DeepTech Series Ep # 1: Making Global-Scale Impact Through Deep Tech—with Ian Rountree of Cantos

What inspires a venture firm to focus on deep tech? Ian Rountree is Founder and General Partner at Cantos, a venture fund that invests in potentially world-changing deep tech startups.  Cantos focuses on hardware and bio investing at the intersection of climate and industrials, life sciences and AI, aerospace and defense, and next-generation computing. On this episode of Boost VC, Ian joins us to share his definition of deep tech and explain why he underwrites technical risk rather than market risk. Ian discusses the value of founder empathy, challenging VCs to see the entrepreneur as their customer and LPs as shareholders in the portfolio. Listen in to understand what drives Ian to make a global-scale impact, backing founders who tackle climate change, disease, armed conflict, poverty and existential risk. Topics Covered Ian’s biggest accomplishment before age 20Getting Vanderbilt to accept him off waitlist Refused to take NO as answer Ian’s take on who is the customer in venture capitalFounder = customerLP = shareholder What inspired Ian to focus on deep techTackle big problems, e.g.: climate change, povertyDeep tech startups outperformed rest of portfolio How losing his father early informs Ian’s workFeels hard deadline to career and lifeWants to play small role in changing world The criteria Ian uses to decide if a startup is ‘important’Nonzero chance of global-scale impactTackles climate, disease, armed conflict or poverty How Ian defines deep techTaking technical risk rather than market riskCantos specializes in hardware and bio investing How Ian thinks about growing the Cantos organizationFrom solo GP to 4 equal partners‘Fire’ himself by age 55 What’s behind Benchmark’s equal partnership structureSet up for generational turnover from jumpMay also be consequence of early success Why a deep tech VC doesn’t need to be technicalAsk expert if violation of physics involvedStartups that change world challenge status quo What differentiates software investing from deep techSoftware involves market risk, easy to pivotDeep tech involves technical risk, hard to pivot Ian’s diligence criteriaSize of market, potential margins at scaleFounder who understands their WHY Connect with Ian Rountree Cantos https://cantos.vc/Cantos on Twitter https://twitter.com/cantosIan on Twitter https://twitter.com/ianrountreeIan on LinkedIn    https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianrountree/Near Frontier Podcast https://nearfrontier.castos.com/ Resources Fred Wilson’s Blog ‘The VC’s Customer’ https://avc.com/2005/11/the_vcs_custome/Fred Wilson’s Blog ‘The VC’s Customer (Continued)’ https://avc.com/2009/07/the-vcs-customer-continued/Radiant https://www.radiantnuclear.com/Tim Urban’s TED Talk on Procrastination https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator/cBenchmark https://www.benchmark.com/eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work by Randall E. Stross https://www.amazon.com/eBoys-Inside-Account-Venture-Capitalists/dp/0812930959Benchmark Part I on the Acquired Podcast https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/benchmark-capitalBenchmark Part II on the Acquired Podcast https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/benchmark-part-ii-the-dinnerUnion Square Ventures https://www.usv.com/Cerebras https://www.cerebras.net/Eric Vishria on Twitter https://twitter.com/ericvishria Connect with Boost VC Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVCBoost VC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/boost_vc/