiment of hyper-engineered diet, exercise and weird surgeries but the results speak for themselves. At 45 he’s reduced his biological age by 5+ years and his doctors think there is more to go. By comparison I have gone to bed for the last last two nights in physical pain from having eaten an alarming number of peanut butter-filled pretzels2.
Technotelepathy - A fascinating advancement in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. An ALS patient who lost her ability to speak has regained some of communication function through a brain implant and was able to digitally “speak” at 62 words per minute, which is a 3x improvement over the current record. At a human level this heart warming. At a technological one it’s extremely exciting. For those interested you can find the scientific paper is here.
Audible sabers - A slightly long (51 min) but otherwise interesting conversation on the policy and positioning changes between the US and China. Anti-CCP legislation seems like this is the only bi-partisan option still available in the States, but is this so surprising? What’s more motivating that a shared enemy? It’s hard for me to form a clear view on China geopolitics. Is their insistince on a semi-capitalist, authoritarian regime actually a threat to Western interests or is it just sour grapes from the failure of neoliberalism? Maybe both? This podcast did skew more dove, to be clear, but still quite thought provoking.
TPS Reports of Love - Apparently some women are having would-be suitors complete questionnaires as a pre-screening tool for dates. The operations consultant in me sings with efficiency-induced joy. More interesting though are the question sets some use. I give special kudos to the woman who brilliantly asked which way you play new toilet paper rolls on the hanger. A fantastic hack to see if you’re about to date a sensible, moral citizen who rightly places TP forward or a domestic terrorist.
Job Drop
Every Tuesday I share cool new job postings from early stage startups I know. Find the jobs board here. Last week brought a huge surge of fresh 2023 roles from the Fly VC portfolio including InfinyOn, Pear Bio, Corrily, Carbmee, Software Defined Automation and TradeLink. The roles / functions included:
Business Development
Fullstack Developer
Solutions Architect
Product Design
Developer Advocate
Immuno-oncology Research
Bioinformatics
Operations
Product Management
Partnerships
Blockbuster was a physical retail business where customers rented DVDs for at-home viewing and where early aught’s Illinois teenagers hung out in the parking lot because there is nothing to do in Illinois.