 Let's jump straight into it. So in this audience, there are so many incredible entrepreneurs And I'm sure that a lot of them would just love to hunt you down after this talk So which ones are you looking for more specifically? Cool. Hi everyone. My name is Ella Madde I'm one of the founding partners at 50 years. It's a San Francisco based early-stage Venture firm funding Companies that are solving the world's biggest problems with technology and we like we like technologically heavy novel Scalable solutions to problems so food tech synthetic biology robotics space tech early stage to series a so if you're if you feel if you if you fit the if you yeah, if you can check all the boxes then And any Like any special personality traits or any kinds of entrepreneurs. They're looking for or yeah, I mean specifically most of the teams we end up funding usually have Very deep technical expertise on the team often founders who have PhD In a certain technology area we like we like engineering mindset And people who really also Care about building a big business but also care about Solving some big problem they see in the world and they think they can contribute So the combination of of the two is quite important Vishal obvious. Yeah, so I am One of the co-founders of obvious ventures obvious is the central San Francisco based venture firm the roots of obvious is is Building companies like Twitter and medium Four years ago. We started a venture fund with a belief that You know the most valuable and impactful companies of our times are going to be companies which are solving Humanities biggest challenges What we are looking for is world-positive entrepreneurs. We call them world-positive entrepreneurs who are building disruptive solutions to the biggest problems And we call this kind of activity world-positive investing So that's what we do We are looking for world-positive entrepreneurs who are solving big problems and we call those companies world-positive companies Which is moving these companies are are moving the world forward and in positive ways our fund our first fund was $123 million our second fund was hundred ninety one million dollars and And we are focused eighty percent of our focus is is early stage and 20 percent we focus on growth companies and And has that strategy evolved over time at all or has it been the same since the inception? We have not changed our investment thesis strategy or the stage focused strategy and we continue to kind of refine and And just work with with the best entrepreneurs. So strategy has remained the same And in your case so looking back at the first investment 50 and now yeah, I think ours Has clarified a little bit with with our fund one when we started the fund was started by entrepreneurs our experience wasn't mostly software base companies and I think the theme clarified towards deep tech and sort and harder things since that time we build a community of mentors and Some deep tech founders of successful companies that are supporting our portfolio founders. What about you Eric? Yeah, so we at North Korea and we're looking for what we call impact unicorn. So companies that have the potential to Influence positively 1 billion people Super difficult to find you need crazy entrepreneurs great business ideas and Obviously some underlying impact in that business model as well But it's we found that the traditional world of impact is often been they've been thinking too small and we when we're looking at the Big world problems. We're facing we need a new generation of entrepreneurs essentially. So we've Yeah, I mean we we're just a couple of months old But so our strategy hasn't changed that much And and so tell us a little bit about the companies you've invested in what? What are they like? Is there any particular niche area or yeah, so we're We have a pretty broad approach. We are Trying to keep our eyes open and see What technologies emerge that we should be paying attention to so a lot a lot of we're more thesis driven than verticals driven in that way Just a few examples, I'm sure all of you have by now heard also because you know They were speaking here last last year at slush a company called Memphis Meets a growing Real a clean meat outside of animals So that every meat eater can feel even better about the choice they make and and so it's also better for the planet and for all sorts of reasons so we're big investors in cellular agriculture in that whole Trend we so far made for investments in companies in that space making more soon plant based replacements and technologies in the plant based foods Which which there's a big need for our big theme for us as well and other company We fund it is Is tackling digital inclusion? It's a it's a small satellite company that's Building telecommunication satellites geostationary satellites that to connect four billion people who believe it or not right now Do not have any access to internet so half of the world's population is Digitally excluded so that that was a very interesting Company for us and we funded various approaches to creating clean chemicals moving away from petrochemicals at scale so enzymatic solutions Solutions using synthetic biology We're very very excited about unsexy industrial processes that needs to that need to be changed These days and what would you say which all any any particular company? You're especially proud of right? Yeah, so I think our thesis like this whole idea of like solving biggest problems What we've done is we've productized our investment thesis in three different buckets bucket number one is is reimagining resource intensive industries So as an example We have invested in a company called diamond foundry, which is building gem quality diamonds in a lab These are two three four carrot diamonds where you don't need to go do mining We have another company called pro terra, which is electrifying a bus And selling into the municipal market Our only investment outside u.s. Is a European company called Lilium, which we invested along with Atomico Yeah, which is a VTOL business going after transportation We also have