(Re)Share | #18 - Introducing the Flywheel
AR Headsets | BCI trials | Alternative fuels | Carbon capture | AI policy
I wasn’t planning on writing a post this week but my Japan-induced jet lag has given me a lot of undesired morning time. Here are some of the best things I read while on bullet trains or soaking in an onsen.
Shameless plug
I don’t normally start with a plug but I am so excited about our new Flywheel project and don’t want to bury the lead. After months of work we’ve finally released what we believe is the most up-to-date, curated list of active VCs across Europe. This labor of love is a tool for founders to expand their horizons beyond the local firms that they know and get more investors into their fundraising pipeline. You can filter by stage, geo and core focus (Affinity), which we will continuously update going forward. Please do sign up or share with other founders if you think this can be helpful. If you’re a data wonk and want to learn about the buildout check out our blog post.
Stuff worth sharing
My eyes! The googles do nothing - Quite the opposite to Radioactive Man’s experience, the latest drop from Apple, Vision Pro, is an immersive XR headset that has everyone buzzing. The product demo in link is unquestionably impressive and I would also recommend this very detailed product experience from John Gruber. Some of the demonstrated use cases seem absurd (see FaceTime at 4:23) but this could absolutely become the defacto consumption product (entertainment / browsing) for Apple. Yes, it comes with a $3,500 price point. Yes, I will be spending the day figuring out how I can expense this to Fly.
Go go gadget casual stroll - An incredible study published in Nature describes the success of a brain–spine interface (BSI) that has given a paralyzed man the ability to walk. Implanted electrodes were used to monitor the brain and identify which areas “lit up” with desired body movements. A separate device then sends electrical signals to an spinal simulation device every 300 milliseconds. Tl;dr, this man who lost his ability to walk in 2011 can walk again. If papers aren’t your vibe, the NYT covered it and includes the quote “The stimulation before was controlling me, and now I’m controlling the stimulation.”, which was almost verbatim to what Dr. Octopus said in Spider-Man 2.
Not your average tractor pull - A Brooklyn startup, Amogy, has developed a novel chemical catalyst to enable ammonia-based fuel. They pull apart ammonia into its constituent parts, hydrogen and nitrogen, with the former being used in a fuel cell and the latter gets harmlessly vented. While there are some safety risks with ammonia the real challenge is reliable and green supply. Ammonia production is messy as f**k and I’ve looked at a number of green hydrogen startups myself. The investment case is challenging to make work, but as discussed before in (Re)Share, the pipe dream of electric batteries is just that.
Looting and polluting might be the way… - Frontier, the so called carbon offest Advanced Market Commitment company (i.e. market maker), has announced a $53 million purchase agreement with Charm Industrial. Charm is a super interesting startup that builds modular, transportable pyrolyzers that can permanently capture CO2 via leftover biomass. I was not familiar with the specifics of pyrolysis, but it seems similar to biochar, which I do know. Charm’s technology is impressive but the size of this agreement is what’s notable. As I’ve written in my own Climate Reversal thesis, carbon sequestration could be the largest new asset class of the 21st century but a reliable business model has yet to present itself. My hope for a robust carbon credit infrastructure appears to be years away, with the vast majority of current participants only interested in non-permanent tree-based methods. This is both frustrating and disappointing, but then so is the entire ESG apparatus.
Moore’s Loi - Silicon production is becoming the geopolitical issue of the day and France through its beret in the ring. A €2.9 billion commitment to a new factory is the latest from the EU bloc’s attempt to grab market share from the China / Taiwan exodus.
Anti-mimesis with scales - Every country is debating the issue of copyright protection within AI model training. I could probably fill an entire post with the varying national stances, but since I just had a lovely time in Japan I’m going to highlight theirs. The land of the rising sun reaffirmed that it will not enforce copyrights on data used in AI training. This very controversial approach is driven by a concern of falling behind in the global AI race and lackluster GDP growth. The article mostly focuses on anime but as I’m married to an author, I can see the artistic side of the argument and the complexity that global publisher’s will now face.