Jeff Crusey_E31: Looking back at Earth [7/1/2021]

posi2ive

Published in

posi2ive

4 min readJul 2, 2021

EPISODE31: Looking back at Earth

Jeff Crusey, Investment Manager at Seraphim Capital in London [7/1/2021]

https://anchor.fm/posi2ive/episodes/Jeff-Crusey_E31-Looking-back-at-Earth-712021-e13pr7m

Note: References with links are listed at the end of the show notes.

INTRO:

1:00 Shares his trajectory in investment banking — seeking something better for the world. Grew up surfing. In 2007 got involved with CleanTech with DTE Energy in Detroit. Talks about growing up in SoCal, and passion for hip hop. Shares his London experience in lockdown, and experience going to The New Forest.

SECTION1: Varifocal

6:00 Shares his startup experience and fascination with the varifocal, after starting on AR / VR side. Talks about light-field displays. Breaks out into the R&D journey with Varifocal Optics. Points to fixed focus problem with VR headsets, and how this may be negatively impactful.

11:30 Shares philosophy about technology and wanting to forego diving head first into tech which may be damaging. Discusses ethics with a story of Oppenheimer and the nuclear technology risks.

SECTION2: CleanTech VC

14:00 Jump back to the why. Jeff cares about things that will benefit people. He interviewed with many CleanTech funds at the time, and noted that most CleanTech VCs he spoke with at the time were not experienced as energy developers nor utility operators. He chose a firm in Detroit to learn more about the technical side of the market, to work with a CVC utility fund with DTE Energy.

18:00 Shares story of asking technical questions with Solyndra — a failed CleanTech startup, and the frothy market psychology in the late 2000s. Talks about reemergence of certain mindsets in today’s market. Tells his story of passing on Elon Musk, and Tesla. Also highlights some of the net-nets from the initial boom in CleanTech, with the example of the electric bus company Proterra. Also points to the successes of Opower.

23:00 We talk about successes in electric mobility and EV market. Jokes about misunderstanding of battery tech, and the common misuse of Moore’s Law. Talks about the consumer behavior element, and early electric scooters in late 2000s — that were thrown out early. Jeff shares most exciting deal and most ridiculous one.

SECTION3: Value of Space

31:00 Shares thesis of Seraphim — one of the first space specialist funds. Talks about his transition from the satellite industry. Talks about the transition to work in the global market, and the UK investor market. Talks about tax advantages in the UK for some VCs. Highlights how well the UK government has done, and how the British Business Bank does investor matching within SpaceTech.

34:00 Talks about the data life cycle of space. And highlights the space economy, and the democratization of space — highlighting the Falcon 9 from SpaceX. Discusses more around the data in space, with small satellites in earth observation. Breaks out into band imaging — thermal, and other types of monitoring. Also shares some of the interesting ones, like microwave sounding to map the atmosphere, and used in weather prediction. Suggests opportunities in agriculture — around crop failure, crop health, crop disease and precision agriculture (which mitigate environmental pollution.

41:00 Shares GPS history, and some of the shortfalls, with the needs of autonomous vehicles. Shares Xona Space Systems, with cm precision and global coverage (his firm is investor). Talks about military overlap with defense and intel tech — given remote aspect of the work. Talks about the drivers of government grants, and how it can catalyze new technologies. Points to the military wanting to mitigate climate change risks — and how SpaceTech may tie into this solution. Points to iteration, experimentation, and non-dilutive funding.

SOURCES:

-Jeff Crusey [LinkedIn]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcrusey/

-Jeff Crusey[Twitter]: https://twitter.com/JeffCrusey

-Seraphim Capital: https://seraphim.vc/

-J Dilla: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Dilla

-Lumberjack Song [Monte Python]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FshU58nI0Ts

-Verifocal Lenses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varifocal_lens#:~:text=A%20varifocal%20lens%20is%20a,focal%20length%20and%20magnification%20change

-Microdisplays: https://www.oled-info.com/oled-microdisplays

-Better Place [story]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company)

-Solyndra [story]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra

-Canoo [EV startup]: https://www.canoo.com/

-Plasma deep drilling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_deep_drilling_technology