Jack Hidary

🚨California Takes Action with Passage of 3 Bills to Scale CDR Innovation This weekend, California made unprecedented progress in creating compliance mechanisms to help grow Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) by providing pathways for all CDR approaches to gain market traction and grow responsibly in the state: ✅ CDR is included for the first time in the Cap & Invest program via AB1207, which creates a pathway for CDR to be permanently integrated as a compliance offset category ✅ The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was reauthorized via SB804, and now includes a framework for CDR to be included in future allocations from the fund for climate tech innovation, including as part of an $85M climate tech innovation program ✅ The passage of SB643 creates a Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Program to purchase CDR credits from eligible suppliers With these actions, California has created the framework to responsibly scale CDR, creating both economic and environmental benefits for Californians. These benefits include addressing affordability by generating good paying jobs and lowering CDR technology costs, as well as deploying technologies that tackle critical challenges such as wildfire fuel load reduction (such as the pictured Charm pilot in the Inyo National Forest) and orphaned wells. In addition, this program is technology-inclusive - enabling the state to deploy a wide range of technologies that support meeting CA’s climate goals by tackling legacy and residual emissions. Over the past few years, Charm Industrial has been collaborating with legislators, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and numerous NGO, industry, and academic partners to explore these concepts - what is the right mix of technologies for California? How can CDR help plug the gaps for residual and hard to abate emissions, and what are the benefits for Californians? We are incredibly proud of this progress, and this suite of new mechanisms provides support for R&D, supply, and demand, which together will support the scaling of the CDR industry - coupled with additional resources allocated to CARB for scaling SB905, the Carbon Capture Removal and Storage bill passed in 2022, which provides the framework to support this work. This is also yet another example of California leading the nation by fully integrating responsible CDR into its programs, creating a huge opportunity for the state to lead on scaling a wide range of technologies that will not only create environmental and economic benefits, but are also critical to helping the state stay on track for net zero and reaching California’s climate goals. Thank you to our partners in the legislature and agencies for your vision and commitment to scaling these solutions, and to all of our NGO, industry, and academic partners for all of the painstaking work to come up with the right set of solutions for California. We’re looking forward to working together to implement these important programs! 

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Exciting advancements in gene editing, spearheaded by UC Berkeley's Jennifer Doudna and her pioneering CRISPR research, are transforming the landscape. The CRISPR-based gene editing market is projected to reach approximately $4.5 billion in 2025, marking a remarkable 30% year-over-year increase. Forecasts indicate a substantial growth potential, with estimates soaring to $13-16 billion by 2034 at a consistent 25-30% compound annual growth rate. Globally, over 332 companies, with 217 based in the US, are driving innovation in 23 countries. Clinical trials, numbering around 250, with over 150 currently active, are focusing on diverse areas from blood disorders to rare diseases, showcasing impressive success rates ranging from 50-90% in experimental settings. Key developments in 2025, building upon Doudna's foundational work at Cal, include the introduction of personalized CRISPR infusions for treating rare childhood disorders, enhanced editing tools to minimize off-target effects, and RNA delivery techniques for repairing neurons in ALS cases. Biotechnology leads the adoption curve at approximately 40%, with academia and pharmaceutical sectors following suit. #CalGeneEditing #CRISPR #UCBerkeley #LifelongLearning

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Micro, Meso, and Macro: How Start-ups Are Shaped Start-ups do not operate in isolation. Their formation, growth, and survival are shaped by influences operating at three levels: micro, meso, and macro. Understanding how these layers interact is central to explaining why some ecosystems mature coherently while others remain active but fragile. The micro level sits closest to the venture. It includes founders, teams, internal governance, early customers, product discipline, and execution capability. These factors directly affect how decisions are made and how quickly learning occurs. Evidence across entrepreneurship research shows that micro-level strength matters, but it functions within constraints it does not control, such as regulation, market access, and capital structure. The macro level defines those constraints. Regulation, capital markets, labour mobility, infrastructure, education systems, and national development strategies shape what types of ventures can realistically form, scale, and exit. Publicly available ecosystem research indicates that consistent policy signals, regulatory clarity, and credible exit pathways are associated with more durable entrepreneurial activity, independent of individual founder talent. Between these two sits the meso layer, which acts as the system’s connective tissue. Accelerators, incubators, venture studios, universities, angel networks, corporate innovation units, and ecosystem builders translate macro intent into micro-level action. This layer influences selection, norms, and narratives. Its impact is indirect and therefore harder to measure, and public data on its effectiveness remains limited. Ecosystem reports and commentary suggest that misalignment most often appears at the meso level. When early-stage logic is applied indiscriminately across all phases of venture development, later-stage needs such as governance maturity, institutional readiness, and exit infrastructure can remain underdeveloped. Activity increases, but structural depth does not always follow. Takeaways Micro capability, meso translation, and macro structure are interdependent, not interchangeable. Most ecosystem distortion emerges when the meso layer exceeds or confuses its role. NSR is reflected when each layer acts within its remit and reinforces, rather than replaces, the others. https://lnkd.in/eGfBW_KN (Papi & Laado) SVC - Misk Foundation - Ministry of Economy and Planning - MEPsaudi -theGarage - Startup Studio National Technology Development Program - Public Investment Fund (PIF) #Venturecapital - KAUST Core Labs - National Development Fund (NDF)

