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DeSci Mic with Adam Draper / Boost VC
Recorded: March 19, 2025 Duration: 1:21:42Space Recording
Short Summary
The D-Sai space is experiencing growth with a surge in projects ready for investment and strong funding from both community and VC levels. Trends indicate a shift with traditional projects showing interest in D-Sai, and initiatives like D-Sign Next are launching to engage new scientists. Boost VC plays a significant role in funding, offering substantial financial support to help commercialize scientific ideas.
Full Transcription
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to the D-SI mic. Super excited to be diving in this week to invest your perspective on D-Sai, heavily invested within the D-Sai space, Adam Draper from Booth VC.
Andrew, welcome up here as well. Good to see you.
Hello, hello. Thank you so much. Yeah, looking forward to it. I mean, obviously Adam and Boost have been a
played a major role in several of the key D-Sai projects.
And so excited to hear more about their thesis and perspective on the market.
Yes, definitely.
I feel like there's a growing number of D-Sy projects that are in a good position to...
to be at that stage of investment and a lot of cool programs through BoostVC to support some of that as well,
especially at those earliest stages. In the meantime, are there any new updates that you're seeing within
the DCI ecosystem, maybe just doing quick share out of things that you might have seen
happening in DCI over the past week or so?
Yeah, you know, I'm actually, it's interesting.
Several of the projects that I've been talking to,
I'm starting to see a trend of more established sort of trad-side projects
reaching out.
I know that we kind of keep saying like no one in TradSai knows that D-Sai exists,
and it's probably generally true.
But I've been, it seems like I've been hearing more and more about that.
And, you know, I think there's a number of reasons for it,
but there's sort of like something that's happening there.
The other thing that I think is obviously super strong and in,
the space that continues to grow is around this biohacking longevity space.
I think that I just keep continuing to see more projects coming along.
And the third trend that I will say is,
This may be more of a hot take than a trend, but I feel like there's quite a significant amount of pushback
concerning the structure of DAOs and using DAO's as a way as a structure and have been hearing many people exploring different models of bringing these high projects to market outside of a DAO structure.
So I think those are those are some things definitely to watch.
I also think that there is continuing really strong funding that we're seeing, both from community levels and from VC level interest.
I mean, obviously the markets are a problem, but there seems to be still a lot of private funding that's occurring.
So for me, it's only positive signs.
Definitely. I feel like there's a lot of excitement for what's happening within the DCI space right now and also casual interest from the broader Tredsai institutional science space.
I'm out here in San Francisco right now and have been having a lot of conversations with
with scientists out this way. And there's a really strong appetite for just newer solutions,
other options, and a lot of frustration that I think D-Sy is really well positioned to start
addressing and is addressing already. But just creating some more of those connections.
I think will be really fun to watch in the upcoming time of what that ends up looking like from that implementation and scale perspective as well.
Erin, there's also several events on the horizon, right?
I know that you're really tied into that space.
What are some of the events that are emerging here and coming up soon?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll probably be hosting another D-SI-related event in the Bay Area within the next week or two.
So if you or someone on your team or someone else you know is in the region in the Bay Area, definitely have them connect with me.
And I'll make sure to get that kind of posted out to them.
Another bigger event that's coming up on the radar is on April 12th and 13th, D-Side London is taking place, annual conference paired with monthly meetups, so really, really incredible ecosystem there with a strong kind of traditional institutional science background of people attending that conference.
I know looking through some of the folks down below,
uh some we have some speakers in the audience here, so
uh that should be a really good time, awesome lineup shaping up there.
So, uh,
Really excited for that.
If you're interested in getting involved there, reach out directly to D-Sy London or Barrett.
Or you can reach out to me and I can connect you over to get looped in there.
But that will be a really awesome gathering one day of kind of more structured formal conference,
and then a day of more of unconference workshopping to really kind of take different projects
or ideas to that next level and build some more of those connections at a human level as well.
So that's one to definitely have on your radar.
Another event is kind of shaping up right now in the LA area.
It might be towards the end of the month or very beginning of April.
So if you're in LA, that will be looking more like a hackathon type setup in collaboration with smarter with science, causality network, as well as quantum bio-dow.
So if you're in that region or have any connections there, definitely reach out on that front.
There are a bunch of really cool things happening in Boston through Orsci and the Orverse Hub.
And I know...
There are a few folks in the audience here, either currently in Boston or have been in Boston for a while.
So I think that will be a growing ecosystem as well to keep our eye on.
In addition to New York, which always has the, like, a whole series of continuous D-SI-related meetups as well.
So, so many cool things happening.
I know Mark had reached out about some D-SI events in Bangkok.
Let me just pull up that date.
Part of some...
bigger kind of event happenings.
So that will be a little bit later this year.
I'm not sure if, so that will be,
oh, actually, end of the month,
so March 30th through April 5th at Southeast Asia Blockchain Week.
So if you're in Bangkok, Southeast Asia,
want a reason to go to Bangkok.
There will be some D-Sy things happening there, and Mark, who's one of the listeners down below, is driving the way on that.
So I would recommend reaching out to him to learn more on that front.
Let's see.
I feel like there are so many other D-Sy spaces and other things going on, but these are the ones that are...
top of mind for me right now.
