John Waller

AI isn't just powering software. BrightAI just raised $51 million to automate inspection and other hardware-based AI capabilities. As Alexa von Tobel, co-founder of Inspired Capital put it: “So many people are so focused on the future of digital AI, but we’re excited about this new layer of AI: the physical world AI.” We are in the early innings of a series of AI-fueled innovations! https://lnkd.in/enhmafvH

47

Today we Lightspeed are excited to announce the industry-first formal partnership with 𝐒𝐤𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐚𝐛 to support the next generation of entrepreneurs & technical leaders at University of California, Berkeley. Many of the most consequential AI-native startups of our generation were founded by students, postdocs, faculty, and alums of UC Berkeley, including OpenAI, Databricks, Perplexity, Skild AI, ReflectionAI, Physical Intelligence, and more. Sky Computing Lab has followed in the footsteps of predecessors Berkeley RISE Lab & AMPLab to push technical research & commercialization across both AI/ML infrastructure and applications. Generational startups often begin within the walls of academic institutions like UC Berkeley, but the research funding landscape (in particular tied to NSF) is shifting, and the impact is already visible: fewer grants, slower timelines, and heightened urgency to commercialize. On behalf of Lightspeed, James Alcorn & I are honored to partner with Ion Stoica, Joseph Gonzalez, Dawn Song, and the Sky leadership team with a commitment of capital, network, and startup resources to ensure Berkeley's next wave of entrepreneurs has the platform and partners to build industry-defining companies. UC Berkeley College of Engineering UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS) #UCBSkyComputing #BerkeleySky #UCBerkeley https://lnkd.in/etDTiBzC

257

18 Comments

With RL techniques like GRPO, it’s become easy to fine-tune small models to outperform foundation models on vertical tasks. We’re open sourcing Osmosis-Apply-1.7B: a small model that merges code (similar to Cursor’s instant apply) better than foundation models. Links in comments! Using foundation models for high specificity, low complexity tasks like code merging can be overkill - instead, it’s better to use a specialized model instead for higher performance and latency. We fine-tuned the model on 100K real-world code commits where the model needs to merge a code edit snippet into an original code snippet. On the test dataset (subset of CommitPackFT), foundation model performance ranged between 0.77-0.93 reward score. In comparison, Osmosis-Apply-1.7B achieved a 0.98 reward score - while also being 3X-5X more affordable than the next cheaper model AND ~10X faster! Why this matters: the best AI agents use multiple models to ensure task specialization and reliability at scale - on top of cost and latency benefits as well. Links to the model and full write-up (with reward function, hyperparameters, etc.) are in the comments - reach out if you’re interested in using reinforcement learning!

239

18 Comments

Reshoring manufacturing to the U.S. hinges entirely on advances in automation and robotics—and those advances, in turn, rely on next-generation tools like integrated development environments, foundation models, smart robotics skills, and flexible automation platforms. This isn’t merely an incremental shift; it’s the next industrial revolution. I estimate it will unlock up to $30 trillion in GDP over the next decade, as countries compete fiercely for leadership. Eclipse is our time!

266

18 Comments

Chatting with ZEDEDA CEO, Said Ouissal, and he has an elegant way of explaining the evolution of industrial Edge. Zededa provides OS for orchestrating Edge AI. 2010s were about IoT/Edge Connectivity. 2020s were about Edge computing/processing. 2030s will be all about Edge AI.

36

4 Comments

🎙️ Ready to unlock the secrets of early-stage investing? My latest episode on Sound Investments features an in-depth conversation with Andy Liu of Unlock Venture Partners. We speak about tech trends, investment strategies, and the unique dynamics of the Pacific Northwest’s venture scene. It's a fun and informative conversation! Full pod here: 🔊 https://pod.fo/e/2c2722 And catch a highlight reel below. 👇 #Entrepreneurship #AI #VentureCapital #Seattle #PacNW #Startups #VC

128

3 Comments

Move over, Silicon Valley, Seoul’s hardware and manufacturing mastery is rewriting the DeepTech playbook. I saw it firsthand at the 아산나눔재단 (Asan Nanum Foundation) event in Seoul last week, thanks to Chris Lee / Kingsley Ventures and the brilliant Chris Yeh of Blitzscaling Ventures who is always a blast to work with! If you think building software is hard, try perfecting hardware… and Korea’s got it down to a science. All jokes aside, Thank you to 아산나눔재단 (Asan Nanum Foundation) and Kingsley Ventures for putting together this great talk on the pros and cons of Silicon Valley vs Seoul DeepTech VC.

58

7 Comments

Exciting to see the incredible progress from Peptone, a company we’ve backed since the early days at Walden Catalyst Ventures. Peptone just announced Peptron-O, developed in collaboration with NVIDIA — a groundbreaking AI engine that brings ensemble-first structure prediction to the disordered proteome. This is a major scientific and technological milestone, targeting one of the most complex and previously inaccessible areas of biology: intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). By shifting the paradigm from static models to dynamic ensembles, Peptron-O opens new doors for drug discovery — especially in areas like oncology and neurodegeneration, where IDPs play critical roles. We’re proud to have supported Peptone on their mission to build the infrastructure for next-gen molecular physics. Their work is a great example of how deep tech can transform life sciences. Read more about the announcement: 👉 https://lnkd.in/eygnKQ67 #AI #Biotech #DrugDiscovery #DeepTech #LifeSciences #WaldenCatalyst #Peptone #NVIDIA #PeptronO with: Kamil Tamiola, Ph.D. Francis Ho Shankar Chandran Nicolas Autret Andy Kau Roni Hefetz Victoria Slivkoff

56

1 Comment