Backing winners in deep tech: physicist and venture capitalist Alexandra Vidyuk

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Hello, and welcome to the Physics World weekly

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podcast.

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Our guest is the venture capitalist,

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Alexandra Vidjic,

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who did a BSC in applied

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mathematics and physics

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before embarking on a career in finance,

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first in banking

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and then as a fintech

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entrepreneur.

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She now runs a company that invests in

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space,

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energy, and materials technologies.

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And in this wide ranging conversation

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with Physics World's Margaret Harris,

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she talks about the challenges and rewards

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of working in the deep tech sector.

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My guest on this week's podcast is Alexander

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Vidcic, who's the chief executive and founding partner

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at a venture capital firm called Beyond Earth

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Ventures. Hello, Alexander. Welcome to the podcast.

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Hello, and thank you for having me.

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Beyond Earth specializes in providing funding and support

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to early stage companies in the space sector.

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And we'll talk in a moment about what

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that involves. But first, I'd love to hear

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about how you got into that line of

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work. I understand you started out studying physics.

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So how do you get from physics student

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to venture capitalist?

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Yes. Yes. Sure. So I wanted to be

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a scientist when I was a kid. So

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I I wanted to study physics and math.

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And then

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after I complete my degree,

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like, that moment, the cool jobs were, like,

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work working in management consulting and banking. So

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half of my class went to work for

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banking and half in management consulting. So I

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was the one who did banking. So

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and then ten years in banking, I had

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my own fintech company. And at some point,

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I was like,

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I wanted to become a scientist and became

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a banker. What's where did this connect happen?

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So enough of how do I go back

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to my childhood dreams, and how do I

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combine both of my strengths, so my degree

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in physics and my

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career in finance? So I thought, okay.

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Deep tech, we see something which kind of

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is is like perfect Venn diagram of these

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two world.

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And as of today, what I do, I

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look at startups

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which are based on scientific breakthroughs. So typically,

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it's like energy robotics, material science, space tech,

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and so on. Most of the founders which

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I speak to have PhDs or some kind

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of, like, postdocs or kind of some some

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some kind of engineering or scientific background.

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And then, yeah, we analyze them and we

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see which one will become

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next NVIDIA, next SpaceX,

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and then we invest in them. That's basically,

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on a nutshell, what I do on a

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daily basis.

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And you mentioned the term deep tech. What's

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your definition of deep tech, and and why

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is it so challenging to sort of start

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and grow companies that fall into this category?

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I think deep tech is a bit overused

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term now, and I think a lot of

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people actually now use, like, science tech or

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kind of some specific

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areas such as med tech, biotech, space tech,

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and and so on. So I think deep

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tech is generally everything which is, like,

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a bit more complicated than software and fintech.

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Right? So some people start definition of deep

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tech such like enterprise AI, and it can

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go all the way to nuclear energy, space

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tech rockets, and and new types of materials

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and so on. So for me, that's I

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think the definition is it has to have

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some IP.

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Most likely, it comes from universities

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or institutes, kind of, for, like, academia.

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It has to have

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some kind of element of hard tech,

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like, hardware, I would say.

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For me, my specialization

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is space tech, energy robotics, material science, communications,

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and compute.

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So that's basically the sectors which we believe

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will enable us to expand our civilization

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beyond Earth, hence the name of the fund

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called Beyond Earth.

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And what was it that drew you to

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those sectors in particular?

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I mean, first of all, we have to

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have skills. Right? So I can't invest in

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biotech because I'm not a biologist. I'm not

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a doctor.

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Same goes to quantum computing. It's a whole

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special specialisation.

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I think that's what kind of the core

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skills of my team. And, also, this is

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something which we need to have a conviction,

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right, and the the idea of the world

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where we'd like to live.

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And,

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now there's a couple of,

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I think, underlying

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macroeconomical

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economic shifts happening today,

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such as

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competition between China and US in several areas,

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such as everyone wants to go to the

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moon first. Everyone wants to have better AI.

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Everyone wants to have better energy sources and

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access to critical materials. Right? So all of

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this kind of I think, de facto, you

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can make all the cold war,

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create a lot of innovation,

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lot of government capital flowing into these areas,

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a lot of competition, which is good for

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us as investors because we like that. We

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like when people trying to compete. If you

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think about what happened during, like, previous century

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cold war, we had Gagarin, we had moon

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mending, we had so many good things. And

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then during the post cold war era, we

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only had ISS, which has been there for

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twenty six years, and nothing really happened. Right?

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So competition

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or kind of

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something similar to cold war always good for

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innovation for kind of frontier technologies.

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Energy is another big area which is driving

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everything. Right? So AI needs energy. Doesn't matter

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who will win, which LLM will they'll be

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the the main one. Doesn't matter which

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who will win OpenAI, DeepMind, or Entropic, who

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will create AGI at some point. Right? We

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still need energy. We still need compute.

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Right? That's fundamental. So that's that's kind of

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another

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shift in our kind of macro,

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wave we we we are following.

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And I think, as of today, it's also

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a lot of defense money, a lot of

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government money, which been

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focused on things like communication

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space

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and energy as well. Right? So, like, I

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think, normally, what we say

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in The US, for example, if you invest

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$1 VC money, you get, like, $3

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matching of undiluted government money. Right? So this

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is the only asset class

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that this can happen. So and for us,

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it's like it's,

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as a as a fund manager, it's perfect

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because

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that's

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a unique situation in our history where we

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can invest in this type of projects.

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How does that affect your business if if

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governments are starting to cut back on funding

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due to various austerity reasons, you know, the

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need to fund defense programs more highly because

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there is this new cold war type competition

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going on? How does that affect your business?

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So I specifically don't invest in defense because

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of that reason exactly. So that's that's a

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risk like zero or one. Right? It's binary.

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What if tomorrow the defense budgets will cut

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and then the company, which used to be

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like a subcontractor

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for government,

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becomes nothing. Right?

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For us, what I look at is

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it has to be

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a big commercial market,

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even bigger than defense market. Right? And then

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if the government money at this moment of

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time will accelerate

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the journey or kind of become a stepping

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stone to this commercial product,

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then, like, in, let's say, in the next,

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like, one, two, three, five years, that's great.

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But we want to see in a financial

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model. We want to see in the road

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map,

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even bigger commercial prod. Ideally, we want to

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see two revenue at least, like, two or

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three revenue streams,

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which company are trying to attack in the

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same time.

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We we don't like to see just one

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revenue stream. You fancy that. That's that's too

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risky. So that's kind of our approach thing

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here. So

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anything generally deference is a lot of questions

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about ethical consideration as well. So I think

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we don't touch that, but we touch

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deep tech

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projects,

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which can somehow leverage defense or government budgets

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to accelerate their commercial products, I would say.