Any others that I'm missing?
I was just thinking about our special spaces
that we're doing next Wednesday at noontime,
where we will be launching the D-Sign Next initiative.
And I'm sure that you've seen some of our posts about that, but this is sort of the first initiative of the DSI Alliance, where we are launching what we are calling the DSI Next.
And essentially, it's, you know, onboarding, educating, and engaging sort of the next generation of scientists.
and, you know, starting to introduce D.S.I.
And it's principles to them.
So really excited about that.
Hannah from Peptide Dow is sort of the leader of that initiative.
She's an amazing spokeswoman for that effort.
And I think it's just going to be a really powerful initiative.
And so next week, what we'll be doing is interviewing, inviting on stage and interviewing as many people
young founders, young scientists, you know, young people who are in, who are in D.S.I or working on projects related to science at D.C.
You know, they don't have to be just the founders, but could be at any, at any, you know, facet.
They'd love to hear from people who are saying like, hey, you know, I was going to go get my PhD, but I decided to do this instead.
Or, you know, I think that's one of the things that happen is.
Aaron, in the startup world, it's like, it's super cool if you're going for your MBA but decide to drop out to do a startup.
I don't know that that has the same lore here in this space yet, but, you know, I think that there are some stories about people who are saying, you know, look, I was going to go through the long path of getting to PhD and then try and start doing science.
Instead, I just said, I'm just going to start doing it right now.
And I think there's some powerful stories about that, not that getting a PhD is bad, obviously, but, you know, I think that there are opportunities to be engaged at all sorts of levels.
And yeah, we're talking to groups, you know, at all various stages.
And so if you know of a young founder, you are a young founder, you have young, you know, perhaps participants in your project and feel like they could be a voice for this, D-Sign Next.
Or if you are particularly interested or doing something specific with your project that would encourage or engage sort of that next generation,
Maybe you have intern spots open.
Maybe you're looking for talent, things like that.
Definitely next Wednesday at noon is going to be an awesome space where we'll be talking to
to Hannah and launching the D-Sign Next initiative.
Yes, super, super excited for this group to be kicking off. Just being able to kind of address
on board and connect with all of these different audiences. So excited for some more of that
younger energy and kind of fresher energy coming into the D-SI space. So if
If you know anyone that is kind of in that next gen category, definitely reach out to Hannah from Peptide Dow or tune in next week.
I'd like to join that combo.
Welcome, Adam.
Hey, I am sorry, technical difficulties.
Hey, but I'm am to be here.
And thank you for having me.
I'm really excited about D.Sai.
So let's talk it.
Okay.
Yes, I feel like that's super apparent just based on how much support you've shown to so many projects in the DSI ecosystem.
So first off, thank you for helping to boost all of the awesome projects, pushing things forward in the DSI space.
And really excited to start diving into chatting with you.
and about your and Booth V-Sea's perspective on why D-Sai and what you're hoping to see more of in the future.
Fantastic.
I also, something I want to also talk about is I just got back from South America and I was in Prospera, which is I don't know if everyone in D-Syne knows it, but you should.
And I would love to talk about that experience too because it's, yeah, I think it's real.
I think it's a big deal.
I'm pretty excited.
Absolutely. Yeah, let's kick it off with that. I was actually at Prospera and Vitale at the time for two months last year.
Made a quick pit stop there kind of mid last year as well. And I think it's such a cool example of what other forms of just organization or different infrastructure to be able to help advance DISA as well.
But I would love to hear your updates, what you're seeing down there and are excited by.
Yeah, so the first off, just, hey, I'm really, really excited for, like, at the end of the day, all I try to, like, I've spent my life, or my life now, my career doing has been creating competitive spaces for institutional, like, disruption.
Yeah.
You can think of like Bitcoin as if I disagree with the bank, I can always go after Bitcoin.
And I feel that that's sort of been a big, really important part of my career in my life,
is finding these spaces in helping the rebellion when the institution sucks.
And so at Boots we see we're a precede investor.
We invest $500,000.
We try and invest first check into deals.
And we also have a, we have a product for just if you're trying to get going.
And it's been incredibly productive for us, which is a 50K check.
And we've had a lot of scientists from the DSI ecosystem just sort of reach out and we participated and helped a lot of people just have the validation to go do and commercialize whatever they were thinking about doing and leave that academic institution.
Okay, so I've been talking about it a long time.
I've recorded like a five.
Actually, I've recorded more podcasts now, but it's probably about a podcast on DSI.
And I mean, we've been in BoostBC, we've invested in a solid number, Hair Dow, Research Hub, Molecule, Long Live Poseidon Dow, there are a lot more.
And my goal is, it's not really about number for me. It's just about like, hey, I believe that this is cerebrum Dow more.
And...
i just i just believe that if we the most important metric is at what are is there science
happening right like at the end of the day and is it get is it getting public not getting
published is it just interacting with the world have we built trust with it yet is it real
is there real output coming in from the input and it's been a little more of an it's been an
experiment for the last couple years
of input. So a lot of people think about market cap. They think about money inbound. They think
about all that stuff. But there's real, there's real experiments happening. There's real science
happening. And I think we need to start to, if I could vocalize one thing to this community,
it'd be like, let's get more people talking about output, talking about what's happening.