invested in computational biology space companies like zymergen Which which is helping design new microbes for industrial processes So so there's a lot of investments around this reimagining reimagining resource Theme the second bucket for us is health Where we invest in future of food and future of health In future of food one of the areas we've invested in is plant-based proteins There is a company called beyond meat, which is a number one player in the u.s. We are only invested in that company future of health We are investors in actually a local we've backed a local Finnish guy who's also an American Finnish Guy his name is Samirin He is building a company called verte health, which is reversing type-to-divities, which is a which is a big global problem So health is another area we invest in one company. We've invested in is recursion pharma Which which is a company using machine vision as a way to match drug molecules and rare diseases Through use of technology. So that's our second bucket our third bucket is people power Where we focus on future of work? Future of money and future of learning Future of work. We are an investor in company called gusto, which is in the HR tech stay Space is one of the fastest growing companies in valley future of Money where investors in a company called long term stock exchange, which is building a new stock exchange around this whole idea of long term Investing in long-term institutional building. So that gives you a feel of what we look at And all of these companies are the pure commercial investments, right? There is no impact discount on how you operate Not at all. I think yeah, no, I think our view is is actually opposite from a discount perspective I think our view is if you look at last hundred years You know plumbing got Invented and then you had air conditioning and and all these kind of technologies Google search got invented which improved human life and and and so that's what we're looking for What are the contemporary issues of our times which we can solve and move the world forward in positive ways? That's what gets as excited as a firm And Ella you often talk about the change from the milton Friedman doctrine into what and tell us a little bit about I'm not sure. Yeah, that's that's a good question into what into something that's starting to crystallize now for sure, but Just coming to a real realization that the current perception of business has been it's it's just one of the versions of capitalism that we could have and Pretty much the current version has been defined in an op-ed written and published in the Early 1970s, I think the 1970 ones by Friedman at the New York Times where he is Talking about anybody who's trying to have have do positive things through business or even create employment or Any focus on anything else than profit maximization? He talks to he specifically uses the terms those entrepreneurs are undermining the Basis of our free society so this paranoid view of business that evolved I think maybe in Contrast to to a communism, you know in the Cold War is what happens to be the system. We have which is insane. So We have some good thinkers Nick Hanauer who was actually at slash last year I think he's contributing importantly to the conversation. We are creating data points. We're trying to show. Hey, I mean Where people are driven by different things people are driven by what they're doing in the world Some by money some by the name they're creating for themselves We want to use those powers and show how to create a better world and you know as as you are How do we show by what we're doing that you can actually make this better returns and you can you can? Run more exciting companies that are going to be they're going to be more competitive in the long term Using this more inspiring version of business, which is you know why this way slashes main theme That's exactly that our entire point is there's there basically have been no clear role models in this industry Yeah, and that's the problem like if you Do you know who Norman Borlaug is? So yeah, he should be the most celebrated person in the history of mankind So he's in 1943 he started experimenting wheat in Mexico He is the man behind the Green Revolution essentially and he took that practice to Pakistan and then to India and then Africa 1970 got Nobel Prize for peace And he directly indirectly saved one billion people from starvation and no one knows who he is Isn't that crazy? Yeah, so building role models in impact investing or not even impact investing in general people who actually solves Fundamental problems. So after this panel, we're going to tweet his name and Something that Finland can be proud of I think I'll add to the Friedman doctrine. I think I think the whole idea of You know maximizing profit and that's the only role or purpose of an organization is flawed because what has happened since then is I think A lot of companies because of public markets as well as quarterly earnings are only able to focus on what is very short-term and Human nature sometimes is also very short-term oriented. So that combination creates not long-term institutional building And and what gets us excited and where I think there's a huge amount of opportunity is how do you incentivize long-term? Institutional building long-term thinking and organizations and and and and fundamentally That's the reason why we're very excited about our investment in in a in a new stock exchange. Yeah, because because if you are able to align Company's valuations incentives first for the CEO salaries and management salaries and incentives to a long-term thinking that can Better align the companies. Yeah, what how long is long term in this case? I think long-term institutional Building has to be much more than a quarterly investment. So you should be thinking about like a What you're doing this year, but you're also thinking about like a fifth year from now How do you make investments today so that like you can reap benefits in the future, right? So I love that you guys back the long-term stock exchange and I think Eric is doing an amazing