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This Is the Attitude America Needs More of
Y Combinator’s The Macro blog has an interview with Jacob DeWitte, co-founder and CEO of nuclear technology startup Oklo, which is trying to develop “a new kind of nuclear reactor that’s small, portable, and waste- and carbon-negative.” Here is DeWitte on how he ended up in Silicon Valley:
Well to start, we were curious about what YC would be like, because they hadn’t done any energy projects yet. But it ended up being phenomenal. We didn’t really get to benefit from getting specific advice on technical stuff, like some of our peers did – we’re building a nuclear reactor, after all. But it was so helpful on the vision side, and on how to build a great business.
Also, the receptiveness to what we were doing was so different out in Silicon Valley than it was on the East Coast. On the East Coast, we’d often be met with skepticism, people asking, “Is that safe? How is that possible?” Out here, it was like, “How can I help?” The investor discussions were tremendously different. People were so interested in the potential, and the upside, and not getting stuck on the potential difficulties and the time scales. People interested in startups understand that there are always drawbacks, but they don’t have to be deal breaker.
Cambridge is a great city, and we love it. But if you try to build a company there, it can too often become overshadowed by academic institutions. The culture of your company can quickly become so much more academic and intellectual. We knew we wanted to build a serious company, not a science project. I think California has been a great place to do that.
What a difference from the risk-averse attitude seen among too many pols and policymakers.
Published in Culture, Economics
This is a problem we now have in our country. My wife has been sidelined by our recently thriving economy /sarcasm. She has looked into starting several small business ventures in the last few years but so far had to give them up. It seems that whenever she wants to do some thing there is always government telling her that it can not be done. In one case the powers decided she needed two different permits from two different departments. The trick is that neither department would issue the permit till the other one did first. It is quite discouraging. We have went from a nation that yes we can to a nation of no you can not and give me a minute and I will find a rule telling you why.
James – Taylor Wilson, the kids who build a fusion reactor in his basement has a very good TED talk on this topic:
The problem is you need both sides considered. You need the pessimists too. In Silicon Valley, you can probably find someone who thinks that aerial drone recycling pickup would be a good idea. “Hey, we are going to change the paradigm and disrupt the market by creating best-in-class recycling experience by leveraging the synergies of social media, blah, blah,blah.” Sure, you can find a bunch of people to say “why not? Here’s how we can help!”. You need pessimists to say “Hey, the truck is coming down the street anyway. Put it at the f’ing curb”.
I tend to see VCs these days as promoting new ideas because they believe they can pawn them off on some sucker (the IPO) before it all turns to dust.
My own favorite is Transatomic, (MIT spinoff) where they power the mini-size modular reactor with waste from standard LWR plants.
At some point, one will hit the market and the energy limitation will end. Right now, it is the Chinese who are investing the most in such technology.
That’s the sort of attitude that Hermann Hauser is trying to encourage in the original Cambridge. Hauser was a co-founder of Acorn Computers, where he helped to spin out ARM holdings – the people who designed the chips that almost certainly power the smartphone in your pocket. He’s been building up “Silicon Fen” as a Silicon Valley/MIT hybrid.