So this leads me to last week, I went to...
Prospera. It's all I want to talk about right now because it was just awesome.
I went and I didn't know what to expect. So I had a four country trip and it was amazing. It was with my dad.
And so, you know, I haven't had a business trip with my dad in 25 years. So also just sort of a nice experience.
And we went to Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and then Honduras, Roiton.
And we didn't really know what to expect of Roton.
I had talked to Eric Brimmon in a fair amount.
We had invested, actually, but I hadn't visited yet.
And then we had also invested in Infinita, which used to be called Vitalia.
And we, and so I had a lot, like, I had a connection down here, and it's amazing.
And, you know, we show up.
And it's just the most beautiful place on the planet.
first of all and like you go and it's just a beautiful resort that you know the coral reefs 200 yards out the
uh like the place you stay is just amazing and gorgeous and you're like uh i don't but my brain was doing
that thing where it's like am i working or am i on vacation is it a you know what is this um
And I, and so we go to this restaurant about 30 minutes away.
And Rotons that's that big, so I'm assuming it's on the fully other island, the side of the place.
And they'd set up pitch, sort of a pitch day for us.
And it's nighttime.
So it's like 8 o'clock at night by the time we get there.
And so we, and we get 13 pitches.
And the first three pitches, um,
Remove people's heads and put on cyborg bodies for longevity.
Remove people's heads and put on human body, other body for longevity.
And dissect dead brain for machine learning algorithms for where neuron pathways are.
And all I'm thinking is my dad and I turned to each other after about seven of these pitches and we're like,
This is like the center of the storm, right?
Like these are the people who are free thinkers building the things that they think are going to help humanity, no matter what it sounds like to the outside world.
It was like walking into the future and just being like, whoa, what's going on here?
I think that...
I think that Prospera is going to be a central hub of the decentralized world because it's grouping together all of those people and getting them to connect.
Whether you're living there or you're going to just an event, I think it's a no-brainer to actually sort of touch the grass of Prospera because I think that's,
or you know you could call it infinida is actually sort of bringing in the groups of these biohackers
but i it reminds me of the early days of bitcoin where you you were like wow these are the
smartest people i've ever met and they're talking about the most revolutionary biggest
revolutions i also think the you know i said these three concepts um that were pitched to us
i think that you know it's uh
important that you don't quite understand why these are important right like it's a it's like
i hadn't been pitched those period like those were and i get pitched crazy ideas
And so I was looking at this and just being like, wow, I'm seeing new things and I'm feeling new energy and there's something going on here.
So that was my experience.
Now, it isn't like that probably all the time.
So a lot of, like I know that Prospera and Infinite are very events driven right now.
I'm just saying like it is attracting the right type of person who want the idealist.
who wants to do the experiments.
And I think the breakthroughs that D-Sai is going to have
are the ones that are a little taboo inside of the academic institution.
And that's what I was trying to say.
A long way of getting there,
but I'm very excited about what's happening over there.
Just wanted to say, it's awesome.
If you haven't been, you should try it.
Definitely.
Yeah, I highly recommend everyone go and check out just what additional supports and also be inspired by some of the more kind of organizations really trying to push those edges.
Yeah.
um incorporate some of that energy into everything else we're doing also on the gorgeous scenery
front it's such a tranquil setting to be able to connect with cool people hunger down to do
and have that that balance of you know i the biggest question mark i had was like hey how can
you work so hard and be this close to the water right like uh it was i was like uh
But they did have agency.
Like everyone sort of has a mission out there.
That was kind of cool.
It was cool.
I guess it was just, it was new.
It was different.
And in what we do, it's sometimes hard to find new and different.
So it was so exciting to me.
Definitely. I think we'll continue to see more emphasis on some of these in-person connections.
And down there, really, the regulatory environment is able to have more alignment with DISA and biotech acceleration.
But at a lot of these other pop-up cities as well, there's a growing D-Cy presence to help kind of lean into how might we convene like-minded people and support and the acceleration of the really cool things they're building on.
Yeah, pop-up cities are really, really exciting.
It does feel like there are a lot of them now.
So it's like people who go to pop-up cities are confused about how many pop-up cities are.
But the, I think it's, dude, yeah, these are the things.
Like, show up, you meet all the people.
It's awesome.
I, yeah, I can't really push enough how important it's going to be to connect with all those people.
These are like, it's someone on my team, Mark on my team, he talks a lot about the lore of organizations.
Right.
Like right now is the time when like the core lore and story of Prospera, Infinita, you know, D.Ci are starting.
And like those are the exciting times.
Like how do you be around the energy and be a part of the lore?
Definitely.
There's...
A handful of other pop-ups coming up soon as well, from Edge City to Switzerland and many others as well.
But I know those two have an interest in...
kind of these D-Sy connections, the research component, as well as being able to push some of
these technologies forward and convene people in really gorgeous locations while focusing on building
the future. Yeah, I'm amped. It's, dude, all you need to do to build the future is congregates
like amazingly mission-driven people together and like,
Yeah, these pop-up cities seem to be attracting the, like, free thinkers.
