NEWS
Recent press, public appearances, and other 50Y news
Seth was interviewed by Molly Wood in her daily broadcast that focuses on demystifying the digital economy. The duo discussed the importance of investing in what is truly important, pointing out that the issues we needed to face before the epidemy - like climate change, for example - are still to be tackled, and are perhaps more pressing than ever.
Alexandra Wilson mentioned one of our portfolio companies, Solugen, in her recent article for Forbes: “Meet The Forbes Under 30 Founders Leading The Next Billion-Dollar Startups”. From humble beginnings in a meth lab to being featured on such a list, Solugen is a shining example of the upcoming generation of climate tech unicorns.
Ela joined the Future Food-Tech Start-Up Showcase Webinar to hear from three innovative start-ups presenting their transformative new solutions. Together with Holly Jacobus (Joyance Partners), she led the webinar’s investor panel.
Seth was invited to join a webinar hosted by Julie Wolf and Ben Joffe of SOSV. The discussion focused on companies contributing to the battle against the pandemic and the deep tech start-ups trying to overcome scientific challenges to help with prevention, testing or treatment in novel and scalable ways.
Shannon Liao quoted Seth in her recent article for CNN Business: “Silicon Valley is throwing money behind Covid-19 efforts, hoping for results”.
Taught by Elliot Swartz (a senior scientist at The Good Food Institute and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA), the Cellular Agriculture seminar focused on the major breakthroughs in the field, the main actors in the academia and industry working in cellular agriculture and the commercialization and cost curves for "clean" products.
Watch the seminar here:
Listen to Seth and Benjamin Joffe chat about the startups that build the future in SOSV’s new podcast.
Seth was quoted in an article written for Bloomberg by Shelly Banjo. He explained how trading salary for stock might be one way of helping a startup go through the difficult time.
Fifty Years was also mentioned along with one of our portfolio companies, Rebellyous Foods, in another piece written for Bloomberg by Larissa Zimberoff.
Fifty Years was mentioned in an article written by Andrew Leonard for Wired: “Chafing against regulation, Silicon Valley pivots to pandemic”.
Seth joined Merkury’s podcast Series Tea to discuss startups tackling COVID-19, how technologists can combat future health crises and the one biotech startup he wishes someone would start. Listen to the episode below:
ImpactAlpha’s Dennis Price chatted with Seth about Fifty Years’ motivation to help our portfolio founders fight the coronavirus crisis, our team’s approach to the pandemic, and the reasons why we’re working around the clock to make a difference.
“Our founders are all in it to solve the truly horrifyingly big problems. When they see one of those coming, they’re not like, “Oh shit.” They’re like, “We gotta fix this.”
Dennis Price wrote about Fifty Years also in another article, “Tech mobilization around COVID starts to bring results”.
Seth and Danny Fortson chatted yet again, this time about the situation caused by the
outbreak of coronavirus, its consequences and what can and should be done to
prevent the virus’s further spread. Seth also shared a bit about Fifty Years’
approach to investing in the times of challenge.
WSJ’s Tomio Geron wrote about our team’s approach to the challenges posed by the pandemic. Fifty Years decided to help the portfolio companies that have shifted focus to work on technologies addressing the coronavirus outbreak, offering them an unusual form of funding.
The Sunday Times tech correspondent Danny Fortson talks with Seth about targeting the truly big problems, why it took 18 months to raise $5m, targeting lab-grown meat, getting the met lobby on their side, backing birth control, taking left-field approaches to climate, taking advantage of the Silicon Valley cultural crisis, the need for big winners, the slow death of the Fridman doctrine, how he started out as a young idealist, when he faked it but didn’t make it, confessing his sins, and his worst day of work.
In her article “Deep tech VCs on what they view as some of the most impactful young startups right now” for Tech Crunch, Connie Loizos describes Seth and Siraj Khaliq’s perspective on the investment ‘trends’ shaped by certain areas’ growing importance for the humanity and the Earth, and explains the thinking behind the decisions to back specific companies.
Ela was invited to take part in a panel discussion, joining BetaSpace’s diverse network of entrepreneurs who are providing an open platform to encourage and challenge the thought leaders, innovators, decision-makers and visionaries of today’s biomanufacturing industry to unconventionally strategize for sustainability on Earth and off-planet.
This March Ela was to join yet another edition of the Future-Food Tech summit. In a discussion with Jim Murphy, Tom Allison and Vijay Pande she intended to share her perspective on the role investors have in market growth, pushing forward disruptive tech and nurturing start-ups.
Seth was invited to join the annual gathering for the deep tech ecosystem, Hello
Tomorrow, that was to take place this March in Paris. Together with other like-minded
founders, investors and entrepreneurs, he would have a chance to dive into the toughest
global challenges that can be solved with deep tech.
Ela was invited to join a group of panelists in a discussion focusing on ‘tough tech’. The conference aims to enhance networking, fundraising and deal-making opportunities for senior-level women in private equity and venture capital.
Together with Impact.Tech, Fifty Years hosted another seminar around Cellular Agriculture. What are the major breakthroughs in the field? Who are the main actors in the academia and industry working in cellular agriculture? What are the commercialization and cost curves for "clean" products? Where do the best opportunities lie? The Impact.Tech seminar on Cellular Agriculture focuses on all these questions and, most importantly, provides the audience with an understanding of how one can get involved in cellular ag as an entrepreneur or investor.