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Yeah.

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So why is it so challenging

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for a company founder, you know, someone with

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a PhD, post doc, that sort of thing,

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to start and grow a company in this

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deep tech sector?

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Starting any company is difficult, you know, as

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Elon Musk would say, it's like eating glass.

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Right? So,

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generally, you have its entrepreneurship. You you don't

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have product market fit. The markets are changing.

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The customers are difficult. Fund fundraising is difficult.

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So what is difficult? What is

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Deep Dek,

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I think it's

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extra layers of difficulties or I would say,

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like, multitude. Right? So

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think about,

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you know,

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most of the time we sell to government

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or to, other businesses. So the sales cycles

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are difficult.

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You need to get IP out most likely

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of university or academia. Right? So you need

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to go for TTO. You need to hire

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IP lawyers, and some of the universities have

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been, like, so painful about that.

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Most of the founding teams are engineers or

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scientists. They don't know how to fundraise. They

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don't know how to sell. They don't know

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they're not very commercial typically. That's

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a whole, like, you know, huge risk typically,

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but what what we see in these teams.

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You need you don't need to worry about

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just product market fit. You need to worry

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about is it does it make sense from

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the science perspective?

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Can it be possible from engineering perspective?

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And and so on. Right? So and then,

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of course,

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investors,

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like typical mainstream venture capital firms, they're like,

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oh, we used to invest in software. You

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got returns, like, in three, five years. And

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they they ask the same questions, deep tech

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people.

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Now it's changing, and it's changing fast because,

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you know, deep tech,

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software becoming a commodity now after deep seek

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and after all the web coding, which which

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we see now on the market. And people

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start asking, okay, so where is the moat?

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And if imagine

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next 1,000 unicorns,

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what this type of companies would be. And

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probably 900 of them would be the Deep

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Dek. Right? We're not going to see another

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Amazon or another Google, but we're probably going

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to see more companies like Nvidia and SpaceX

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00:10:16,955 --> 00:10:19,455
going forward to to be become big companies.

272
00:10:20,070 --> 00:10:20,230
So

273
00:10:20,950 --> 00:10:21,590
and that's,

274
00:10:22,230 --> 00:10:25,350
it's difficult. It's painful for VC people to

275
00:10:25,350 --> 00:10:27,269
kind of change and go through this journey

276
00:10:27,269 --> 00:10:27,929
and mindset.

277
00:10:28,309 --> 00:10:29,990
But I think it's happening now, and we

278
00:10:29,990 --> 00:10:31,769
see a lot of people, lot of generalist

279
00:10:31,830 --> 00:10:33,290
investors, big funds

280
00:10:33,774 --> 00:10:35,934
who never touched deep tech. They now start

281
00:10:35,934 --> 00:10:37,855
investing in deep tech, and they start asking

282
00:10:37,855 --> 00:10:40,654
us people, like, specialized funds as as as

283
00:10:40,654 --> 00:10:41,714
what we do,

284
00:10:42,254 --> 00:10:44,254
start asking questions about how do we invest

285
00:10:44,254 --> 00:10:45,075
in deep tech.

286
00:10:46,250 --> 00:10:47,850
You mentioned a couple terms, though, that might

287
00:10:47,850 --> 00:10:49,690
not be familiar to all listeners. One is

288
00:10:49,690 --> 00:10:51,370
moat and the other is Unicorn. Could you

289
00:10:51,370 --> 00:10:53,389
just sort of define what those things are?

290
00:10:54,089 --> 00:10:56,409
Unicorn is a company which worth more than

291
00:10:56,409 --> 00:10:58,110
1,000,000,000. So this is,

292
00:10:58,424 --> 00:11:00,825
there's another co then another term which called

293
00:11:00,825 --> 00:11:03,965
Decacorn, which is a company which worth 10,000,000,000.

294
00:11:04,424 --> 00:11:07,384
And that's basically everything what when when you

295
00:11:07,384 --> 00:11:08,524
start a start up,

296
00:11:08,985 --> 00:11:11,705
you always think about becoming a unicorn. That's

297
00:11:11,705 --> 00:11:14,590
that's, like, purely, I think, Silicon Valley term.

298
00:11:14,590 --> 00:11:16,370
Everyone wants to build a unicorn.

299
00:11:16,750 --> 00:11:18,669
Everyone wants to invest in a company which

300
00:11:18,669 --> 00:11:19,889
will become a unicorn.

301
00:11:20,269 --> 00:11:22,429
And then, hopefully, this type of company can

302
00:11:22,429 --> 00:11:25,070
go to IPO and then, you know, become

303
00:11:25,070 --> 00:11:27,384
next, I don't know, Facebook. Right?

304
00:11:28,245 --> 00:11:29,144
Mode is,

305
00:11:29,684 --> 00:11:30,424
let's say,

306
00:11:30,884 --> 00:11:32,904
if you run website or

307
00:11:33,284 --> 00:11:35,544
application on iPhone, right, business,

308
00:11:36,245 --> 00:11:38,220
and now you have things like

309
00:11:38,620 --> 00:11:40,699
wipe code ink. Right? And then a person

310
00:11:40,699 --> 00:11:41,199
can

311
00:11:41,659 --> 00:11:43,199
go and wipe code the website.

312
00:11:44,059 --> 00:11:44,559
So

313
00:11:45,579 --> 00:11:48,059
there's no mode, right, for for anyone can

314
00:11:48,220 --> 00:11:50,939
No defense. No defense. Right? There's no protection

315
00:11:50,939 --> 00:11:52,815
of business. But let's say if you have

316
00:11:52,815 --> 00:11:53,955
a company which based

317
00:11:54,495 --> 00:11:56,914
on most of my companies have between

318
00:11:57,534 --> 00:11:59,714
20 to 50 different patents,

319
00:12:00,414 --> 00:12:01,634
which they spent

320
00:12:02,334 --> 00:12:04,514
ten to fifteen to twenty years developing,

321
00:12:05,294 --> 00:12:07,930
let's say, inside an institution, like, such as

322
00:12:07,930 --> 00:12:10,110
Stanford or Oxford or ETH.

323
00:12:10,889 --> 00:12:11,389
Right?

324
00:12:11,850 --> 00:12:12,830
That's not like

325
00:12:13,529 --> 00:12:16,090
it's very difficult to replicate that. It's very

326
00:12:16,090 --> 00:12:18,750
difficult to build the companies similar to that.