It's going to be great.
Future is good, just in case anyone's wondering.
I really think that this is a unique piece, I mean, at least from my experience around Web3,
it feels to me like D.Sai is congregating this space.
And it feels like there's so much pent up demand among mission-driven, brilliant, like,
free thinkers like you're describing, because they've been so hampered by academia,
not to hit one of your buzzwords here, but, you know, like so hampered by the current structure of science.
that and, and, you know, discredited and ignored,
that they feel like with D-Side,
they finally have an outlet and a way to be able to bring these ideas to the forefront.
I think for me, that's awesome.
Yeah, dude, yeah, I mean, all my trigger words of academia.
The, I, look, we, if you do.
Again, when I actually don't think banks are going to fall.
It's not going to be Bitcoin or banks.
It's going to be both.
If it was only Bitcoin, we wouldn't have people innovating, right?
And so there's going to be other alternatives that people can trust inside of, you know, governmental institutions.
I would love if it goes all Bitcoin.
I think that having systems in place would be good.
But that might be a long time.
Right now, all I want is the better service to the end user.
to the customer. And I think that going after academia right now is the same way of going after the bank.
It's I just want people to be able to choose. Like right now, the only choice is this like go into debt,
a horrible system, six years, doing what your PA wants, doing what your university wants, which is doing
what the government wants, rather than thinking what's the best answer. And I see
so many founders just do impossible things every day i'm like we are holding ourselves back from
like true innovation if we're not letting free thinkers think um and so and do do free thinkers do
uh and so that you know i i've i've tons of friends actually since i started the short
academic like thesis so many people have reached out to me just saying hey heck we backed one
They said, hey, I'm $250,000 in debt.
And yes, it makes me make different decisions of risk because of that.
Like, I'm not willing, like, it is a big burden for me.
And so, you know, I've also met people in academia who really don't like that I keep saying short academia.
And even though I'm like, you know, I'm pretty sure the middle market of academia is actually going to get broken in the next like 10 years.
So I'm just here to, you know, and I keep learning more.
And you know, my perspective is less from the scientific realm.
So I'm not coming at it and being like, oh, I'm specifically talking about this specific type of technology in science or whatever.
I look at it from like a.
what my i follow the money and the money right now is it's a broken system inside of academia i
just believe scientists should be rich i don't think that's bad right like i want
I want scientists to get money.
And so when people are challenging me on this topic, I'm just like, well, why aren't you rich?
Like, you should be rich if you're doing something super important.
Like, go make money.
A bunch of bankers who are not adding a lot of value are rich.
Why aren't you rich?
Absolutely. I think that you're, so the calculation around making decisions based upon the debt that I have, I don't know that there's a field where that's more evident than in the medical field. And I think that this relates specifically to the health.
And the biotech space extraordinarily.
Like I feel like because of the amount of debt the doctors have to go into in order to get through their formal training.
And because of what they have to do, when they get to the place where they're going to start, like where the pendulum switches for them, they're going to start paying off these things, I think they're under tremendous pressure.
And therefore, they are not willing to risk anything.
And so therefore, whatever the institution says they do.
And they're unwilling to explore, you know, new opportunities because of this, this debt.
And they're less curious, right?
Like, if you run into a patient who has a unique problem, right?
They're not doing the doctor's not doing the science anymore.
They're not going in the back and like dissect in the blood and being like, no, they send it to a lab.
They get a couple numbers back.
They're like, this is what these numbers mean.
And they're, they're, they're plugging and playing, right?
Yeah.
And hey, it's the system we have.
And I actually think there was probably a glory day of the healthcare institution and the academic
institution as well as the banking institution.
But we hit what I call a tragedy of scale.
And now, you know, whether it's because people are trying to take on too much or whatever,
I think the service is just bad.
I try not to go to the hospital no matter what.
Like that's my deal.
And so yeah, I think that the healthcare system says you're going to be a doctor. And then your whole life, you're like, that is my identity. And so you make all these decisions to become that doctor rather than thinking like what's the best way I can use my skills to add value to the world. On average, again, there's barbells. Like there are people who are in who are doctors.
who really do they are doing the science they are like really trying and experimenting to solve the problems and then there are a lot of people who are just in the you know we always revert to the mean so yeah doctor's going to come in here and just be like this guy's a whole
I think more doctors and medical providers are also looking to have this wider spread impact
while still balancing their everyday workload yesterday or two days ago I was talking to an
electrophysiologist from Stanford and that was really the number one point that she was trying
to drive home and give as a takeaway of
what D.S.I. could be doing or just different gaps she's seeing from her perspective and within her space.
And it's really that they're looking to have more connection with especially early stage startups.
to have some input on, hey, actually, if you measured these other variables instead, that would be
way more impactful from this research perspective. And then also, she's sharing how she has this
whole curated list of different resources and apps and, uh, places to point different patients that
otherwise there aren't great resources for them. So, uh,
I think there's a lot more that can be done on the side of connecting different D-SI projects
to different researchers as well as medical providers to help accelerate really impactful work to be done,
while they still might be within those kind of formal structures.
100%. I'm like...
Dude, again, it's like, I just want the end user to get a good experience.
