Bryan Doreian

Last week, I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion on navigating FOAK in climate tech at the Greentown Labs Summit in Boston (which had >600 people!!). Here’s a quick rundown of what was shared by Katherine St. James of Spring Lane Capital, Paris Smalls, PhD of Eden GeoPower, and Hannah Friedman of Planeteer Capital: 🌱 What is the definition of FOAK? We discussed how the term can be controversial - it's almost too general because it doesn't identify what kind of "First" FOAK refers to - first team project? First geography? First of a technology in a sector? First time for the integration of a system? It's also too specific because it has the word "first" in it, which can be anathema to later stage / project finance investors. 💰 Partnerships for Funding FOAK Projects We discussed how important it is to build a blended capital stack & use off-balance sheet capital for a project so you're not using the most expensive equity dollars to fund an infrastructure project with low-ish IRR. We also talked through being creative about using corporate partners to provide in-kind services or ink some agreement (at least an LOI) to attract this funding. 🏛 Role of Government We talked about how government capital is seen by investors & how it can be catalytic for FOAK. Government capital can provide validation that a startup has passed a rigorous diligence process by a third party - and incentives like grants or credits can help improve returns for the first project- but it's important to be doing this in conjunction with getting customer validation and to be able to present line of sight to competitive economics without concessionary capital. 👥 Advice for FOAK startups The panelists offered some very specific pieces of advice for startups going through FOAK: how to get creative with things like revenue sharing agreements or convertible notes, getting smart with project development early on (like with DeveloperU), being careful about using FOAK too liberally with certain investor groups, getting the right commercialization / FOAK talent in and around you early Huge thanks to the panelists and the team at Greentown Labs (Jill Kirkpatrick, Julia Travaglini, Aisling Carlson, etc you rocked it!!) for hosting this discussion on bridging the FOAK gap. Also immensely enjoyed the rest of the agenda. Check out the full recap & videos here: https://lnkd.in/d9ApYe9Y #ClimateTech #FOAK #ClimateFinance #ProjectDevelopment #GreenTech #CleanEnergy

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If you work in tech transfer this is a good read-in on how our diligence tech can assess and evaluate assets with minimal inputs. The best way to learn more is to see it live! Reach out to me directly to learn more!

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Massachusetts has firmly established itself as a leader in innovation, with three standout sectors fueling its tech-driven economy: biotech, robotics, and cybersecurity. Here’s a look at why the state excels in these fields: 🔬 Biotech: Massachusetts is at the forefront of biotech, thanks to world-class research institutions and a thriving startup ecosystem. With companies like Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc.—Massachusetts continues to shape the future of healthcare, from groundbreaking vaccines to genetic therapies. Robotics: Home to pioneers like Boston Dynamics, Massachusetts has become a hub for robotics innovation. From autonomous robots to robotic prosthetics, the state’s ecosystem supports advancements that push the boundaries of human-machine interaction, transforming sectors from healthcare to logistics. Cybersecurity: Massachusetts is also a leader in cybersecurity, providing critical solutions to protect data and infrastructure in an increasingly digital world. With companies like Rapid7 driving research and product development, Massachusetts is at the heart of cutting-edge cybersecurity innovation. Together, these sectors position Massachusetts as a global tech powerhouse. #MassachusettsInnovation #Biotech #Robotics #Cybersecurity #TechEconomy #InnovationEcosystem #FutureTech #BostonTech

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Movac KiwiNet Deep Tech is difficult because you do not comprehend 95% of the universe using the Standard Model of Particle physics. Either learn that measurement is flawed due to human bias or experience and unbiased state through transcendence experiences corresponding to Christ consciousness. The physics of life is based on LENR and not the Standard Model of Particle physics. Unfortunately, scientific research has been captured by the materialism perspective. This is mutually exclusive to the light observed in consciousness. Physics of life. Deep Tech https://lnkd.in/gKqC3PAR Gateway into the aromatic ring Faraday cage system. Time to see the light 😁.

