Today we are joined with Dominic Falcao, a founder of Deep Science Ventures which is an early stage venture builder where they bring together the business and science aspects to help form amazing teams with the ability to impact all of our lives. It is a relatively new venture. It's fun in that it's under two years old, but there is a lot of knowledge and wisdom that Dom shares about venture capitalism, about life, how to de-risk situations, how to preempt issues, and how to hustle to get what you want. Also, how to set up tranches to benefit you if you ever seek money from a VC, book recommendations, and much, much more. I think everyone is going to get something from this episode. Additionally, if you have an interest in starting a biotech company, then definitely reach out to Dom and his team at Deep Science Ventures. There are very few places of the world that they cannot sponsor a visa from in order to have you head to the UK or work to set things up remotely.
Here are the timestamps that I promised! I've marked a few of them with ** to bring special attention to those sections.
[ 3:00 ] ** Dom’s story of how and why he founded Deep Science Ventures with Mark Hammond.
[ 4:00 ] Who Dom wants to help/encourage with DSV.
[ 7:00 ] What some venture capitals do with excess capital, and how Dom/Mark have their fund set up.
[ 9:00 ] **What the first year and a half has been like at DSV (developments, difference models, thoughts, and hurdles).
[ 10:30 ] How they burnt their ships, forced themselves to work harder, and secured the necessary funding to start DSV.
[ 12:15] Comparing what they did to Agamemnon conquering Troy by burning his soldiers ships to force them to fight harder.
[ 14:00 ] Fun fact: Trojans eventually becoming Romans and recommended Roman books.
[ 15:08 ] Mark Hammond’s role in the fund and the key things he brings to the table.
[ 17:45 ] What Dom is currently pushing himself to be great at.
[ 18:55 ] **How Dom creates decks for his fund when he pitches, what he spends 50% of his deck on when he presents, thoughts on biotech as an investment class, why biotech is perceived as risky and how it’s changing, and more.
[ 26:45 ]The books that have had a huge impact on the way Dom thinks.
[ 29:00 ] **Tranches Explained! Everything you ever wanted to know about how to think about Tranches and how to use tranches strategically to take the wind out of arguments.
[ 35:55 ] How do/did he find candidates and how he decides on key characteristics for success.
[ 41:55 ] An example of key characteristics he looks for.
[ 45:30 ] Find inflection people that others are not seeing and an absurd story about Oppenheimer.
[ 48:20 ] **Great people who are overlooked and why this is one of Dom’s focus points for what he works on.
[ 56:00 ] Advice on learning more, positioning yourself to make a difference, and de-risking your dream/goal.
[ 59:30 ] Lean startup as a repackaged scientific method.
[ 1:01:00 ] **Recommended books fallacies & Biases, and a few gems Dom has found that he enjoys. (We may write a good book together. Message and tweet Dom/myself, if that interests you. @lowellwashere and @DominicFalcao)
[ 1:05:00 ] Where you can go to learn more and how to get into their program, such as website (relaunch with more content soon), @DominicFalcao,
Here is their website: Website link.