And I think everyone on this call or everyone in your house or everyone in your community can agree.
that the hospital healthcare system is not great, right?
Like, I don't think anyone's, like, debating it,
but we're not trying to fix the, like, core problems of just, like,
hey, let's innovate.
Let's try to find new systems.
Let's see if there's a better way to take care of someone.
I think of it, like, have you guys ever seen Patch Adams?
That's a great, great movie.
Yeah.
Like, like that guy's going against the institution.
That guy is D-Sy, right?
We need more Patch Adamses.
I want tons of Patch Adamses out there.
I mean, that'll be my new short academia.
I'm pro Patch Adams.
So I guess boiling that down when you say short academia or you want more Patch Adams,
are there any opportunities or spaces that you're really seeing could be a great spot for different builders or founders to be either expanding into or focusing on
or yeah, what are you hoping to see more of from D-SI builders and founders in the future, whether that's from a space perspective or kind of an approach perspective for those organizations too.
it's a great question um i one of the things about venture capital is like i try not to be too
stringent on exactly what i'm looking for i don't want to be like this is the answer i want to see
what the market chooses the answer should be um so on one side is that right like i've
but you know i've sat here thought about a lot of stuff i think it's just
We need more tools for rapid iteration in order to have people feel like, even today, like,
I don't feel that I have enough tools personally where I could take my blood and do it myself,
right?
So, like, anything that gets me closer to being my own doctor, that I think is probably
the best.
If you think about, like, uh,
Today, I can be my own bank.
I think that this methodology is moving us to be our own doctor.
And specialists are still going to be the most important people on the planet, like someone
who actually understands how everything works.
And so I want the tool set that makes me feel comfortable taking my own blood, diagnosing myself,
uh in order to do experimentation and sort of like do my own therapeutics right and so all those things
anything that gets me closer to that is sort of what i'm what i would love and be looking for in this
space um i think
One of the reasons that I was so excited about Prospero was this sort of like free thinking test on myself.
Everyone had implants.
They all had like magnets in their fingers or like headphone implants.
Like they all had stuff.
Like the first question I was asked when I walked into the lab was like, hey, do you want an implant?
And I was like, what is going on here?
And so it was awesome.
I think, uh,
Yeah, no, I think my goal, what I am looking for are all the tools that would allow me to feel the freedom to experiment on my own, like, system.
And I think that is lacking.
Like, there's so many stops along the way.
Like, here, I'm going to, I've been talking to a lot of people about this specific tool that I would love to understand why it won't work.
But there is one data set that everyone in the world has for therapeutics that may help personalization of medicine.
And clinical trials are not based on this.
And it fully surprises me.
And I'm wondering, and I'm sure there's a good answer.
And I don't like the answer that the pharmaceutical company is not incentivized to do it, which has been the only answer I've gotten.
But it's, we all have a blood type.
And we know that certain organs don't go into certain other things.
Why aren't we using blood type in clinical trials?
Why is that not the methodology that we literally use?
And I don't think, like, I came up with this idea and I am not a scientist.
I'm assuming someone else has thought of this.
But, like, it might be the, like,
When people say, oh, it works, you know, for a therapeutic to get through, two out of ten of the patients need to like essentially not die is my understanding.
That's my loose, very crass explanation of like FDA approvals.
It's like, well, maybe those two people were a specific blood type.
And like, that would be wild to me that, like, blood type could be the most important of the personalization because we all know it.
We've been dividing our world this way for years because of organ transplants.
So, I don't know.
I guess a long story short, I want to be my own doctor.
I want personalized medicine.
And, like, these are the two things I've been thinking about.
So, Adam, help me help me build the fill in the gap here.
When you're at Prospera, you're seeing like, and you're excited about head transplants and brain transplants and that sort of stuff like on the far edge.
but then when asked about sort of investment thesis and what's exciting you it's very practical
it's like i want to be able to take my own blood i want to track my own biomarkers i want an
ai to tell me like what that means for me in my own language and and give me like the next
how do you bridge the gap between you know kind of those things that are on the out there on the far edge
two very, very practical everyday type things when you're thinking about this space?
You know, leaders lead from the front is sort of how I'll start the explanation.
It's like I think Brian Johnson is a good example of decentralized science.
He is really taking it upon himself to become the most measured man.
And by doing so, we're all learning things.
And everyone's paying attention.
He's becoming this sort of like influencer around like health specifically.
That is a really good example of like you have to become there's almost like an extreme form of what the future looks like
And then what we do is we say okay, what where are the the things I'm uncomfortable with but what service do I want and in that you start to see the spectrum of your like the products that you would deliver to most people to make most people have a better life.
I that's sort of how I think of it.
I always think, like, I was very lucky and fortunate that Bitcoin was the first, like, technology I fell in love with because I was able to watch idealism turn into a revolution, right?
And it was, and I think that all of these essence, all of these movements.
start in a very similar way.
They start with the idealist and a spark.
And then there's, you know, the early followers, the zealots.
And then, but then the people who are maybe less idealist,
but they're just trying to solve their problems at home or their communities or whatever.
Right.
And they try to spread it to the world.
And that's where it's a, you know, it's a 10-year transition.
It's not an overnight transition.