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Excited for DCVC portfolio co Alta Resource Technologies to emerge from stealth! The design space of biology is many orders of magnitude larger than inorganic chemistry, and Alta uses it to massively reduce the cost of extracting rare earth metals. https://lnkd.in/g_q5UwRF

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I am very excited to share the pre-print study on Atropos Health ChatRWD beta results(link to paper below). ChatRWD beta outperformed ChatGPT 3.5, Google Gemini 1.5 Pro. and Anthropic Claude 3 on answers to clinical questions when reviewed by independent physicians. OpenEvidence also outperformed the Big Tech LLMs by a wide margin. Most important to us, ChatRWD performed highest on Physician trust and Best Answer and was able to answer questions asked 94% of the time. As the Gen AI cycle continues to move at a rapid pace we firmly believe that "Trust" and "Accuracy" are going to be critical, and that publishing your performance on both is table stakes. It is also clear to me that in the quest to be able to answer 100% of questions with Clinical grade accuracy training LLMs solely on the literature will not be enough. We need to produce new evidence in the form of high-quality transparent studies using appropriate methodology. We are adding beta users post this announcement, so please sign up to try it, and we will have more to come on full launch this summer. Exciting times and hope everyone has a great July 4th. https://lnkd.in/es5gWK84 #generativeAI #LLM #Realworldevidence

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Our curated list of #BioTech 1700+ startups is your gateway to success! Get detailed insights including founder info, funding amounts, and more. https://payhip.com/b/pmU2E #startup #startups #venturecapital #funding #vc #investmentbanking

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What's been happening in mental health? ⏺ Vitalic Health raised a $4M seed round for its geriatric behavioural health care platform. ⏺ Kooth Digital Health landed a $1.45 million pilot contract to provide their Soluna platform to over 50,000 students across New Jersey. ⏺ Peer support startup Fello , led by former Uber Eats executive Alyssa Pollack, raised $10.4M for virtual, app-based peer support designed to combat the loneliness epidemic. ⏺ Oceans Healthcare acquired Haven Behavioral Healthcare , expanding to 5 new U.S. states and adding 7 new locations. ⏺ Mabel raised a €600K pre-seed round to help improve women's mental health through microdosing programs and mushroom-based supplements ⏺ Wysa published a paper on the impact of their early stage digital mental health interventions for Singaporeans. ⏺ Applications for the KHP Ventures Mental Health immersion programme close tomorrow (Jan 7th) (All links below) __ If you liked this and want insights on the mental health industry in your inbox every week, subscribe to The Hemingway Report newsletter and follow me Steve Duke 📩 #MentalHealth #BehavioralHealth

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Might Reunion Neuroscience's $103M Series A mark the end of a drought in funding for private psychedelic biotechs? Aside from Lykos Therapeutics' $100M+ Series A earlier this year, we haven't seen these levels of funding for private co's since the likes of GH Research plc's $125M Series B and atai Life Sciences' $157M Series D back in 2021. It's also quite the turnaround for Reunion, which appeared to have become mired in a patent-related dispute with Mindset Pharma (acquired by Otsuka) and a challenging financial situation. And, it marks another occasion where larger funds have shown appetite to dip their toes in the psychedelic drug development niche, with Novo Holdings co-leading the round.