327
00:12:19,129 --> 00:12:20,570
And if let's say, if you if you

328
00:12:20,570 --> 00:12:22,335
want to build a fusion reactor,

329
00:12:22,815 --> 00:12:23,475
reactor, then

330
00:12:23,934 --> 00:12:26,335
there's so many things, right, inside and and

331
00:12:26,335 --> 00:12:28,975
engineering and magnets and how do you hold

332
00:12:28,975 --> 00:12:31,295
plasma, how what which AI algorithm you need

333
00:12:31,295 --> 00:12:33,235
to use and so on. So

334
00:12:33,774 --> 00:12:35,129
even in the worst case,

335
00:12:35,610 --> 00:12:38,009
the company will go bankrupt, and you still

336
00:12:38,009 --> 00:12:40,490
can sell these patents. You still can there's

337
00:12:40,490 --> 00:12:41,710
there's still some intellectual

338
00:12:42,809 --> 00:12:46,110
and commercial value for that. So that's why

339
00:12:46,490 --> 00:12:48,809
another reason why people like deep tech is

340
00:12:48,809 --> 00:12:50,649
because in the worst case, you still have

341
00:12:50,649 --> 00:12:52,544
some assets. But in the worst case, if

342
00:12:52,544 --> 00:12:54,324
your website goes bankrupt,

343
00:12:54,625 --> 00:12:56,725
then there's no assets left. You can, yeah,

344
00:12:57,264 --> 00:12:59,664
domain right probably. That's that's the only asset

345
00:12:59,664 --> 00:13:00,324
you have.

346
00:13:01,264 --> 00:13:03,264
Okay. You've you've talked about a few things

347
00:13:03,264 --> 00:13:05,024
that you look for when you start deciding

348
00:13:05,024 --> 00:13:06,600
whether you invest a company. You've looked at

349
00:13:06,919 --> 00:13:09,319
IP, you've looked at emote, you want diverse

350
00:13:09,319 --> 00:13:11,480
revenue streams. What are some other things that

351
00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:12,919
you're looking for, and what would you say

352
00:13:12,919 --> 00:13:15,259
is the biggest thing that companies sort

353
00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:17,319
of fail to do? What's the the the

354
00:13:17,319 --> 00:13:18,620
hurdle they fall at?

355
00:13:19,835 --> 00:13:21,595
So as I did, we see we're looking

356
00:13:21,595 --> 00:13:23,294
the best technology in the class.

357
00:13:23,914 --> 00:13:26,075
Right? So it can be live from anywhere.

358
00:13:26,075 --> 00:13:27,855
That's why we we normally don't

359
00:13:28,715 --> 00:13:32,235
discriminate by the region or by university, and,

360
00:13:32,235 --> 00:13:34,930
actually, a lot of some specific IP comes

361
00:13:34,930 --> 00:13:35,430
from

362
00:13:35,970 --> 00:13:38,790
unknown universities, like very specific

363
00:13:39,490 --> 00:13:41,490
kind of research center or, like, or or

364
00:13:41,490 --> 00:13:43,570
or in the center. What we see is,

365
00:13:43,570 --> 00:13:46,210
like, how they approach the market, which market

366
00:13:46,210 --> 00:13:48,375
to attack. Right? And, you know, as a

367
00:13:48,375 --> 00:13:51,335
VC, we like to see exponentially growing companies.

368
00:13:51,335 --> 00:13:53,115
Right? So we want to see companies which

369
00:13:53,335 --> 00:13:54,934
scale fast and the product can be

370
00:13:55,654 --> 00:13:59,195
can scale to, you know, global domination. Right?

371
00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:01,160
And most of people, I think, they just

372
00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:03,080
don't understand how to sell to the right

373
00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:04,620
customers and how to approach

374
00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,240
the go to market strategy. Like, I mean,

375
00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:09,100
there's a couple of ways how you can

376
00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:11,480
fix this problem. Right? So for example, you

377
00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:12,460
hire a cofounder.

378
00:14:13,014 --> 00:14:14,534
For example, if you want to sell to

379
00:14:14,534 --> 00:14:15,434
quantum computing,

380
00:14:16,054 --> 00:14:17,834
you'll say you have no quantum computing

381
00:14:19,095 --> 00:14:19,595
product,

382
00:14:20,054 --> 00:14:22,375
hire a sales who used to work in

383
00:14:22,375 --> 00:14:23,514
IBM or Microsoft.

384
00:14:24,294 --> 00:14:26,934
Right? So they know how to sell. They've

385
00:14:26,934 --> 00:14:29,179
been there for twenty years. They have

386
00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:31,720
a notebook with all the contacts, and they

387
00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:33,419
know exactly what people are looking for.

388
00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:35,980
If you would like to sell to DOD

389
00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:38,059
in The US, for example,

390
00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:41,660
get some general retired general on your advisory

391
00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,514
board. Right? So they still probably have the

392
00:14:44,514 --> 00:14:46,835
friends. They still kind of go Sunday lunches

393
00:14:46,835 --> 00:14:49,254
with them. They can teach you. They can

394
00:14:49,394 --> 00:14:52,035
coach and do some introductions and explain what's

395
00:14:52,035 --> 00:14:54,355
the how the sales process work inside the

396
00:14:54,355 --> 00:14:54,855
government.

397
00:14:55,370 --> 00:14:55,870
So

398
00:14:56,250 --> 00:14:58,889
quick pivoting as well. It doesn't work quickly

399
00:14:58,889 --> 00:15:00,889
change and try approach. I think lots of

400
00:15:00,889 --> 00:15:03,070
people as founders live in the

401
00:15:03,769 --> 00:15:06,009
I mean, that kind of 90% of the

402
00:15:06,009 --> 00:15:08,269
problems can be avoided if you say

403
00:15:08,674 --> 00:15:10,995
stop being in love with your product and

404
00:15:10,995 --> 00:15:12,934
start being in love with your customer.

405
00:15:13,714 --> 00:15:15,475
Right? Most of the things you can fix

406
00:15:15,475 --> 00:15:17,554
if you just listen to a customer and

407
00:15:17,554 --> 00:15:20,274
understand what they need and then develop features

408
00:15:20,274 --> 00:15:22,754
and modify the product based on what the

409
00:15:22,754 --> 00:15:24,870
market needs. And I think it's it's pretty

410
00:15:24,870 --> 00:15:25,370
much

411
00:15:26,070 --> 00:15:28,309
it sounds so simple, but it's so difficult

412
00:15:28,309 --> 00:15:30,309
to do. And most of the deep tech

413
00:15:30,309 --> 00:15:32,730
founders, they in in love with technology

414
00:15:33,269 --> 00:15:36,149
they developed. So it's emotional attachment as well

415
00:15:36,149 --> 00:15:37,304
to to the product.

416
00:15:38,345 --> 00:15:39,865
And they got where they are because they're

417
00:15:39,865 --> 00:15:41,945
good at making the product, making the thing,

418
00:15:41,945 --> 00:15:44,044
not necessarily good at talking to people.