But you take what you love and you try to either commercialize it or find where it fixes people's problems.
That's how I think about it.
I think of it.
It's not like a moment.
It's a, it's a 10-year timeline of like information transference.
And but the person who starts the movement is,
is the like epitome of that like it is the the peak and pinnacle and so you start to just see these beginnings
and these the you know it's these people who are bringing the future forward fast like future they're like
you talk to these people in prosper and you're like we are not speaking the same language like
you're making it sound so rational just to take someone's head off like it is incredible what what
So I always think about what's taboo also, like one of the you asked about the, how do I rationalize, like how do I think about these services at home versus, you know, taking people's heads off?
The first time you heard about, you know, getting into a stranger's car in order to get to another place, like, that was probably a weird thing.
The first time, hey, I'm going to stay in someone else's home.
Like, that was a weird thing, but that's Airbnb and Uber.
Like, there are these taboo, like, I wrote a blog post a long time ago that's like, you know,
what did i call them i called them like cultural flippinings that happen where it's like the
society actually says don't do don't sit uh don't play video games all day and then 10 years later
it's hey come to my school uh because we need you to play video games like it's uh you know
there's these social flippinnings that happen across organization across society um
Like the things that were tabooed 15 years ago are definitely not taboo today.
You know, this next generation, it has things that are not taboo that they believe are taboo that won't be taboo tomorrow.
It's that's sort of what I that's how I think about the transference of information is like it's not it's never right or wrong. I think that's you need to be uncertain about it and I think when you feel a little discomfort like when I walked in and they offered me a a like to get an implant I was like uncomfortable like I think
that most big movements make you feel uncomfortable.
They make a group of people feel uncomfortable.
And then you start to solve the discomfort through trust.
And that's why Uber is Uber and Airbnb is Airbnb.
Like they solved for trust.
And so we just need more people who are giving me the tools to be able to experiment at home
and then enabling the trust to believe that this ecosystem will work.
Okay, but what implant would you have gotten if you had gotten an implant?
Dude, the everyone has talked about the people who I've met who has who have magnets in the tips of their fingers
talk about it like they are reliving how to live in the world.
Like they've romanticized this idea of having magnets in their fingers to me.
So I'm like.
uh yeah i kind of want to be magnito you know like a little bit and uh that feels pretty cool like
i i can fathom the idea that you will sense magnet fields magnetic fields in places you wouldn't
expect and i think that that's interesting so probably magnetists in the fingers if i'm going to go for
one that was that was off the top though i like i'm uh
Yeah, I'd have to think harder about it.
But yeah, that's probably the one.
Everyone I've met who has that, they're all, they describe it in like a magical way.
And I'm like, oh, maybe I will do that.
I was reading about Teflon fibers that they're embedding into tying into muscle fiber to create stronger, stronger mesh-like effect, things like that.
That could be interesting.
Dude, stronger muscles with Teflon fibers?
Yeah.
Okay.
Right?
Like, yes.
No, but this is the thing where it's like everyone on this call is probably in some way being like, how would I do that?
Like, what how does that work?
And I think this group of people who's actually listening to this is probably like way more ahead.
And this is the early adopter crowd.
for the where a lot of people would be like that's impossible uh i think that this group is
probably like how would i do that and then there's another group that's already tried it like
and done it and so there's this you know it's the transference of information and like discomfort
that we have to get to but good good question what if i'm glad you asked me the implant
question i didn't realize i was there
And there might be even more if we all keep pushing those edges of cool things that can create these magical experiences.
I think the magnet one is super interesting because it's kind of this additional sense to interact with the world also in this kind of more scientific type of way that we just don't really have exposure to based on kind of our normal biological processing.
So...
really interested to see kind of other ways we can continue expanding how we but i also i also feel
like having magnets in your fingers would uh f up a lot of scientific experiments like completely completely
yeah uh we'd have to have a whole new cohort yeah so yeah so they're they're kind of like opting out
of doing the science sometimes like if there's any you know magnetic
system um yeah no i'm i am the most you know i i boost we're we try to follow the lead of where
i always talk always talk uh i generally talk about how i'm trying to i find my career is about
finding the soul of the rebellion
And the soul of the rebellion is the thing that's being overlooked by the market.
But the service of the institution is so bad.
And...
I just, and we, you know, we've never thought of ourselves as bio investors or science investors or anything.
Just like I never thought of myself as like a finance investor.
And when we were doing all this Bitcoin stuff, it was just these are the people who are going to build the future.
And that's what I deal with DISA.
D'Sai is just my, our word for the people who are going to build the future here.
And if I can accelerate just a little bit.
The cure for all these diseases that keep killing people, I feel like, you know, that would make this thing meaningful.
Like, boost would be very meaningful.
And I would love to do that.
So I'm like, wait, I'm in a position where I can help accelerate the system.
I can do the thing I've been doing for 12 years.
I can take the learnings.
And I can just make, I can make the future come a little faster.
When you were first starting to develop the D-Sy thesis or be exposed to maybe a growing number of startups under this category,
were there any moments that were kind of like this inflection point, maybe similar to this inflection point of
walking into Prospera and being offered implants that really kind of shifted your perspective.