thing I think it's worth noting what the like kind of even more explaining what the problem is So in the current system that we have it's it's in the current corporate law. It's actually Doing anything else than maximizing shareholder value is It's a game sort of the interest in the company So if you have if you're in the circle of quarterly report reporting what you've done and and it's usually You can get actually fired as a CEO and and if you're or even if you're let's say polluting a local river But within the limits of the The law or maybe in a way that you cannot be caught and you're as a CEO you're deciding no I don't want to be polluting the Rock River because it sucks If your shareholders can prove that you were you know acting against Maximizing value they can sue you and they can win the case This is the current problem that we have with corporate law Which actually the whole system creates very perverse incentive We're at a little bit of earlier stage that investment is going to help with public companies Long-term stock exchange when it when it launches But it's just so needed and we need to really rethink the big business from the ground up because even if this current CEOs of really big companies want to do the right thing. It's not like they actually have much room because of how Right now the system works. Yeah, no, I think that the thing is Your example of pollution like I think if you are a CEO of a company and and you are Your incentives are like next quarter if you hit certain targets and you make your bonus and you are happy and maybe you retire Versus and then so you then pollute right but fifth year the pollution becomes a big huge problem And there's a lawsuit and and there's a negative issue to the balance sheet of the company because of that lots lawsuit that only will get incorporated into the strategic thinking if you were thinking about long term Yeah, if the incentive structures were long term Yeah, so I think that's the thing which which and great companies which have been built over a hundred years Have always thought about long term. You know, it's not a new concept. It's just I think we've become very short-term oriented So we're in we share San Francisco. We're essentially obvious ventures. That's where we work closely and we were friendly How is how is Europe? How is your you guys are based in Stockholm? I mean, we're thinking exactly the same our investment rise and it's 20 years. Yeah, at least Okay. Yeah, so but but I think what's interesting in one way though is like I think that's great But how can we use the current system the current capitalistic mode that we have to also do good? What's your thinking around that or shouldn't we not even think around that that way and instead just Accept the setup that we have. I think we're using the current system capitalist system right now pretty well, right? so I think we believe we believe in capitalism we believe in The only thing we don't like about capitalism is the short-term aspect of it But if you are able to come think long-term if you are able to solve big problems improve life on the planet And and get rewarded as an entrepreneur. That's a great thing and and so we want to gonna use the power of capitalism to solve big problems and and and make a huge amount of returns for our investors in the process and And and that's our hope because I think at least what I'm finding is Policy is becoming harder and harder right like so so that's our hope So switching gear a little bit when you look at the the big problems that we're facing as a climate climate change mental illness certain diseases and so on which Technologies are you most excited about right now? What is it that you like when you see something you have to call your mother and tell them we're like I saw this It's just gonna change everything I Think the two or three technologies which I'm really thinking about today one one is Inspired by blockchain. I've been thinking about like is there a way to create Instead of like reimagine corporate structure is there a way to go to reimagine corporation by having a network based Economies like think about open source Comes together with a coin based economy and and and so if you participate in this kind of a economy That whoever is creating value also extracts value right a lot of Lot of business models which have been built around You know where people add value only corporations are able to kind of extract value and people don't really so that's one area Which I'm really interested in second thing which I'm interested in is is how can You know AI robotics machine learning be able to be used in a way that makes human Superhumans like how do you augment human beings like I think there's a huge talk about replacement which doesn't get me excited I think what gets me excited is like hey, how can you improve potential? of human beings Ella is there. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, and just to add to that I've been thinking about food tech a lot recently because animal agriculture is such a huge contributor to Greenhouse gas and bigger than green house gas emissions actually bigger than all sectors of transportation combined so Cellular ag which I mentioned before is one of the solutions with more immediate ones is Growing mycelium For protein and it can grow on waste and I I think we're going to see many interesting companies started with that How do you start what happens after you grow mycelium? Well? you Extract the protein and then you use them as ingredients, but essentially To replace me mycelium so the so the body not the fruit the fruit of the mushrooms is the the mushrooms We know the sort of the visible mushrooms, but my see mycelium is abundant in the world is creates Can grow biomass extremely fast can grow on anything and it has a Closer amino acid profile to that of animals than to plants so actually it can it can be a really good protein Can it could it just has really good nutritional value for for all the other reasons you wanted in The pure proteins can be extracted And and they can be flavor for flavor