419
00:15:44,504 --> 00:15:46,264
Yes. Exactly. That's true. But, you know, I've

420
00:15:46,345 --> 00:15:47,004
I also

421
00:15:47,464 --> 00:15:49,384
I always thought that, you know, you need

422
00:15:49,384 --> 00:15:50,684
to have a perfect salesperson,

423
00:15:51,384 --> 00:15:53,639
you know, to sell to these amazing products

424
00:15:53,639 --> 00:15:55,720
to, like, your customers. But then I read

425
00:15:55,720 --> 00:15:58,519
book, The NVIDIA Way, about a million about

426
00:15:58,519 --> 00:15:59,019
Johnson.

427
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:00,220
And,

428
00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:02,600
you know, actually, you need to try you

429
00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:04,600
need to learn to sell people who are

430
00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:05,259
like you,

431
00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:07,815
who like the same what you do. And

432
00:16:07,815 --> 00:16:09,595
if they sell chips

433
00:16:10,295 --> 00:16:13,175
and cards to people who love AI and

434
00:16:13,175 --> 00:16:13,675
ML,

435
00:16:14,215 --> 00:16:15,675
they are the same geeky people.

436
00:16:16,375 --> 00:16:18,295
You don't need to talk to them differently.

437
00:16:18,295 --> 00:16:19,975
Right? You just you just you just need

438
00:16:19,975 --> 00:16:21,335
to yeah. It's kind of geeky people to

439
00:16:21,335 --> 00:16:23,095
sell to geeky people. Right? It's it's that

440
00:16:23,095 --> 00:16:25,070
that that should work. Right? So I feel

441
00:16:25,149 --> 00:16:27,470
I think it depends what type of audience

442
00:16:27,470 --> 00:16:28,850
and what type of product.

443
00:16:29,149 --> 00:16:30,830
So but I think now I looked not

444
00:16:30,830 --> 00:16:31,730
at the specific

445
00:16:32,509 --> 00:16:33,009
kind

446
00:16:33,629 --> 00:16:35,629
of attitude of the person, but I look

447
00:16:35,629 --> 00:16:36,850
at the financial model

448
00:16:37,184 --> 00:16:39,684
and I'm data driven VC. So, okay, so

449
00:16:39,745 --> 00:16:40,485
show me

450
00:16:41,264 --> 00:16:43,184
that you can sell. Show me that people

451
00:16:43,184 --> 00:16:44,725
like and use your product.

452
00:16:45,184 --> 00:16:47,504
And then I don't care how you look

453
00:16:47,504 --> 00:16:49,285
like. You don't have to be a showman.

454
00:16:49,504 --> 00:16:50,004
Right?

455
00:16:50,384 --> 00:16:51,870
But I want to see the numbers.

456
00:16:53,470 --> 00:16:55,470
So we talked a little bit earlier about

457
00:16:55,470 --> 00:16:58,589
sort of geopolitical trends and developments going on

458
00:16:58,589 --> 00:17:00,909
in the wider markets, both as an investor

459
00:17:00,909 --> 00:17:02,750
and kind of as a member of this

460
00:17:02,750 --> 00:17:04,690
deep tech, science tech community.

461
00:17:05,230 --> 00:17:07,150
What are the risks and developments that keep

462
00:17:07,150 --> 00:17:09,204
you awake at at night? What's making your

463
00:17:09,204 --> 00:17:10,025
job harder?

464
00:17:14,005 --> 00:17:15,924
I mean, we we don't like what's happening

465
00:17:15,924 --> 00:17:16,804
now with,

466
00:17:17,365 --> 00:17:19,144
geopolitical thing. I think everyone

467
00:17:19,684 --> 00:17:21,605
is I I wish we didn't have it.

468
00:17:21,605 --> 00:17:23,284
Also try to think about that. We just

469
00:17:23,284 --> 00:17:23,670
need to

470
00:17:24,309 --> 00:17:27,190
learn how do we take advantage of advantage

471
00:17:27,190 --> 00:17:28,549
maybe not the right word, but how like,

472
00:17:28,549 --> 00:17:30,230
you know, that there's a positive sense of

473
00:17:30,230 --> 00:17:32,230
that. Right? As well as accelerating some of

474
00:17:32,230 --> 00:17:33,850
the technologies which will define

475
00:17:34,230 --> 00:17:36,330
the future of our civilization. Right? So,

476
00:17:37,190 --> 00:17:37,930
and and

477
00:17:38,630 --> 00:17:41,065
that's that that's good. Right? So that's that's

478
00:17:41,065 --> 00:17:42,045
amazing. I think,

479
00:17:44,265 --> 00:17:47,304
sometimes I do worry about what will happen

480
00:17:47,304 --> 00:17:48,204
if we completely,

481
00:17:48,505 --> 00:17:49,164
you know,

482
00:17:49,865 --> 00:17:53,049
forget or, like, can pivot away from sustainability

483
00:17:53,190 --> 00:17:54,789
and just try to build as many data

484
00:17:54,789 --> 00:17:55,849
centers as possible,

485
00:17:57,190 --> 00:17:59,269
just because it's that's what is that's what

486
00:17:59,269 --> 00:18:01,690
they think will generate the most revenue. Right?

487
00:18:02,150 --> 00:18:02,650
I

488
00:18:03,430 --> 00:18:06,424
and, unfortunately, kind of that's the current trend

489
00:18:06,424 --> 00:18:07,945
and the good good to see that we

490
00:18:07,945 --> 00:18:10,585
now start thinking about building data centers in

491
00:18:10,585 --> 00:18:11,644
space and orbit

492
00:18:12,025 --> 00:18:14,184
and people like Elon Musk and talk about

493
00:18:14,265 --> 00:18:15,404
now about SpaceX

494
00:18:15,705 --> 00:18:18,664
IPO and then how the next step can

495
00:18:18,664 --> 00:18:19,644
be done building

496
00:18:20,460 --> 00:18:23,200
kind of moving the main offenders of climate

497
00:18:23,339 --> 00:18:23,839
today

498
00:18:24,140 --> 00:18:24,960
to orbit.

499
00:18:25,900 --> 00:18:27,819
So I think that's that's actually potentially, I

500
00:18:27,819 --> 00:18:29,839
think, it's a good solution for that.

501
00:18:30,220 --> 00:18:31,179
But, yeah, that's,

502
00:18:31,779 --> 00:18:33,039
the the whole

503
00:18:33,900 --> 00:18:34,559
kind of

504
00:18:35,179 --> 00:18:35,679
climate

505
00:18:36,355 --> 00:18:37,095
and sustainability,

506
00:18:38,034 --> 00:18:40,034
I also think get lost a little bit

507
00:18:40,034 --> 00:18:42,034
in the data because, we don't have much

508
00:18:42,034 --> 00:18:44,194
data here, and I kind of I don't

509
00:18:44,194 --> 00:18:45,875
like to be as a as a as

510
00:18:45,875 --> 00:18:48,194
a person who studied physics, I'm a first

511
00:18:48,194 --> 00:18:50,490
principle driven. I'm not like I don't like

512
00:18:50,490 --> 00:18:52,809
to be driven by mass media. I like

513
00:18:52,809 --> 00:18:55,130
to be driven by numbers and by by

514
00:18:55,130 --> 00:18:55,630
facts.