Maybe it was a startup or an experience that you're like, oh, this sector is really the space you want to be focused on.
So I got to, I got to D-Syye in a couple different ways.
So the first way that I got there was actually crypto.
So it wasn't to do with science.
I was thinking, so I'd been in crypto, Bitcoin for 10 years.
And crypto adoption is actually very linear in my mind.
It's always about a creator class that finds a new business model.
And so at the beginning, it was idealists.
They found a business model to buy drugs, guns, all this different stuff.
Then it's the computer scientist who admires the work of the actual solving of the math, right?
And then the next phase was the finance people who understood how money works.
And so suddenly there's a new tool set.
There's a new tactic that they had to be able to sell.
The next phase, and so this is like, you know, over the course of eight years, the next phase was entertainment.
Right.
And so that was, so the finance people were sort of the defy trading, like all that stuff.
And then there's the NFT, which was with entertainment.
I actually don't think people gets enough credit for NFT, the rise of NFTs.
Even though we obviously auction something for $60 million, I still think that people don't talk about people enough because it's like,
It was a seismic shift for how artists thought about being able to make money on the internet.
And so I, and so one of the things was in 2022, 2023, when the markets were like collapsing, everything was down a thousand percent.
I was thinking, okay, well, what's the next creator class?
Where does this get adopted next?
Where is a creator class that's been under...
like not figured out how to make money was essentially my thought process and the thing i kept
coming to the conclusion on and the thing that i was able to start to research was science like
and there were a few people i thought it was bigger than it was two and a half years ago um and uh
So I thought it was bigger than it was two and a half years ago.
Sometimes I'm a little early on the like uptake.
And that, and you know, that's good.
I like doing that.
But it does take longer sometimes than I'm ready.
I think it should take.
And so I started to interview a bunch of these scientists because I was like, oh, I could make this more real for other people.
And every time I met someone, whether it was Herdow or research of or cerebron, like whoever,
whoever I was talking to molecule, like they were all really, really, really, really, really smart.
Like they were all driven.
They were all pissed at the academic institution.
And I was like, you know, spite's a pretty good energy source.
And so I was like, okay, okay, like this is like this is happening.
And then.
Yeah.
Separately, like in my ecosystem of founders, there were a lot of, so then if you look at there's, that's the crypto side.
If you look at the ecosystem of deal flow that Boost VC started to look at, we always think the people that Boost VC gets to see if what are the outliers where we don't normally, we're not like looking for this type of founder or this type of person.
But separately because in 2020, 2020, 2023, tons of money went to like Moderna and all these people for COVID vaccines.
And then everyone lost a bunch of money.
And so what dried up and was incredibly cold was the bio startup scene.
And it still is.
It's like incredibly cold.
And so we're like, okay, well, on one side, we have all these like incredible people who are looking for a new business model in this crypto weird ecosystem.
And they're all very bright and trying stuff.
And the other side, there's even more scientists who are trying to start up new companies and no one is letting them.
uh in the like venture scene and i'm like okay this is like pen up talent that is going to explode
and that's really where we play i play where there's just an incredible amount of talent and energy
and drive i am very fortunate that i think that it might be the ultimate like service to humanity
where and i'm you know
I also think, hey, I'm going to make a lot of money.
It's great.
Like, I think it's not, I think in science, by the way, one of the other things you can do for the service of this industry is,
is like talk about making money.
I think that's probably one of the things that has been suppressed in this ecosystem for decades.
Because of how they've designed the incentive structures, it's okay to make money.
Like you should go out, try to make some money.
Figure out how to survive.
Figure out how to be important.
Figure out how to like make money.
something that helps the end user, helps the service, and generates real value to the customer.
And that's what markets are.
Markets are a representation of that.
So I'm, you know, it sounds a little off-putting whenever I say, like, make scientists rich, probably.
But I'm really just trying to champion the idea of making money for scientists in science.
It, like...
It's been a drip financing system from the government down and like, hey, we can fund stuff.
Let's fund the good stuff.
Completely.
I feel like it shouldn't be a taboo idea that scientists should have money.
Which is hilarious.
Like, I know that I feel uncomfortable saying it right now.
Like, I know that scientists in this room are probably feeling a little uncomfortable about me just being like, hey, you should try to be rich.
Like, that's because I don't want to offend anyone, but I'm also like, hey, this is true.
You should.
Especially with the amount of impact that science and research and development in these
spaces can and already does have, there's such a big gap kind of between that impact, especially
at some of those earlier stages or in more experimental settings compared to what's happening
like within pharma companies.
Even though it's within kind of the same broader category, such a wide, widespread of different values or just kind of the priorities of operation.
Yeah, you can't do it only for the greed.
You need to have other reasons.
But like if you build value for the world, you will make money.
It's a narrative that's been created because.
that exists, especially in the space, where it's like, if you're making money, then you're not doing good.
And that's been created.
And what that means is it's virtuous to get a grant from the government, and it's not virtuous to take funding from a VC.
Like, that's the scientific calculation.
Like, that's the, that's the calculation.
Because it's like, oh, I'm getting a grant and I'm not going to try and make money because that would be evil.
And that is a narrative that is driven in the scientific community.
Yeah.
