Funding Science Fiction That Works From The MIT Media Lab, With Habib Haddad and Calvin Chin From The E14 Fund
This is the 12th episode of the podcast Deep Tech: From Lab to Market’ where Founders and Investors share how ‘deep tech’ innovation can go from lab to market. It is available on Apple Podcast and other platforms and hosted by Benjamin Joffe, Partner at SOSV, a global early stage fund focused on deep tech. SOSV runs multiple accelerator programs including HAX (intelligent hardware) and IndieBio (life sciences). To hear about new episodes, sign up to the newsletter or follow us on twitter at @LabToMarket.
There is a bit of mystery shrouding the MIT Media Lab. If you’ve watched the movies Minority Report or Disney’s Big Hero 6, if you’ve used a touch screen, an e-reader, AR/VR devices, or played the game Guitar Hero, you’ve been touched by innovations from the Media Lab and its alumni.
Habib Haddad and Calvin Chin are the Managing Partners of the E14 Fund, an early stage deep tech fund that invests exclusively in startups from the MIT Media Lab community.
The Media Lab is a futuristic place renowned for its interdisciplinary research. Its departments have names such as molecular machines, synthetic neurobiology or tangible media.
- Toward the end of the episode, Habib talks about a very curious project mixing wearable computing and emotions sensors.
- Two of our podcast guests were strongly influenced by their stay at MIT: Xavier Duportet (Eligo Bioscience & Hello Tomorrow) on Science Entrepreneurship and Matt Clifford (EF / Entrepreneur First) on Investing in Talent and Pre-Product.
- For another episode covering Boston & Cambridge’s deep tech ecosystem, check out John Ho (Anzu Partners) on Breakthrough Industrial Tech.
In this episode, Habib and Calvin describe:
- The journey that brought them to create the E14 Fund in 2013 (and why it’s named this way).
The media lab is a special place that actively promotes a unique and anti-disciplinary culture. There’s about 90 of the largest corporates in the world that have a membership with the Media Lab and they work with collaborators and get a glimpse of the future. — Habib Haddad
- The importance of the community built around the Media Lab and the fund.
- How they work with founders, supporting them sometimes years before it’s a startup ready for investment,
Whether we’ve known them while they finished their last couple of years of their PhD, or whether we’ve been tracking and talking with them as they’ve been workshopping a new idea, whether they’re thinking of spinning off or leaving Google or Facebook or whatever, we spend a lot of time with founders and help them. — Calvin Chin
- What differentiates the best founders from others,
There is reputation that, you know, these deep scientists, founders shouldn’t be the CEO. We found that when they can start thinking about building their company as an engineering problem, then it’s a great, way to build a company. — Calvin Chin
- How to manage “scientist brain” and “founder brain”,
- What simple question you can ask founders to determine their ability to navigate both the short and long term,
- How deep tech startups can be both less capital intensive, and more capital efficient than many think,
The companies that we mentioned are extremely capital efficient. They’ve actually pushed their way through with non-dilutive funding. Sometimes they become even more capital efficient for equity investors. — Habib Haddad
- Why attracting, training and keeping foreign scientific talent in the US matters,
It’s mind boggling to see that we’re actually putting these top scientists that are in this country at risk of leaving the country. I really hope that gets reverted. — Habib Haddad
- We end with some ideas on how to grow the investment in deep tech, and why this sector inevitably matter a great deal.
- E14 Fund
- MIT Media Lab
- Figur8: musculoskeletal health analysis. Founder: Nan-Wei Gong
- OPT Industries: Computational manufacturing platform for functional materials. Founder: Jifei Ou (from Hiroshi Ishii’s Tangible Media Lab)
- ThurWave: 3d imaging with mm waves. Founder: Matt Reynolds.
- Research on mapping memory & emotions by Neo (Research Assistant in the Fluid Interfaces Lab)
- Whiplash: a movie about drums, and much more.
- Robert Gallenberger (btov Partners) on How to Select Industrial Partners
- Xavier Duportet (Eligo Bioscience & Hello Tomorrow) on Science Entrepreneurship
- Deep Tech Startups vs. Covid-19, with IndieBio, Khosla Ventures and 50 Years
- Eric Rosenblum (Tsingyuan Ventures) on Chinese Founders in the US
- Overview of Deep Tech Investment, Based on the Report by Different
- Sota Nagano (Abies Ventures) on Japan’s Deep Tech Scene
- Seth Bannon (Fifty Years) on Solving Global Problems
- Kelly Chen (DCVC) on Investing in Old School Industries
- Manish Singhal (pi Ventures) on India’s Deep Tech Scene
- John Ho (Anzu Partners) on Breakthrough Industrial Tech
- Matt Clifford (EF / Entrepreneur First) on Investing in Talent and Pre-Product
- DeepTech Investing Report by Different
- The Dawn of the Deep Tech Ecosystem by Hello Tomorrow and BCG
- Deep Tech Investors Mapping by Hello Tomorrow
- Deep Tech Trends Report, Hardware Trends Reports and Hardware Investment Outlook by SOSV
- Podcast: Apple Podcast, Spotify, other platforms
- Twitter: @LabToMarket
- Lab to Market Newsletter
