Founder/GP Wave Function Ventures investing in early stage deep tech. Former SpaceX engineer on Falcon 9 reentry and Co-Founder/CEO Talyn Air, Y Combinator.

Los Angeles, CA
Joined March 2009
Stoked to get to finally announce Wave Function Ventures $15M Fund 1! Wave Function was created to partner with deep tech founders building hardware solutions to the world’s most important problems. I'm 9 investments in, with 15-20 left to go.
44
19
8
350
739,165
Cuck Tranche Capital. We get in all the good deals. At a high price.
First Tranche Capital
6
58
2,408
This a great read on LA. The origin story alone is worth anyone’s time. @jmj want to collab on a piece about the industrial base here?
Once upon a time, Los Angeles was a farm town. Then it was Hollywood. Now it’s the hard tech capital of the United States. I wrote a novella about how El Segundo & Southern California got here & the future legends building here. Sequel in a few years. substack.com/home/post/p-196…
2
2
1
35
2,467
Jamie Gull retweeted
Today Boom unveils our first completed supersonic turbine core, a 2GW Superfactory, and—one more thing—the world's most advanced all-digital foundry to cast single crystal turbine blades and vanes
95
206
65
1,846
278,017
When Wave Function invested in @_Andrenam_ 2 years ago it was some pool noodles and a microphone. Now they're mobilizing sensors on real life deployments and moving into the next phases. Awesome work @mateocernosek and @alex__chu__
We exist to secure the oceans.
4
1
45
1,262
Similar dynamic occurs investing in companies. First check can give other VCs permission to say yes.
A new GP has to prove a track record. Proving a track record requires capital to do deals. That's the chicken and egg every emerging manager hits.⁣ ⁣ Doug Beyer on how an anchor investor breaks it:⁣ ⁣ "Some LPs want there to be deals in the portfolio. With an anchor investor, it allows that GP and their team to go out, get some deals done, and put it into the portfolio so other LPs can come in in future closings."⁣ ⁣ The anchor isn't just a check. It's permission for everyone else to say yes later.
1
22
932
This seems promising for a harmonious AI future.
interpretability might be the most important scientific problem in the world right now, as I don't think we can solve alignment if we don't know what we're building. I think I have good news about it. I co-authored early work in mechanistic interpretability at OpenAI and came away pessimistic, because neural networks appeared to fold into arbitrary tangled knots. years later, I started openai's first large-scale automated interpretability project, finding about 2% of neurons legible with the primitive tools we had with modern agentic tools and a much closer look, the picture looks totally different. the vast majority in models up to trillions of parameters are legible, and their circuits beautiful. many famous examples of tangled neurons turned out to be misunderstood. The roadblocks I expected mostly aren't there. I now think ambitious interpretability will be solved by the time we need it most, and possibly quite soon, as automated scientists keep improving. it may be a bitter lesson for interpretability: the simple thing, at absurd scale, works already-clean.goodfire.com/
8
476
Jamie Gull retweeted
you can just ship things 🇺🇸
10
4
1
57
2,540
Great list, and contains 2 Wave Function Ventures portfolio companies. I suspect a couple more will be on it next year. @tylermakespower @Owenby
Today, we are excited to announce the first annual Austin Deep Tech 50. Austin has become the hub for some of America's best deep tech founders, so we brought together 8 VC firms with a local presence — @overmatchvc, @valor, @8vc, Banner VC, @BCapitalGroup, @TheAmbitionCap, @ensemblevc, and Trust Ventures — to vote on the 50 startups making the biggest impact. Together they've raised $10B+ in the last 12 months. Full write-up: overmatch.substack.com/p/202… The full list 🧵👇
2
23
1,040
What happens if AI suddenly needs 100X energy? Some thoughts on the state of energy, startups, and where things are going. Link in comments.
8
5
38
108,326
Thank God @Owenby is building Resolute Grid right here in Texas. They are shipping at breakneck speed. Special reveal later this month!!
1
1
25
1,185
Excited to be there soon and looking forward to seeing a bunch of great people.
2
31
1,549
Fully agree. When you look at stats around the metro area ppl forget how massive LA really is and how much of a broad economic powerhouse it is.
Austin certainly has its strengths, but I’m sorry, this is just factually very far from the truth. You’re right that it’s not close though!
2
9
1,171