515
00:18:56,089 --> 00:18:58,250
So so that's difficult to understand where is

516
00:18:58,250 --> 00:19:00,029
the noise, where is the facts as well.

517
00:19:00,809 --> 00:19:02,575
In terms of data centers in space, I

518
00:19:02,575 --> 00:19:04,015
mean, I've heard about that idea, and I

519
00:19:04,015 --> 00:19:05,855
think the the main objection to it is

520
00:19:05,855 --> 00:19:07,695
it's really actually quite hard to dissipate the

521
00:19:07,695 --> 00:19:10,174
heat they generate into a vacuum. Has that

522
00:19:10,174 --> 00:19:12,255
problem been solved, or is it actually feasible

523
00:19:12,255 --> 00:19:13,875
to put data centers in space?

524
00:19:14,269 --> 00:19:16,509
So we don't have any data centers in

525
00:19:16,509 --> 00:19:17,809
space today. I think

526
00:19:18,190 --> 00:19:20,589
the problem about heat is is is is

527
00:19:20,589 --> 00:19:22,849
one of the key engineering issues we have.

528
00:19:22,990 --> 00:19:24,750
I think what will happen is probably you'll

529
00:19:24,750 --> 00:19:26,690
have, like, 20 different architectures,

530
00:19:27,384 --> 00:19:29,724
20 different start ups. You'll try maybe

531
00:19:30,184 --> 00:19:33,144
SpaceX, Google, but, no, Amazon, Meta, whatever, like

532
00:19:33,704 --> 00:19:36,265
and many other they'll try different things. I

533
00:19:36,265 --> 00:19:37,785
think people say, yeah. Just put it, like,

534
00:19:37,785 --> 00:19:40,045
in the back of water. Right? Or

535
00:19:40,609 --> 00:19:41,970
in the back of, I don't know, air

536
00:19:41,970 --> 00:19:44,690
or whatever or kind of try different things

537
00:19:44,690 --> 00:19:45,190
with,

538
00:19:46,450 --> 00:19:48,450
with solid materials as well. So I think

539
00:19:48,450 --> 00:19:49,910
there's there'll be couple of

540
00:19:50,289 --> 00:19:52,869
iterations of that. I think several technologies

541
00:19:53,250 --> 00:19:55,090
will show that they're not working. Some of

542
00:19:55,090 --> 00:19:56,085
them will have to be

543
00:19:56,644 --> 00:19:57,544
adjusted, improved.

544
00:19:58,244 --> 00:20:00,325
I guess it's not two, three years of

545
00:20:00,325 --> 00:20:02,404
horizon. I think we're talking more about, like,

546
00:20:02,404 --> 00:20:02,904
fifteen

547
00:20:03,524 --> 00:20:04,984
ten, fifteen years, twenty

548
00:20:05,444 --> 00:20:07,684
years. That but yeah. But it's it does

549
00:20:07,684 --> 00:20:10,829
make sense. Right? Because you have unlimited energy

550
00:20:10,829 --> 00:20:13,470
there. You have connection to the Internet. You

551
00:20:13,470 --> 00:20:14,690
have physical security.

552
00:20:16,109 --> 00:20:17,170
You you don't have

553
00:20:18,190 --> 00:20:19,490
kind of FBI

554
00:20:20,029 --> 00:20:22,029
coming to your door, right, and and knocking

555
00:20:22,029 --> 00:20:22,904
the door. So

556
00:20:23,705 --> 00:20:25,865
this also, there's so much space as well

557
00:20:25,865 --> 00:20:27,625
there. Right? So it's just kind of the

558
00:20:27,625 --> 00:20:30,205
the engineering issues, we will see.

559
00:20:30,664 --> 00:20:32,105
And they know at some point you might

560
00:20:32,105 --> 00:20:34,744
say you might see it doesn't work. Right?

561
00:20:34,744 --> 00:20:35,244
So,

562
00:20:35,929 --> 00:20:38,170
also, the launch cost. I think we're still

563
00:20:38,170 --> 00:20:40,490
waiting for this to be dropped out. I

564
00:20:40,490 --> 00:20:42,890
saw some calculations, people saying that it has

565
00:20:42,890 --> 00:20:44,429
to be less than

566
00:20:44,890 --> 00:20:45,390
thousand

567
00:20:46,009 --> 00:20:47,230
dollars per kilo

568
00:20:47,769 --> 00:20:48,315
for launch

569
00:20:49,115 --> 00:20:50,254
for that to be

570
00:20:50,714 --> 00:20:53,855
becoming commercially viable to build in space.

571
00:20:54,234 --> 00:20:55,754
As of today, we're not quite there yet.

572
00:20:55,754 --> 00:20:57,454
I think it's still kind of around 17

573
00:20:57,514 --> 00:20:58,014
hundreds

574
00:20:58,315 --> 00:20:59,054
per kilo.

575
00:20:59,355 --> 00:21:02,394
But with the Starship regular cadence, hopefully, this

576
00:21:02,394 --> 00:21:02,880
year, we'll

577
00:21:03,839 --> 00:21:04,500
see maybe

578
00:21:05,039 --> 00:21:07,680
I think people estimate, like, between 100 to

579
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:09,200
$500

580
00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:09,940
per kilo.

581
00:21:10,799 --> 00:21:13,680
That's a different story. Right? So we still

582
00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:14,894
we still yet to see that.

583
00:21:16,575 --> 00:21:18,095
And I asked you about what keeps you

584
00:21:18,095 --> 00:21:19,375
awake at night. The flip side of that,

585
00:21:19,375 --> 00:21:20,734
of course, is what are some trends in

586
00:21:20,734 --> 00:21:22,494
the sector that you're really excited about? What

587
00:21:22,494 --> 00:21:24,115
keeps you going to work in the morning?

588
00:21:25,775 --> 00:21:26,755
You know, I think

589
00:21:27,934 --> 00:21:30,769
AI is killing some industries, and AI is

590
00:21:30,769 --> 00:21:33,570
accelerating some industries. And deep tech is a

591
00:21:33,570 --> 00:21:35,750
industry which AI is accelerating.

592
00:21:36,769 --> 00:21:39,029
So many things happening, you know, of course.

593
00:21:39,170 --> 00:21:41,170
You know, think look look what's happening with

594
00:21:41,170 --> 00:21:41,670
robotics.

