#65 | 100s of VCs, 100 Biomarkers, Thoughts on Motivation

Benjamin Joffe

Mar 19, 2024

My irregular newsletter on work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom. LinkedIn - X

Spring is coming!

1. WORK

Matchmaking Events

I am starting the year with a couple of virtual and free matchmaking events for investors and founders.

The first one was focused on #HealthTech and welcomed 400+ investors and 650+ startups - likely one of the largest of its kind out there (we also published our yearly Top 100 Health Tech Portfolio List).
The next one will be on #ClimateTech. Over 800 investors and 800 startups joined last year. Pre-registration is here (it’s free).

Conference Season

I was invited to speak at the Hello Tomorrow deep tech conference in Istanbul, and now in Paris for the larger Hello Tomorrow Global Summit (I am a regular), followed by ChangeNOW (first time). In April I’ll then be in Miami for the VC Platform conference and in Boston for TechCrunch Early Stage.

Fund Closing

We’re getting close to the final close of our next fund - continuing our focus on early stage deep tech for human and planetary health.

2. EXPERIENCES

Istanbul

I extended my stay after the conference to visit a bit.

I tried my usual trifecta of body/mind/soul with BJJ + museum + standup comedy, but missed the English comedy date.
I visited the Modern Art and the Naval museums. The former was interesting — this despite my frequent disappointment with modern art (where skill is often questionable, and the result a matter of taste) — the latter less so but still ok. My favorite maritime museums are in HK and Lisbon so far.
I had some conversations about what it means to live with >50% annual inflation. It sounded quite intense: salary reviews all the time, can’t keep cash, looking for investment schemes (real estate, foreign currencies, crypto). The system seems to work because Turkey controls its currency and exchange rates (vs. Greece), and spends lots of government projects that employs many (despite corruption). Still, the price of real estate is skyrocketing and the gap between haves and have nots is widening. Can this end well?

Health Checks

I hadn’t had a physical for a long time and Turkey is a hot spot for medical tourism so I gave it a go. I got about 100 biomarkers tested to baseline my health. The experience was smooth - including filling the 12 blood vials required - and the price (±$2k) affordable (about 1/1000th of Bryan Johnson’s bill).

Following the tests (nothing alarming), I googled, then tried to ChatGPT the analysis, but ChatGPT vehemently rejected all my attempts. Claude, however, was happy to oblige. To check with a real doctor I used an app from the Philippines, where doctors are available for remote consultations on short notice, for $10-$20. I’m not recommending freestyling health, but I found it very useful to get an informed opinion.

Bonus: if you’re interested in investing in a smart breastfeeding bra (part of the SOSV portfolio), head over here.

VR

Still using VR (and demo-ing to friends), mostly to play the Battle Royale game Population:ONE after I reached Expert mode on my favorite Beatsaber songs (I can’t clear Expert+ yet). I also tested Racket Club, a VR-first twist on padel. Unfortunately I couldn’t try the workout game Supernatural due to geo restrictions.

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Curb Your Enthusiasm Final Season***
My favorite disgruntled funny old guy is back from what might be the last season of this show. I like the show.

Dave**
Lil’Dicky is a Jewish comedy rapper, and wrote this show chronicling his unstoppable rise to fame. It has an odd charm coming from a form of honesty, and the third season had quite a wild and fun ending. The co-writer and executive producer is Jeff Schaffer, who also does Curb.

MOVIES

Bank of Dave**** (Netflix)
A remarkable movie / documentary about a British businessman who decides to open a new bank in the UK focused on lending to small, local businesses. The UK had apparently not issued new licenses for 150 years. Very good.

Perfect Days***
I finally got to see the latest Wim Wenders (of Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire fame), starring Yakusho Koji (of Shall we dance? and Tampopo fame). I enjoyed the contemplative aspect of it, and some of its goofiness. Some see it as a movie about appreciating the moment — I rather imagined a complex backstory, and some hints that the main character is not as enlightened as he appears. SPOILER: I think he’s a former alcoholic, likely from a rich family, and possibly suffered some tragic loss that led him to go for a simpler, anonymous and laconic life (maybe Unagi-like), which probably only started a few years prior.

Paint**
A Bob Ross-esque TV painter played by Owen Wilson loses his top spot to a young gun. Reasonably entertaining.

Blinded by the Light**
A feel-good movie about two British South Asian youths who find their soul mate in Bruce Springsteen. Predictably ok.

Bobcat Moretti*
I thought it would be a kind. of Million Dollar Baby movie. Boy was I wrong.

The Boy and The Heron*
I am generally a great client for anything Ghibli (esp. Miyazaki’s works) but I could not finish watching this one. Something about the pace and silence throughout.

DOCUMENTARIES

Light and Magic**** (Disney+)
A great documentary about the history and technologies at ILM that made Star Wars and many other movies stand out. It covers the evolution from practical effects to digital, which echoes the current impact of A.I. — I was impressed by the stop-motion work, and how this expertise became critical to animate digital models too.

Raël: The Alien Prophet*** (Netflix)
This French creator named Claude Vorilhon aka Raël has been quite successful with a new religion: he has spread his faith across various countries.

BOOKS

Material World***
The materials we need for the world to work, their sources, economics, supply chains, etc.

4. THOUGHTS

Will A.I. Kill On-Ramp?

After text, images and videos by the usual suspects, I have been impressed by the music generation app suno.ai, which can be combined with kits.ai to replace a voice. Some ideas:

Will those tools put (less than great) musicians out of work?
Will they help musicians produce more and better work?
Will it destroy the on-ramp for newcomers, or facilitate it?

One thing for sure, music creation in the future is likely to look quite different from today! And AI will eat into many more tasks, and possibly entire jobs, while creating possibly much less new jobs (how many “prompt engineers” for 100 call center jobs?).

No School for Entrepreneurship?

I stumbled upon the thought that entrepreneurs:

Don’t wait to be told what to do
Do their best
Don’t expect praise

Which is in most cases the opposite of what schools trains students to do:

Do what you’re told
Do just enough to get by
Expect some reward or praise (at school or at home)

With this setup, only resilient students with a “disagreeable” trait (as in the Big Five) are well suited to entrepreneurship, provided they survive their schooling ordeal ;p

It’s a bit of an over-generalization, but it also somehow connects to what Jensen Huang, Mr. Nvidia, shared in recent talks with students.

On those thoughts, Spring is coming!

Motivation

In a previous letter I WROTE about the importance of a growth mindset, and the fact that it needed to be combined with grit (to last) and curiosity (to start). But how to instill those?

For the latter, I read this quote from Cus D’Amato (trainer Mike Tyson and other champions): “A boy comes to me with a spark of interest. I feed the spark and it becomes a flame. I feed the flame and it becomes a fire.”

But how did he feed the spark and flame?

Once results come, it helps build confidence and generalize the concept (e.g. see the Arnold documentary).

On those thoughts, enjoy your Spring!
— Ben

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