less if needed So it's a great material and it's I think there's great promise there. I recently have been studying big industrial Extruders and and technologies for food processing which actually haven't changed since the 60s and 70s Which is quite remarkable and we're going to see I think a few Billion-dollar companies in that space because it's not something that young entrepreneurs coming from academia currently think about But maybe more people actually quite digging deeper in what's broken in the food system are looking at all those Unsexy elements that need to be changed for that system to be more efficient Yeah, okay, so what about you? You want to know what I think Probably new ways of treating cancer. It's incredible So we were seeing And traditionally cancer has been treated with radiation or chemo or surgery and now you are seeing ways of treating cancer with Immunotherapy, yeah, which is super exciting and you're basically using the mechanisms in the body to attack the cancer Yeah, I think I think health is going to get transformed in the next 15-20 years If you think about genomics you think about microbiome you think about sensor technology you think about personalization and And medicine will look very different in the future a great opportunity to innovate that so Like to be a little bit provocative You you're both trying to improve the world as much as possible And but you're based in San Francisco, and you've only invested in US-based company You had one outside of the US and you we have two in Canada and some one in Cambridge Okay, but shouldn't there be more possibility to make impact or a positive contribution to the world if you find companies in Regions that need it more or is that something you think about at all? Yeah, I think yes That's absolutely the case. I think it's also quite important to To Try to do a good job and and scope your work somehow, and I think that's we as a small organization people wise Need a good place to start and and I think even building out a network in Silicon Valley Even if you want to expand to Europe expand to Asia It's a really damn good place to start because then many companies will end up on the fundraising circuit In Silicon Valley, so it's really good to be rooted there, and I actually was a partner after I Run a software business before but then I was a partner at a software focus fund in Europe before and it's a very common Theme of companies from Europe also wanting to go to so to just look to the US. So the temptation is always there I think We keep learning and we're expanding the team and it's always There's always a balance I think we're really trying to keep the quality of what we're doing high and it's just difficult to do everything at once But hopefully there's just going to be more funds like that in Europe as well That's we definitely need more players in the ecosystem Yeah, no, I think I tell this to my entrepreneurs like you have to walk before you run Yeah, and so for us we we've started in the US We are fine tutor investment strategy when we're very lucky that That we've been able to back some amazing companies which are building transformative, you know businesses and I've been scaling really rapidly and and and so Just proving that in that market. We made one investment outside US but Hopefully in future will be more open to kind of going outside. Yeah us as well for us Our motto is more no guts. No glory So we we've been around for a few months in Stockholm, but the plan is to open up in 25 more countries 25 yeah, so we're looking at six more now, you know nothing no change came out of normal That would be an interesting Bold ideas are always Which changes the world so Just one final word then what are your most optimistic about right now in the world, you know I think like this is a little long-winded answer like from a technology perspective, you know If you think about history of technology, I think you you had a personal computer which created Microsoft You had multiple computers got connected internet happened created Google You were able to miniaturize The computer and put it a computer into your pocket and Facebook happened and and now I think where we are is every Every person has a supercomputer or will have supercomputer The everything is going to get connected objects will have have sensors and and there's a rise of Exponential technologies which are all converging like whether it's drone and AI and and sensor technology So there's a huge opportunity for taking what we have here to re-imagine every industry In a way that it's good from an environment perspective. It's good from Human health perspective. It's good from like human potential perspective. So that's kind of the opportunity which we are excited about Generally extremely excited about the changing narrative of business. I think part of what we're trying to do in 50 years is to contribute To that transition and that transition needs data. So I remember I've started my first soft. There was a software development firm in 2006 or 11 years ago and And then was involved in different companies, but the initially people were talking about startups just in Just in this sort of You know startups were software, right? And I think there's been so much know-how you know through the lean startup methodology and through conferences like slush And through everyone who's been working in this industry so much know-how developed And I think it's amazing to see that that knowledge and that approach to run It's just to approach to running companies to experimentation to trying and getting back on your feet. It's spilling out to Diagnostics of energy like new there are nuclear energy startups that are you know Considering themselves startups and then would come to those conferences and and and learn obviously not all the knowledge is transferable but just to see that there's this big wave of entrepreneurship and then We're super out of time now. Yeah, okay, but I wanted to end on this optimistic note Yeah, thank you so much guys, and thank you for listening Thank you. Thank you. Sorry for taking longer