Welcome to the 1,054 newly Not Boring people who have joined us since our last essay! If you haven’t subscribed, join 226,130 smart, curious folks by subscribing here: Today’s Not Boring is brought to you by… Tegus Now that startups are going after everything from aerospace to mining to energy, I need to understand how those industries work in order to be a better writer and investor.
I've struggled to describe "Deep Tech" before and I like the Toolmaker / Techno-Industrialist breakdown. For the less technical among us, the idea of being able to play in this space as an integrator rather than a scientist fires me up
Loving the techno-industrial and deeptech exploration Packy!
Techno-industrials as those going after the provision of the fundamentals we believe are locked in to make it even cheaper, higher quality or time-saving
Shelter, food, water, energy, transport, health
It's like going from preserving foods, to fire, to both (e.g spices+heat), to ovens, microwaves
I think of the tool-makers as the 'general purpose technology' variable found in macroeconomic models of economic growth. We can't rely on labour and capital to keep growing, but technology is the cumulative driver
Question: what does the wider techno-industrial ecosystem look like, and what is needed to increase chances of success?
Selfishly I am interested in figuring out my role in helping solve the largest and pressing problems
You've alluded to capital (deeptech conventionally is suggested to require patient capital), policy (DoE grants, and government subsidies), and the people elements
PS. When you google techno-industrial, it comes up with the music genre 'industrial-techno'. I reckon a softer lo-fi version of it, is the theme music
Fantastic piece. Thanks for laying it out there. I think the market is the market and it is subject to the daily ups and downs but in sum, the tech we see today will change our lives more (and for the better) than the tech we saw before. It's taken 30 years of being on the internet to get to this point. The next thirty will be truly spectacular. If we say that AI/crypto are "invented" in 2010, 2040 is when we will see them optimized in the broader economy. Innovation that is totally disruptive tends to take 30 years. Old people literally need to die because they can't use it.
Loved this piece - thanks for what you do. With all that is going on its easy to feel demotivated about the future but you just seem to help do a 180 on that!
Also, curious question - due to your writing to a large extent I've felt increasingly drawn to deep tech/techno industrials in general. However, my skills are not aligned with what they might require - I'm a generalist - solve business/product problems using common sense, but no valuable inputs (that's what I feel) for these techno industrials. What are your thoughts on this? I see that you decided to write, research, and invest in these but what's your advice for someone 2 years down in his career trying to make an entry in to Deep tech?
Love it. This is so important to give us the vocabularly to describe what is happening and what will come. You are the new Shakespeare of tech writing. Kudos!
I've struggled to describe "Deep Tech" before and I like the Toolmaker / Techno-Industrialist breakdown. For the less technical among us, the idea of being able to play in this space as an integrator rather than a scientist fires me up
Loving the techno-industrial and deeptech exploration Packy!
Techno-industrials as those going after the provision of the fundamentals we believe are locked in to make it even cheaper, higher quality or time-saving
Shelter, food, water, energy, transport, health
It's like going from preserving foods, to fire, to both (e.g spices+heat), to ovens, microwaves
I think of the tool-makers as the 'general purpose technology' variable found in macroeconomic models of economic growth. We can't rely on labour and capital to keep growing, but technology is the cumulative driver
Question: what does the wider techno-industrial ecosystem look like, and what is needed to increase chances of success?
Selfishly I am interested in figuring out my role in helping solve the largest and pressing problems
You've alluded to capital (deeptech conventionally is suggested to require patient capital), policy (DoE grants, and government subsidies), and the people elements
PS. When you google techno-industrial, it comes up with the music genre 'industrial-techno'. I reckon a softer lo-fi version of it, is the theme music
Fantastic piece. Thanks for laying it out there. I think the market is the market and it is subject to the daily ups and downs but in sum, the tech we see today will change our lives more (and for the better) than the tech we saw before. It's taken 30 years of being on the internet to get to this point. The next thirty will be truly spectacular. If we say that AI/crypto are "invented" in 2010, 2040 is when we will see them optimized in the broader economy. Innovation that is totally disruptive tends to take 30 years. Old people literally need to die because they can't use it.
Loved this piece - thanks for what you do. With all that is going on its easy to feel demotivated about the future but you just seem to help do a 180 on that!
Also, curious question - due to your writing to a large extent I've felt increasingly drawn to deep tech/techno industrials in general. However, my skills are not aligned with what they might require - I'm a generalist - solve business/product problems using common sense, but no valuable inputs (that's what I feel) for these techno industrials. What are your thoughts on this? I see that you decided to write, research, and invest in these but what's your advice for someone 2 years down in his career trying to make an entry in to Deep tech?
Do you see any startups that are the Techno-Industrial for Construction?
I wrote a piece a few months ago about how the Construction Industry Needs It's Own Elon Musk/Palmer Luckey - I think you might enjoy it - https://read.unicorner.news/p/construction-seduction
I thought this sounded very cool: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7Aff5lPYq5Jy5XIgDOsani?si=br3ufeCtSyWgSQsP-xz3QA and I love what Monumental Labs is doing.
Would be curious if there’s anything in the “exo-skeleton” place to assist construction workers. “Iron Man”.
Great piece, really feel like we’re at the beginning of something truly special
Better tools, smaller companies would be the counter point :)
Love it. This is so important to give us the vocabularly to describe what is happening and what will come. You are the new Shakespeare of tech writing. Kudos!
I definitely think you’re onto something.
Fantastic article, thanks!