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AI and Med Tech in Focus   AI System Developed to Identify Pathology in Tissues Engineers at Washington State University have developed an AI tool that uses images of human and animal tissue to detect abnormalities faster and more accurately than people. The AI algorithm was trained using images from past studies that involved kidney, testes, ovarian, prostate, breast and lymph node abnormalities. The new model detected disease in minutes—current processes take humans several hours and require specialized teams to check each other’s work. It was also found to be more accurate, sometimes detecting instances that humans had missed. The engineers designed the system to handle the processing load of the high-resolution gigapixel images by breaking them down into smaller tiles but still retaining the overall context of the tissue sample—akin to the zoom feature on a microscope or phone camera. Aside from getting diagnostic results more accurately and quickly, the new system also shows promise in epigenetics (the study of molecular processes that change gene behavior without changing underlying DNA). Epigenetic researchers can perform analyses and get results that used to take a year or more in just a couple of weeks. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Utility company's proposal to rat out hidden marijuana operations to police raises privacy concerns. BANGOR, Maine (AP) — Operators of illegal marijuana grow enterprises hidden inside rural homes in Maine don’t have to worry much about prying neighbors. But their staggering electric bills may give rise to a new snitch. An electric utility made an unusual proposal to help law enforcement target these illicit operations, which are being investigated for ties to transnational crime. Critics, however, worry the move would violate customers’ privacy. More than a dozen states that legalized marijuana have seen a spike in illegal marijuana grow operations that utilize massive amounts of electricity. And Maine’s Versant Power has been receiving subpoenas — sometimes for 50 locations at a time — from law enforcement, said Arrian Myrick-Stockdell, corporate counsel. It’d be far more efficient, he suggested to utility regulators, to flip the script and allow electric utilities to report their suspicions to law enforcement. “Versant has a very high success rate in being able to identify these locations, but we have no ability to communicate with law enforcement proactively,” Myrick-Stockdell told commissioners. The proposal, to be deliberated next week by the Maine Public Utilities Commission, is being criticized by consumer privacy advocates and others who think the utility is veering outside its lane. The nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center believes such a regulatory rule would be unconstitutional because the electric utility would be allowed to provide private information about consumers with “no probable cause, no warrant, no judicial review,” Alan Butler, the group’s executive director, told The Associated Press. #cannabiscultivation #electricity #utilty Published Aug 06, 2024 https://lnkd.in/g_PsfEup

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"The psychedelics were the tools, not the end game. They were for psychiatry what the microscope was for biology and what the telescope was for astronomy." This week, Mindstate Design Labs (backed by founders of OpenAI, Neuralink & Day One) announces FDA and EMA approval for human trials. Mindstate will begin the clinical validation of their neurotech platform for designing altered states of consciousness. Their approach to psychedelic therapeutics is unique — using AI to precisely design mood, cognition, and perception. By taking this approach, Mindstate can eventually create a limitless range of altered mental states 🧠 Cannot wait for the future where Mindstate will help with treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, PTSD and other mental health conditions.

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This is just incredible. Neal Ghosh's demonstration of how #VentureIQ takes deeply technical and complicated content across a range of industrial use cases and ages/stages through an AI-generated conversational podcast (a la #notebookLM) is really mind-blowing. Check out his post, below, and if you haven't seen VentureIQ, yet, let's get you set up to learn more. You can visit VentureIQ.ai or DM any of us over here to book a demo!

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HUGE thanks to everyone who came to Riffle Ventures and LabStart's #climateweekNYC event yesterday on how to close the "Zero to One" gap in #climatetech. We often say "Now all we have to do is deploy" or "We have all the solutions we need now we just need to scale them". But keep in mind that to roughly 40% of the technologies needed to hit 2050 net-zero goals are still not in the market, and these numbers don't reflect what's needed to enable climate adaptation and resilience either. Perhaps most importantly, of the solutions that are in the market, are they reaching those in most need, and are they being built and distributed equitably? Point being, the Zero to One phase matters. More early-stage entrepreneurship and co-creation is needed than we often think, and we can't solely focus on scale and deployment if we haven't even built much of what we need still. The unique mix of funding, technical inputs and infrastructure, talent, as well as longer timelines for testing and piloting make a lot of our highest impact climate solutions quite distinct from other technology verticals. On top of this, we face humungous equity and inclusion gaps throughout the tech and startup community writ large. Getting the Zero to One phase right gives us a chance to expedite the pathways into the market for climate technologies while also making sure these solutions are created and distributed equitably. We were extremely fortunate to be joined by leaders in this field - Halcyon, Autodesk Foundation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, ClimateWorks Foundation, CATAL1.5°T LATAM, Stepchange, Salesforce, King Philanthropies, Enduring Planet, Fractal Climate and many others! Feeling very, very grateful to have such wonderful colleagues like Suma Reddy Ashdeep S. Cyntia Abarca Nigel Keen and Alhan Fakhr alongside amazing partners and leaders like Deepa Lounsbury Megan Holcomb Troy Daley John Meissner Felipe Gonzalez Rosas Cristian Dávila Rafael Lorenzo Piñón Andrew Don Mitch Gainer Saleem Chapman Fred Tan Daniel J. Barker Emmanuelle Palikuca Shereen D'Souza Anay Shah Sara Bender, Ph.D. Adria Wilson, Ph.D. Shaina Horowitz Esther Nai Midori Takasaki Dimitry Gershenson Jennifer Wagner John Alexander, CEPA®, CSRIC® and many more (apologies for the Linkedin mention limitation)!

