Futureforming the World, with Shahin Farshchi (Lux Capital)

Every quarter, Lux Capital, a leading venture capital firm known for investing in hard science and deep tech startups, publishes their investor letter offering a unique opportunity to gain insight into the firm's investment thesis and strategy. The firm has been an early supporter of the space industry with early bets in companies like Relativity Space, Epsilon3, Impulse Space, Astranis, Kymeta, Varda, Planet, and Hadrian.This week’s Pathfinder features a deep dive on the firm’s latest Q3 letter with General Partner Shahin Farshchi. In addition to Shahin’s own background, the conversation covers:Lux’s fundraise success having recently closed Lux 8, a $1.15B venture fundThe firm’s investment thesis emphasizing the importance of non-consensus hypothesesGeopolitical shifts and how they’re impacting long-term investingThe role of media and the importance of informative and nuanced reportingAnd much more…Lux's Q3 Investor Letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s5xiwjG9psi6xRQPsAcI-I7-g6k5Pe--/viewThis episode is brought to you by SpiderOak, a US-based software company that builds space cybersecurity products and solutions for civilian, military, and commercial space operations. Learn more at https://spideroak.com/ • Chapters •00:00 - Guest Intro & SpiderOak Ad01:18 - The Lux 8 fundraise02:33 - Shahin's background06:38 - How was Lux started10:10 - The firm’s structure11:48 - A&D over the next decade15:30 - Investment highlights17:35 - Geopolitical shifts19:57 - A look at American Dynamism23:41 - Do you need to be a scientist to be a deep tech investor?27:03 - A thesis-driven strategy33:05 - Advice for emerging managers39:11 - The role of media42:33 - Starship launch predictions43:17 - The second most valuable space company • Show notes •Lux's website — https://www.luxcapital.com/Lux's socials — https://twitter.com/Lux_CapitalShahin's socials — https://twitter.com/FarshchiMo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislamPayload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspacePathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes • About us •Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers.Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)