595
00:21:42,105 --> 00:21:42,605
Right?

596
00:21:42,904 --> 00:21:45,724
Look what's happening with all the plasma management

597
00:21:45,785 --> 00:21:48,424
inside fusion reactors. Right? It's it's all AI

598
00:21:48,424 --> 00:21:48,924
now.

599
00:21:49,545 --> 00:21:51,964
How much we can more efficiently,

600
00:21:53,224 --> 00:21:56,265
use utilize AI, for example, for satellite data

601
00:21:56,265 --> 00:21:58,669
as well. Right? So all the images,

602
00:21:59,049 --> 00:22:02,029
different spectrum. Right? AI is so much helpful

603
00:22:02,089 --> 00:22:02,750
for, like

604
00:22:03,210 --> 00:22:05,869
and we can see applications across many industries,

605
00:22:06,089 --> 00:22:06,750
not just

606
00:22:07,769 --> 00:22:10,295
government or, like, looking at, you know, kind

607
00:22:10,295 --> 00:22:13,275
of monitoring the floods, but insurance, banking,

608
00:22:14,535 --> 00:22:16,695
agriculture, and so on. There's there there there's

609
00:22:16,695 --> 00:22:17,515
a whole spectrum

610
00:22:18,295 --> 00:22:20,555
of people who start utilizing that.

611
00:22:21,414 --> 00:22:23,880
The whole industry now is changing because

612
00:22:25,079 --> 00:22:27,259
SpaceX core and IPO, this is, like,

613
00:22:27,559 --> 00:22:29,720
one of the biggest demands we're expecting this

614
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:31,099
year in in that industry.

615
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:34,039
And that's kind of fueling it from both

616
00:22:34,039 --> 00:22:36,445
sides because probably half of the SpaceX will

617
00:22:36,445 --> 00:22:38,205
leave because they all have their own idea

618
00:22:38,205 --> 00:22:40,125
about their own start up and just waiting

619
00:22:40,125 --> 00:22:40,625
for

620
00:22:41,085 --> 00:22:42,785
liquidity event to leave.

621
00:22:43,404 --> 00:22:45,805
And maybe we'll see, like, hundreds of new

622
00:22:45,805 --> 00:22:47,424
start ups later this year.

623
00:22:47,805 --> 00:22:49,904
And investors who made money

624
00:22:50,509 --> 00:22:52,269
on SpaceX will be like, okay. Yes. This

625
00:22:52,269 --> 00:22:53,970
is a great industry to make money.

626
00:22:54,509 --> 00:22:56,590
Let me invest back. Right? So, like, rest

627
00:22:56,670 --> 00:22:58,130
let's reinvest. So, hopefully,

628
00:22:58,750 --> 00:23:00,750
that would be another trend as well. General

629
00:23:00,750 --> 00:23:02,130
attraction of public

630
00:23:02,590 --> 00:23:05,755
and not public attention, public capital. Hopefully, there

631
00:23:05,755 --> 00:23:07,994
will be many people participating in pre IPO

632
00:23:07,994 --> 00:23:08,974
deals as well.

633
00:23:11,914 --> 00:23:12,414
Launching

634
00:23:12,875 --> 00:23:13,375
cadence,

635
00:23:13,674 --> 00:23:16,654
Starship, drop through dropping cost, I think that's

636
00:23:16,715 --> 00:23:19,569
changing the whole unit economics, right, of the

637
00:23:19,569 --> 00:23:22,470
entire sector of in space manufacturing, for example.

638
00:23:23,089 --> 00:23:26,130
Something previously begin was was not possible to

639
00:23:26,130 --> 00:23:27,029
build in space,

640
00:23:27,490 --> 00:23:29,909
and we have invested in many companies. Like,

641
00:23:30,544 --> 00:23:32,384
which doing something in space, for example, like

642
00:23:32,384 --> 00:23:33,845
production of semiconductors

643
00:23:34,865 --> 00:23:37,984
or cancer treatments in space, or there's so

644
00:23:37,984 --> 00:23:40,464
many different use cases now you can see

645
00:23:40,464 --> 00:23:40,964
organoids,

646
00:23:41,904 --> 00:23:43,950
fiber, and so on. So

647
00:23:44,970 --> 00:23:46,029
in space manufacturing

648
00:23:46,410 --> 00:23:49,369
is based on zero gravity and deep vacuum,

649
00:23:49,369 --> 00:23:52,250
which is not very difficult to, sometimes impossible

650
00:23:52,250 --> 00:23:52,750
to,

651
00:23:53,609 --> 00:23:56,090
imitate on Earth. Right? And that allows us

652
00:23:56,090 --> 00:23:58,744
to produce new materials, which we haven't been

653
00:23:58,744 --> 00:24:00,204
able to produce before.

654
00:24:00,664 --> 00:24:02,505
And then but, yeah, of course, the cost

655
00:24:02,505 --> 00:24:05,544
and unit economics matters. Yeah. So that's changing

656
00:24:05,544 --> 00:24:07,404
as well. That that's that's another trend.

657
00:24:08,505 --> 00:24:09,964
And because I like

658
00:24:10,585 --> 00:24:11,085
energy,

659
00:24:11,625 --> 00:24:13,419
and I think energy is generally

660
00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:15,960
this I think the whole industry is like,

661
00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:17,960
okay. Yes. We need to have better batteries.

662
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:19,640
We have we need to have better grid

663
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:21,579
management. We need to have a base load.

664
00:24:21,799 --> 00:24:24,359
We need to have nuclear small reactors, mini

665
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:26,279
reactors. Oh, let's try to build fusion. And

666
00:24:26,279 --> 00:24:27,404
fusion now from

667
00:24:27,965 --> 00:24:30,945
twenty years away now became twenty months away.

668
00:24:31,244 --> 00:24:33,744
Right? And this b will be a generation

669
00:24:33,805 --> 00:24:36,684
which will see fusion reactor prop possibly in

670
00:24:36,684 --> 00:24:37,345
our lifetime.

671
00:24:38,125 --> 00:24:40,525
And the first fusion reaction would the same

672
00:24:40,525 --> 00:24:41,904
as, like, LLM moment,

673
00:24:42,525 --> 00:24:46,130
right, in terms of the impact not civilization.

674
00:24:46,990 --> 00:24:47,490
So

675
00:24:47,789 --> 00:24:50,669
that's exciting, and that's amazing. And I I'm

676
00:24:50,669 --> 00:24:52,529
I'm so happy to be part of this,

677
00:24:52,589 --> 00:24:54,609
you know, industry, and I'm so happy

678
00:24:55,150 --> 00:24:56,990
not just to be part on the support,

679
00:24:56,990 --> 00:24:59,434
but also, you know, people who who are

680
00:24:59,434 --> 00:24:59,934
doing

681
00:25:00,234 --> 00:25:01,295
that, they are scientists,

682
00:25:02,154 --> 00:25:03,134
but the engineers.