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I’ve been working on the theory of why small, shippable factories are the perfect inversion to the centralized prefab factory model. It all collapsed into one line of math (credit to Gilles Retsin): Factory Efficiency = Usage × (Throughput × Product Value ) / ( CapEx + Deployment OpEx) The idea is that the closer you can drive Usage to 100 % while keeping the denominator tiny, the faster the flywheel spins.  A shippable microfactory tackles this by primarily focusing on a high Usage factor. Because the microfactory can be packed up afterwards and reused, its CapEx gets amortized over multiple projects, effectively raising its overall Usage across the year. If one project alone doesn’t fully occupy the factory, it can simply roll over to another job to maintain high Usage. Its CapEx is often an order of magnitude lower than a centralized factory (< $1M vs. $10-50M min), so the breakeven throughput is more achievable on a small pipeline of work. The real breakthrough here is portability. There is near-zero stranded capital and almost no idle time. To flesh this theory out, I wrote 3000 words on the topic for Brad Hargreaves and Thesis Driven. The article breaks down: - why “fixed factories, shipped goods” is being inverted to shipped factories, fixed goods - what a sub‑$1 M robotic cell does to CapEx per home versus a £45 M off‑site plant - early production/cost data on a shippable microfactory from Mollie Claypool, Gilles Retsin, Sam Baker and the Automated Architecture (AUAR) team - the hybrid reality of robots tackling the heavy structural components and human crews assembling faster and cheaper - technical constraints to pull this model off and future considerations on the optimal business model (own vs. rent) Major shoutout to Gilles Retsin for helping me pull this together. https://lnkd.in/eRTnbZPa

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Episode 13 of the Easy VC Brief focused on one topic of deep tech - bio manufacturing. Talking about Mothership Materials and their work on sustainable feedstocks.🌿 It’s a bit shorter today but more focused. In a world conflicted and the 24 hour news cycle locked on the Iran War, I try to keep my mind focused on entrepreneurs who are trying to make the world better and there continues to be a big opportunity in bio manufacturing. #keepbuilding

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Terra Innovatum and GSR III Acquisition Corp. File Form S-4 After Business Combination Announcement Advancing Public Listing. Transaction To Accelerate Terra Innovatum’s Pathway to Commercialization of Groundbreaking Micro-Modular Nuclear Technology by 2028. https://lnkd.in/eNpGF9bU

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You can have groundbreaking science, elegant engineering, and even early customer interest. But without this one thing, you don't have an investable business. After two decades running IP strategy projects and now leading UC Berkeley's Deep Tech Innovation Lab while building the Berkeley Gateway Accelerator, I've watched countless brilliant technologies die in the valley between breakthrough and business. The problem isn't what most technical founders think it is. It's not about having better tech. It's not about getting more funding. It's not even about finding product-market fit. The fatal flaw shows up much earlier—and it's almost always the same mistake. In my latest piece, I answer questions from a Taiwanese entrepreneur about what really separates deep tech ventures that scale from those that stall. Including one provocative suggestion for Asian ecosystems that has nothing to do with technology. Read the full conversation, linked below. #DeepTech #Innovation #Startups #IntellectualProperty #VentureCapital

