Better Tools, Bigger Companies
notboring.co
Better Tools, Bigger Companies
Analogizing the current era in tech with the recent, software-dominated era is a mistake.
A much better analogy would be the Second Industrial Revolution in America, the Gilded Age when entrepreneurs built businesses using every new technological tool at their disposal to pull humanity to a new level of prosperity and became unbelievably rich in th... See more
A much better analogy would be the Second Industrial Revolution in America, the Gilded Age when entrepreneurs built businesses using every new technological tool at their disposal to pull humanity to a new level of prosperity and became unbelievably rich in th... See more
Better Tools, Bigger Companies
• Cracks. The old system is showing cracks. The grid is struggling. Planes are falling apart. Carbon emissions have to go. Healthcare costs are through the roof. Metals discoveries are declining. Supply chains are breaking down. America’s industrial base has atrophied. The biggest systems in the world need to be rebuilt.
• Enormous Markets. Most of
... See moreBetter Tools, Bigger Companies
Or take Earth AI. What’s the Why Now for Earth AI?
When Roman started the company in 2017, machine learning had finally gotten good enough that it was possible to analyze huge amounts of data to identify mineral targets just as the amount of new discoveries using traditional methods plummeted. While the company’s drilling rigs don’t rely on cutting-
... See moreBetter Tools, Bigger Companies
Techno-Industrials are addressing larger markets than most software companies can.
They use whichever tools they need to provide better solutions to key bottlenecks with better unit economics than incumbents.
They are more capital efficient than most investors expect.
And they have to be more strategically sound than the average software company.
B... See more
They use whichever tools they need to provide better solutions to key bottlenecks with better unit economics than incumbents.
They are more capital efficient than most investors expect.
And they have to be more strategically sound than the average software company.
B... See more
Better Tools, Bigger Companies
Anduril and Power Laws
When Anduril launched in 2017, it was famously met with a ton of skepticism. Some of it came from the fact that investors found defense distasteful, but a lot of it came from a lack of knowledge about the defense industry.
Competing with the five Defense Primes? Yuck. Hardware? Yuck. Selling to the government? Yuck.
What Andu
... See moreBetter Tools, Bigger Companies
Toolmakers are closer to what I’d categorize as actual deep tech. They are solving deeply technical problems in order to give humanity fundamentally new capabilities. They’re often the ones pushing the exponential curves. A company developing a new type of semiconductor, new materials, or more efficient solar cells might fit into this category.
Tech... See more
Tech... See more
Better Tools, Bigger Companies
Whatever problems face us, we have more tools in the toolbox, more building blocks to solve it. And because we have digital technologies, it allows us to search the space much faster than we could before. And hence, we can come up with solutions faster than we could before.
Better Tools, Bigger Companies
Techno-Industrials start with the challenge they want to solve, and use every tool at their disposal, including some at the cutting edge and even some that they have to create themselves, to solve that challenge.
Better Tools, Bigger Companies
Building a skyscraper took all of the tools required to build a house, and many more besides: structural steel, safety elevators, fire-proofing, raft foundations, electricity, lightbulbs, plumbing, telephones, and ventilation systems. Each of those had its own history of technological development, and all came together to make skyscrapers possible.
... See more