683
00:25:03,674 --> 00:25:06,234
And I'm so happy that we kind of

684
00:25:06,234 --> 00:25:07,855
going through that circle.

685
00:25:08,554 --> 00:25:10,095
So that phase of our civilization

686
00:25:10,394 --> 00:25:11,755
went to be an engineer, to be a

687
00:25:11,755 --> 00:25:12,960
scientist is so cool.

688
00:25:13,580 --> 00:25:15,820
Just kind of the funny story about one

689
00:25:15,820 --> 00:25:17,740
of my so we have three PhDs in

690
00:25:17,740 --> 00:25:18,460
our team,

691
00:25:19,019 --> 00:25:20,160
across five partners.

692
00:25:20,860 --> 00:25:23,500
And, we have some founders who don't want

693
00:25:23,500 --> 00:25:25,420
to speak to VC if they don't have

694
00:25:25,420 --> 00:25:27,105
a PhD. People don't like

695
00:25:27,744 --> 00:25:30,224
investors who like spreadsheet people. They like people

696
00:25:30,224 --> 00:25:30,724
who

697
00:25:31,025 --> 00:25:31,684
have technical

698
00:25:31,984 --> 00:25:35,184
I mean, most preferably PhD. Right? And one

699
00:25:35,184 --> 00:25:37,204
of my cofounders, he's been

700
00:25:37,984 --> 00:25:40,065
he had a PhD for last fifteen years,

701
00:25:40,065 --> 00:25:42,544
and he's he he built two startups, deep

702
00:25:42,544 --> 00:25:42,900
tech,

703
00:25:43,460 --> 00:25:45,080
sold them, serial entrepreneur.

704
00:25:45,700 --> 00:25:47,000
He was always hiding

705
00:25:47,539 --> 00:25:49,380
he has a PhD because he was like,

706
00:25:49,380 --> 00:25:51,380
all people think, like, I want to be

707
00:25:51,380 --> 00:25:53,299
serial entrepreneur. I don't want to be, like,

708
00:25:53,299 --> 00:25:53,960
a PhD

709
00:25:54,420 --> 00:25:56,565
kind of tech techy guy. And now the

710
00:25:56,565 --> 00:25:58,565
first time in last fifteen years, he said,

711
00:25:58,565 --> 00:26:01,365
actually, he updated his LinkedIn profile to say

712
00:26:01,365 --> 00:26:01,865
doctor

713
00:26:02,565 --> 00:26:05,224
because that's that's the new phase of,

714
00:26:05,765 --> 00:26:06,265
like,

715
00:26:06,724 --> 00:26:08,565
of our time where we actually say, yeah.

716
00:26:08,565 --> 00:26:11,159
PhD is cool. And, actually, you you can

717
00:26:11,159 --> 00:26:12,440
be PhD, but you can be like you

718
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:13,899
can be like a serial entrepreneur,

719
00:26:14,519 --> 00:26:15,659
and you can be

720
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,159
like super building a super big companies now

721
00:26:19,159 --> 00:26:19,819
as well.

722
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:21,880
Going back to the career side of things,

723
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:23,605
just to close out here, what do you

724
00:26:23,605 --> 00:26:25,525
know now that you wish you'd known at

725
00:26:25,525 --> 00:26:26,664
the start of your career?

726
00:26:29,044 --> 00:26:30,484
I just got I think I've got a

727
00:26:30,484 --> 00:26:31,625
bit of more confidence,

728
00:26:32,325 --> 00:26:35,365
kind of an understanding that any problem can

729
00:26:35,365 --> 00:26:35,940
be solved.

730
00:26:37,460 --> 00:26:40,899
Just reading books, just just going through, just

731
00:26:40,899 --> 00:26:42,679
kind of following the first principles,

732
00:26:42,980 --> 00:26:44,839
don't making any assumptions. Right?

733
00:26:46,339 --> 00:26:48,919
For people who study physics, I think they

734
00:26:49,539 --> 00:26:50,085
kind of

735
00:26:50,644 --> 00:26:52,424
they're very open minded, but sometimes

736
00:26:52,724 --> 00:26:55,204
they're also very introverted. Most of my friends

737
00:26:55,204 --> 00:26:56,904
which I've seen and they kind of they,

738
00:26:58,005 --> 00:27:00,424
lack confidence sometimes. So I think that's

739
00:27:02,164 --> 00:27:02,664
something

740
00:27:03,444 --> 00:27:04,859
I wish I had, like,

741
00:27:05,819 --> 00:27:06,960
fifteen years ago.

742
00:27:07,420 --> 00:27:08,880
But, no, I think it's generally

743
00:27:09,420 --> 00:27:11,519
can't really think about any specific example

744
00:27:12,539 --> 00:27:13,599
apart from that.

745
00:27:14,059 --> 00:27:16,299
And, what skills would you say that you

746
00:27:16,299 --> 00:27:18,380
use every day in your job? Either physics

747
00:27:18,380 --> 00:27:21,255
skills or scientific skills or other skills in

748
00:27:21,255 --> 00:27:21,755
general?

749
00:27:23,414 --> 00:27:24,615
Actually, I I

750
00:27:25,255 --> 00:27:26,234
when when I was

751
00:27:27,095 --> 00:27:29,335
preparing for this podcast and I was like

752
00:27:29,494 --> 00:27:31,575
I spoke to my friend and I asked

753
00:27:31,575 --> 00:27:33,414
him, like, so what do you think what

754
00:27:33,414 --> 00:27:35,734
do you see me doing different from other

755
00:27:35,734 --> 00:27:36,509
people, like,

756
00:27:37,070 --> 00:27:38,990
in the in the same field? And then

757
00:27:38,990 --> 00:27:40,750
he told me, like, so, Alex, I learned

758
00:27:40,750 --> 00:27:42,930
from you that you never make any assumptions.

759
00:27:43,950 --> 00:27:45,890
And I think this is something which

760
00:27:47,150 --> 00:27:49,070
would like, you know, when when in physics,

761
00:27:49,070 --> 00:27:50,910
right, you you learn that, you know, you

762
00:27:50,910 --> 00:27:51,375
always

763
00:27:51,855 --> 00:27:53,714
don't make any assumptions. Right? That's

764
00:27:54,174 --> 00:27:56,015
go back to the data. Always go back

765
00:27:56,015 --> 00:27:56,994
to first principles.

766
00:27:57,535 --> 00:27:58,575
And I think that's,

767
00:27:59,855 --> 00:28:02,494
that makes life so much easier, right, if

768
00:28:02,494 --> 00:28:05,394
you just kind of, you know, pure logic,

769
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:06,859
pure kind

770
00:28:07,559 --> 00:28:09,099
of non assumption vault.