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100 founders, builders, researchers, investors and thinkers. One big question: how to solve some of the largest challenges building at the frontiers of AI. From physical compute scaling constraints to applying AI to unlock civilizational progress from material science to drug discovery. Camps, hikes and heated debates on human x AI co-existence: this was Climbing Hard AI Peaks. Thanks to everyone for coming out and making it so special. We learned a lot from all of you. Big shout-out to our founders working on some of the biggest AI unlocks, the many researchers and builders from Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM), ETH Zürich, Stanford University and special guests from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind and more. David Byrd Michael Wax Jason D. Whitmire Chad Fowler Jonah Anders Kaplan Christine Fuchs Sam Harrison Mehdi Ghissassi Antoine Moyroud Wulfie Bain Eva Spannagl Nathan Gruber Judith Dada Juan Benet Zoe Weinberg Haya Hanna Sophia Kalanovska, PhD Clayton Mellina Ricardo Sequerra Amram Evan Phoenix Hendrik Dietz Katie Hewitt Molly Mackinlay Omer Shlomovits Zied Bahrouni

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Biosphere raised millions from Founders Fund and Lowercarbon Capital to Unleash Industrial Biomanufacturing at scale. Biosphere's cofounder Arye Lipman joined our latest podcast to discuss: - what is biomanufacturing - how Biosphere's UV bioreactors are 10x better than traditional bioreactors - what America with 10x cheaper biomanufacturing looks like - can we grow a steak without a cow? - is biomanufacturing "woke climate" or American Dynamism? - how Biosphere is working with the DOD - MAGA's view on biomanufacturing - Consciousness, dolphins and the CIA Check it out!

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VERSES is playing a key role in the collaboration and growth of Active Inference researchers and practitioners around the world.

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We are delighted to announce Zeno Power's $50 million Series B 💰🌟 Seraphim Space Investment Trust (SSIT) was thrilled to participate in the round led by Hanaco Ventures, with participation from Balerion Space Ventures, Vanderbilt University, JAWS, and others. Zeno's nuclear batteries convert the decay of radioactive material into thermal and electrical power. Zeno have raised over $70 million to date, accelerating toward full-scale nuclear battery demonstrations in 2026, enabling deliveries to maritime and space customers in 2027.🔋 Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eqgqTvJY

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This week in #AmTech: Radiant raised over $300 million in new funding from Draper Associates, Boost VC, Founders Fund, ARK Investment Management LLC, Chevron Technology Ventures, DCVC, and others. Radiant develops portable, mass-produced nuclear microreactors that fit in shipping containers and can be deployed anywhere to provide reliable, zero-emissions baseload power for up to five years without refueling. By offering a transportable alternative to diesel generators, Radiant's reactors address America's need for energy resilience in disaster recovery and in remote locations where power infrastructure is unreliable. Founders: Doug Bernauer, Bob Urberger. EraDrive raised $5.3 million in seed funding from Haystack, Point Nine, Harpoon, Brave Capital, 2100 Ventures, and Entropy Industrial Capital. EraDrive builds self-driving modules that allow satellites to see and move independently without constant ground control. As orbital traffic becomes increasingly crowded and contested, EraDrive's technology is essential for protecting America's satellite infrastructure (which underpins GPS, communications, and national security systems). Founders: Sumant Sharma, Justin Kruger, Simone D'Amico. Axion raised $37 million in Series B funding from Salesforce Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Schneider Electric Ventures. Axion builds an AI-powered intelligence platform that helps manufacturers detect product quality problems before they become expensive recalls or widespread failures. By catching issues weeks or months earlier than traditional methods, Axion could give American manufacturers an edge as they compete against global rivals. Founder: Daniel First. #VC #VentureCapital #Startups #Investing #DeepTech #Energy #Satellites #Aerospace #Manufacturing

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In hard-tech, the biggest moat isn’t a patent—it’s people! At Conduit, we quietly built one of the world’s most unique communities: a global network of over 200 engineers, operators, designers, supply chain veterans, and contract manufacturers—the Conduit Fellows. These are the men and women who have built, shipped, scaled the hardware and physical tech the world runs on. They’re the invisible force behind the devices in your hands, the sensors in your cars, and the machines on factory floors from Ohio to Shenzhen. They bring: 🛠 Decades of deep execution experience across product and manufacturing. 🌏 Access to global supply chains—from Tier 1 fabs in Taiwan to family-run suppliers in rural Europe. 🤝 Relationships forged in the real world, not just on pitch decks. This is Conduit’s edge (and our long term commitment). We don’t just aim to invest in physical technology. We build it. We de-risk it. We scale it. And we do it alongside the Fellows—those who’ve learned from the scars of failed pilots, lived through the pain of missed yield targets, and know what it takes to go from prototype to P&L. The future of physical AI, robotics, sensory systems, climate, and health-tech isn’t built in isolation. It’s built in community. That’s why we believe human capital is the most important infrastructure in hard-tech. If you’re building and investing the next generation of physical technology and want to be surrounded and supported by the best network in the world for execution—let’s talk. #HardTech #VentureCapital #ConduitVentureLabs #Hardware #Founders #EngineeringExcellence #ConduitFellows #SupplyChain #PhysicalAI #AIForTheRealWorld #PhysicalIntelligence #hardware (Meet some of our community > https://lnkd.in/ge6FK_cx)

