Serving Founders
Why We Exist
As we enter 2023 and our fifth year at Prime Movers Lab, I thought it would be fitting to revisit our two core foci in updated blog posts: service and science. This post focuses on service (and echoes the messages in Founders Are Our Customers). I have probably said thousands of times to founders and investors in the past few years that we pride ourselves on the fact that the least useful thing we provide is capital — and that’s even more true today with our significantly expanded team and resources than when I founded the firm. What exactly does this mean?
Fundamentally, we don’t think of ourselves as being in the venture capital business. We are in the business of helping founders (particularly serial entrepreneurs) build breakthrough scientific startups to transform billions of lives. One of the services we offer to founders is investing capital to fuel growth, but this is just a small aspect of the relationship.
We actually roll up our sleeves and work side by side with our founders to help close customers, hire talent, create marketing materials, raise further financing, establish relationships with governments, execute PR opportunities and navigate challenging market conditions. In today’s economic climate — these aspects of what we deliver for our founders are more important than ever, because most startups are figuring out how to accomplish more with less budget.
You don’t have to take my word for it, read what serial entrepreneurs Bill Gross, Greg Wyler, Blake Scholl, and Basil Alwan have to say about working with us below. These are seasoned inventors who have all built billion-dollar companies (many of them multiple times).
Heliogen, Energy Vault, and Carbon Capture Founder Bill Gross: “Prime Movers Lab is a very different kind of investor than any I have had in the past 30 years. What sets them apart in an entirely different (and better) category is how smart, helpful, and humble they are. They took the time to understand our business and technology better than anyone else and thus were able to add more value. They also are thought leaders — and leaders in general — not looking to others for social proof — they are bold enough and smart enough to be strong and supportive backers. Finally, and on top of all of that, they share my goal of making the world a better place, and I very much look forward to doing just that with them.”
E-Space Founder and CEO Greg Wyler: “I love working with the Prime Movers Lab team because they provide untold amounts of strategic insight, support, and engagement. I’ve built numerous companies and have found Prime Movers Lab to be the most thoughtful, connected, and invested partner. Prime Movers Lab is a truly different type of venture capital firm that is well poised for this new era of scientific breakthroughs.”
Boom Supersonic Founder and CEO Blake Scholl: “Prime Movers Lab has built an impressive team across investment and technical partners. They uniquely understand deep technology — and are able to accurately assess challenges in diligence, then connect their founders and support them on both business and engineering expertise. We’re grateful to have Prime Movers Lab on the Boom Supersonic team.”
Tarana CEO Basil Alwan: “The Prime Movers Lab team has delivered for Tarana Wireless. First, as a board member, I saw their unparalleled commitment to their portfolio companies over three, very different fundraising rounds. And, since becoming the CEO of Tarana, I’ve come to appreciate their hands-on full support as we scale and deliver broadband to underserved communities.”
This is just a sampling of what we deliver to our founders. If you are a serial entrepreneur building a breakthrough scientific startup, please get in touch as we would love to be of service.
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.
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