771
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,980
I think I think structuring information,

772
00:28:12,519 --> 00:28:15,160
I think analogy thinking as well. So trying

773
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:17,259
to okay. This works here

774
00:28:17,559 --> 00:28:19,960
in that specific sector. Let's see how it's

775
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:21,015
going to be working there.

776
00:28:21,575 --> 00:28:23,015
That's what we do. I think that's kind

777
00:28:23,015 --> 00:28:25,095
of a specific mental model which which I

778
00:28:25,095 --> 00:28:25,914
use a lot.

779
00:28:27,414 --> 00:28:28,954
Creativity, problem solving,

780
00:28:29,494 --> 00:28:30,795
kind of every day,

781
00:28:31,734 --> 00:28:34,615
many different cases. Right? So so many problems

782
00:28:34,615 --> 00:28:36,419
to to solve. I think this helps a

783
00:28:36,419 --> 00:28:38,500
lot, you know, kind of being curious, being,

784
00:28:38,500 --> 00:28:39,000
like,

785
00:28:39,460 --> 00:28:41,960
trying to be creative about the each problem.

786
00:28:43,140 --> 00:28:43,640
Resilience,

787
00:28:44,819 --> 00:28:47,460
I think you not now especially in this

788
00:28:47,460 --> 00:28:49,859
current world where everything can be solved in

789
00:28:49,859 --> 00:28:51,244
thirty seconds with ChargeGPT,

790
00:28:52,505 --> 00:28:55,224
we sometimes forget that sometimes you need to

791
00:28:55,224 --> 00:28:56,984
invest your time. You need to think. You

792
00:28:56,984 --> 00:28:58,744
need to keep doing these things. You need,

793
00:28:58,744 --> 00:29:00,765
like, you know, it take it can take

794
00:29:01,464 --> 00:29:04,490
weeks, months, years, right, to solve something in

795
00:29:04,490 --> 00:29:04,990
physics.

796
00:29:05,369 --> 00:29:07,210
Even if you're a student, right, you know

797
00:29:07,210 --> 00:29:09,630
that it's not sometimes, like, two, three minutes.

798
00:29:10,250 --> 00:29:12,190
It's can take you a couple of, like,

799
00:29:12,250 --> 00:29:13,789
hours, days. Right?

800
00:29:14,890 --> 00:29:17,444
And this persistence, this resilience is something which

801
00:29:18,484 --> 00:29:20,164
I value a lot, this kind of become

802
00:29:20,164 --> 00:29:21,224
part of my character.

803
00:29:22,164 --> 00:29:22,664
So,

804
00:29:24,085 --> 00:29:25,605
yeah, I think that's I mean, I I

805
00:29:25,605 --> 00:29:27,125
don't I don't think I use, like I

806
00:29:27,125 --> 00:29:29,444
mean, of course, I sometimes like, during my

807
00:29:29,444 --> 00:29:31,890
due diligence process, I go back to, you

808
00:29:31,890 --> 00:29:35,250
know, my blackboard and, you know, try to

809
00:29:35,250 --> 00:29:37,670
do some formulas and calculate check some calculations.

810
00:29:37,730 --> 00:29:39,250
Yeah. That that that's happens a lot, but

811
00:29:39,250 --> 00:29:41,650
it's like it's 5% of my time. Most

812
00:29:41,650 --> 00:29:43,269
of the time, it's just kind of

813
00:29:43,650 --> 00:29:45,490
the mental models, I think, in the ways

814
00:29:45,490 --> 00:29:46,150
of thinking.

815
00:29:47,734 --> 00:29:49,654
Final question. What do you like best and

816
00:29:49,654 --> 00:29:50,875
least about your job?

817
00:29:52,454 --> 00:29:52,954
Best

818
00:29:53,255 --> 00:29:54,394
and least. Okay.

819
00:29:55,974 --> 00:29:57,914
So best, I I'm lucky to

820
00:29:58,214 --> 00:30:00,234
probably spend half of my day

821
00:30:00,910 --> 00:30:03,570
talking to the smartest PhDs in the world

822
00:30:03,869 --> 00:30:05,170
who would like to solve

823
00:30:06,430 --> 00:30:08,509
the world's crit like, some of the most

824
00:30:08,509 --> 00:30:10,529
critical problems you have in the world

825
00:30:11,309 --> 00:30:13,089
and build an amazing

826
00:30:13,869 --> 00:30:16,904
big new company, like, unicorn style, unicorn size.

827
00:30:16,904 --> 00:30:17,404
Right?

828
00:30:18,184 --> 00:30:18,924
The worst

829
00:30:20,424 --> 00:30:22,825
is admin paperwork to send documents to them

830
00:30:22,825 --> 00:30:23,565
and sign.

831
00:30:24,744 --> 00:30:26,664
That's always happens, right, to kind of term

832
00:30:26,664 --> 00:30:28,585
sheets and kind of agreement. So that's kind

833
00:30:28,585 --> 00:30:30,419
of just the boring stuff, but has to

834
00:30:30,419 --> 00:30:31,159
be done.

835
00:30:32,419 --> 00:30:34,099
Alexandra Fidcic, thank you very much for being

836
00:30:34,099 --> 00:30:34,839
on the podcast.

837
00:30:35,539 --> 00:30:37,619
Thank you so much for having me. Loved

838
00:30:37,619 --> 00:30:38,119
it.

839
00:30:45,315 --> 00:30:48,134
That was the physicist and venture capitalist,

840
00:30:48,835 --> 00:30:49,335
Alexandra

841
00:30:49,634 --> 00:30:50,134
Vidjic,

842
00:30:50,595 --> 00:30:51,414
in conversation

843
00:30:51,714 --> 00:30:53,974
with Physics World's Margaret Harris.

844
00:30:54,515 --> 00:30:56,615
Thanks to both of them for a fascinating

845
00:30:56,835 --> 00:30:57,335
conversation.

846
00:30:58,430 --> 00:31:00,269
I'm afraid that's all the time we have

847
00:31:00,269 --> 00:31:01,569
for this week's podcast.

848
00:31:02,029 --> 00:31:05,630
Our producer is Fred Ailes, and I'm Hamish

849
00:31:05,630 --> 00:31:06,130
Johnston.

850
00:31:06,750 --> 00:31:09,710
The music for this podcast is called one

851
00:31:09,710 --> 00:31:13,035
three seven, and it was composed and recorded

852
00:31:13,335 --> 00:31:14,315
by the physicist

853
00:31:15,015 --> 00:31:15,515
Philip

854
00:31:15,894 --> 00:31:16,394
Moriarty.

855
00:31:17,414 --> 00:31:19,275
We'll be back again next week.