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US Energy Department Launches AI-Driven Biotech Platform On December 5, 2025, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright unveiled the Anaerobic Microbial Phenotyping Platform (AMP2) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). This first-of-its-kind AI-driven system automates the study of anaerobic microbes, which thrive without oxygen and hold potential for biofuel production and environmental solutions. By integrating artificial intelligence with robotic automation, AMP2 drastically reduces research timelines from years to mere days or weeks, enabling rapid experimentation and optimization. It addresses fundamental questions in life sciences while boosting biotech manufacturing capabilities. As a prototype for the larger Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability (M2PC), AMP2 aims to create the world's most extensive autonomous microbial research infrastructure. This initiative aligns with the Trump Administration’s Genesis Mission to harness AI for scientific innovation and national competitiveness. The platform's impact could extend to developing next-generation materials, sustainable energy sources, and advanced bioproducts, fostering economic growth through biotechnology. Researchers anticipate it will unlock new microbial applications in medicine and industry. What potential applications for this biotech platform excite you most? Share in the comments! #BiotechBreakthrough #AIDrivenScience #EnergyDepartment #EmergingTech #MicrobialInnovation

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Hexcel Adds Independent Director in Deal With Activist Investor "Hexcel added a new independent director to its board in a move that avoids a potential proxy fight for the aerospace materials company with activist investor Vision One Fund. "As part of an agreement between the two sides, Vision One will withdraw their nominees to the board that were to be voted on at the company's annual shareholder meeting. Vision One will also support Hexcel's board nominees, and agree to certain standstill restrictions and mutual non-disparagement provisions, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. "The new director, former Kaman Chief Executive Officer Neal Keating, was appointed effective Tuesday." Keating's experience in aerospace may make him an ideal director choice. Yet from a bigger picture perspective, I wonder if this settlement is the right move for investors. More and more activist campaigns are settling rather than running the full process of a proxy fight with typically a greater number of directors nominated by the activist. Hopefully, activists are becoming like the public company boards they battle, i.e. more focused on reaching consensus than big results. #governancearbitrage #proxyfights #corporategovernance #activistinvesting #valuecreation https://lnkd.in/gazBUGFp

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Have you listened to the latest Generation Space podcast episode with Zeno Power? The conversation looks at how Zeno Power is developing nuclear battery technology to deliver long-duration, reliable power for use in the most challenging environments, with insights from Founder Tyler Bernstein alongside Seraphim's Leah Martin and Lucas Bishop. Here’s the link: https://lnkd.in/exddPQ7f #SeraphimSpace #DualUse #GenerationSpace #ZenoPower #SpaceTech #EnergyInnovation #FrontierTech #DeepTech

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Management has been clear: 2026 may see slight margin compression as a full year of higher DevEx rates and infrastructure/safety investments catch up with bookings growth. But the intent is to prioritize long term genre expansion and platform durability, and then reestablish cost leverage beyond 2026 (notably in CY27), as the investments mature and the platform scales into a larger AI/infrastructure base. In Q3, Roblox already showed operating leverage in fixed costs while increasing DevEx; it also highlighted that free cash flow growth should meaningfully exceed bookings growth in 2026-a crucial indicator for longer term valuation support.

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The Resurgence of Nuclear Startups: Potential vs. Challenges Small modular reactor (SMR) startups are gaining traction, promising to revolutionize energy production through mass manufacturing and cost reduction. However, the journey ahead is fraught with regulatory, technological, and market challenges that these innovators must navigate effectively. At ElevenX Capital, we recognize that while the potential is significant, a comprehensive strategy addressing these complexities is essential for success. Are investors ready to support this evolving frontier? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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The next frontier for AI isn’t just text or images—it’s biology. Maggie Basta's latest piece explores the rise of biological foundation models and the real opportunities (and illusions) in AI-powered drug discovery We’ve seen the hype cycles before—genomics, Schrödinger, “platform plays”—but this time, with transformer-scale models and a maturing buyer base, the equation may finally be shifting. In bio, value still accrues to assets—not software. But AI may be the first force powerful enough to change that. this read is essential:

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