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On the surface, tech transfer operations (e.g. the process of transferring research and IP into commercialized opportunities) and early-stage startups may seem quite different. But when we at 9point8 Collective dug a little deeper, there was tons of overlap which speaks to the essence of zero-to-one development: 1️⃣ Innovation Focus: both tech transfer and early-stage startups aim to commercialize new technologies or solutions that can address real-world problems or create new opportunities. There is no blueprint to follow. 2️⃣ Intellectual Property: tech transfer ventures usually come with robust IP portfolios, including patents and trade secrets, and early-stage startups often focus on developing and protecting their IP to create a competitive advantage. Leverage IP as an asset is a key part of the strategy. 3️⃣ Market Potential: both tech transfer and early-stage startups target markets with high growth potential. They often aim to disrupt existing industries or create entirely new market segments, so targeting the right markets is essential. 4️⃣ Risk Profile: both types of ventures carry extreme risk and ambiguity due to the uncertainties associated with bringing new technologies or business models to market. With all this overlap, we innovated different versions of our diligence and assessment tool #VentureIQ to focus on tech transfer. Instead of a pitch deck as the raw inputs, we used patent filings instead. We wanted to see if our tech could generate credible insight on how raw technologies can be commercialized. The results have been pretty solid so far. From a single patent filing, we can extract technology readiness levels, target markets, competitors and benchmarks with similar technology, and even sources of public and private funding. From what our design partners have validated for us, these are monumental leaps in the development process -- saving thousands of dollars and weeks of time -- all done with #AI. Know of an interesting #techtransfer use case? Send me a DM so we can chat about it!

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Join for free 1,000s of investors & startups on Zoom at the Early-Stage Virtual Conf on Jan 30. I've signed up with our startup – ncrspt -- first in the world to encrypt and store digital data in living cells fundraising in 2025 for a seed round. Read these VC stories at the bottom of the PDF, starting on page 2, to explore the core motivations of investors based on experience attracting hundreds of Family Offices, Funds of Funds, VC & PE funds, Angel syndicates to virtual events. And then: 1. Register for the event for free: https://inniches.com/es 2. Like and comment to receive the list with 128 investor contacts & 100 TechCrunch pitch deck teardowns. Max Pog’s team will send it to you via DM or a connection request. 3. Max will gift 100+ books & cakes to participants of the event. Repost to increase your chances.

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A SAFE and convertible note had a baby and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was the midwife- out popped the D-SAFE! 👶🏽🎉 A new #climatetech funding instrument was announced by Elemental Excelerator last week. One of the company’s main goals is to support smaller, up and coming companies during the awkward “Scale Gap” phase between #VC funding and natural growth. It’s called the #DSAFE (Development Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and it aims to aid the process by giving companies a small amount of cash to overcome initial risks and expenses during the developmental stages of a product launch or company. How does it work? D-SAFE has a redemption clause meaning companies can choose to have their payments offered as a loan or convert to equity at the investor’s discretion. Funders and companies will have clear communication and expectations about where the money is going and how it will be applied to either the company or the projects at hand. Financiers and companies will work together with more #transparency, and that’s a great boon for #startups and VC alike. As of this month, Elemental has already invested using D-SAFE in eight different companies, including Dimensional Energy and Origen — both companies investing in innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to environmental issues! Seems like a win-win on the surface. What do you all think about the D-SAFE? Alfredo Coppola Momoka Ueda Tim Wagner Stephen D. Torres Olya Irzak Natsuho Toyama Noriya Tarutani Shin Ogawa

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Thanks to advances in neuroscience, we now understand the brain chemistry driving #OperantConditioning-dopamine. We know dopamine releases are involved in drug use, gambling, compulsive behaviors associated with Internet use, and playing of video games. https://lnkd.in/gGvDjBe

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Thanks to advances in neuroscience, we now understand the brain chemistry driving #OperantConditioning-dopamine. We know dopamine releases are involved in drug use, gambling, compulsive behaviors associated with Internet use, and playing of video games. https://lnkd.in/gGvDjBe

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