You know, I have a lot of crass thoughts on that.
But I also know that it's sort of like a systemic problem.
So it's not...
Yeah, it's a conditioned problem over a long period of time.
And I get it.
Like, I get it.
I was, you know, I was, I was in a university and a lot of people, like, shun the idea of people getting rich.
Like, and that, but then when you leave university, you realize all anyone's trying to do is make enough money to survive, right?
Like, they're all trying to do their best using the skill sets they have.
Um, right.
And money keeps me to stop the thing that gates the scientists from doing the thing they want to do.
I don't like the logic in me, you should at least test the hypothesis of, oh, maybe making money would be the good thing, you know?
Then I could do more science and help more people.
I don't know.
Let's do more science. I just want to do more science. I want to be. And I'm, you know, I'm very fortunate. I have a fund that allows us to try to do extreme things. Like I built a brand where like, you know, I have partners, limited partners and partners who are okay doing just the most outrageous because there's a chance that it could change how the world works.
And so that's, you know, that's what boost is.
Boost is this representation of just like, hey, why not try it?
Completely.
Are there any other mechanisms that you think projects would benefit from
from either an IP perspective or real world acid route that might have pros and cons,
either on security compliance costs?
Yeah.
I guess any other mechanisms that you think will help achieve some of this acceleration and get scientists to keep doing what they're good at and the right thing.
Look, there's kind of the SEC and the FINRA and the thing that are about tokenized securities.
The issue is not about tokenized securities, and it's not about those things.
It's don't take advantage of other people, don't steal from other people.
And like those two things are really what people are that the regulators are trying to solve for.
They try to overcomplicate it.
They try to make it sound like opaque so that if, you know, something changes, they can just like gun for someone.
But if those are really the rules, the rules are like,
Don't do those things.
And then do your best to make the best service.
Like I and I have,
everyone thinks that if they like,
there's some weird entity that is just standing there.
And if you,
you know,
you use tokens as a scientist,
they're going to arrest you.
Right.
And like,
that isn't true.
That,
that's not there.
you know,
they're not there for when you step out like they're there for if you break the law and if there's gray area
there is no law and so this tokenized gray area is like figure out where the balance is best companies
figure out this balance and are doing right and trying to work with the system there yeah i've
i've so many thoughts on this it's it's just i've been in the regulated spaces my whole career and it's
Fear is the mind killer.
If you are making a decision based off of a rule that doesn't exist, you are doing this wrong.
Like that is not a, none of these things, like it is not of truth.
And I see so many founders who are stopping before they start because they're like, oh,
tokens.
It's like tokens are here.
Like we've been using them.
I don't look, you know, the president launched a token.
I don't know how much more like validation you need.
Don't steal. Don't get greedy. Don't take advantage of. Do the science. Get the funding for the science.
I like I have I think we will see great things come out of this. We will see bad things come out of this.
Where you see the worst side of people when money is involved. But broadly, I always think about magnitude. So I always think, um,
Yeah, by the way, like I one of the stories that I've just followed for my whole whole career is coin base because I was an angel.
And another thing that Brian Armstrong doesn't get enough credit because and you know, even Jesse from Cracken, these people who have been in the market for a dozen years and they have stayed true.
to doing the right, making the right decision for the group at every turn.
And they have not tried to, they have not tried to take advantage of.
They have not tried to, they have stayed true to their vision, true to the market.
And like, that's something to look up to.
Those people are people to look up to.
They have stayed true to themselves, the market, the regulatory environment, the law.
I believe, you know.
Letter of the law, like do the law, but like whenever there's opakness, just do the right thing.
Do the good thing and don't take advantage of and don't get greedy.
I in order to last in a market in crypto for this long, the rule was don't get greedy.
Like I have, it's like you want to be proud of how you made the money in 10 years.
And that was something that someone we back said, like, you want to make a lot of money, but you want to be proud of how you made it.
And so it takes a long time to make money.
I think, you know, de-sized down on how many traders there are right now because it's not, you know, crypto goes down, everyone goes down, volume goes down.
And the...
And still, to me, it's like, hi, it's great.
Like, it exists.
That's the craziest thing.
So I think that like don't let regulation slow you down when you're starting things.
It's you are, no one, you're not doing anything important.
If someone yells at you, you're doing something important.
So figure out what the thing is that someone can yell at you for.
That's such a great guiding light.
Just try and get yielded at a little bit more, not in too kind of extreme of a way, still be kind of a good solid human along the way and not take advantage.
Don't break the law, but...
Don't break the law, but if they're...
Dude, I've been in crypto for 12 years and it's like, hey, the people who figured out they...
They figured out where there was an edge.
The people who succeeded figured out where there was an edge that they could win in,
but it wasn't breaking any law.
And they weren't taking advantage of anyone.
And like that was, that's been consistent the whole way.
They knew where the puck was heading.
NFTs, open C, you know, gateways are very, very powerful.
So like if you want to be a gateway like Coinbase or OpenC or any of these things.
But yeah, it's just.
There are moments where it looks easier to just take the money and run.
Dude, think of how many chances Jesse from Cracken or Brian from Coinbase or whatever had
of like doing the greedy wrong thing.
And they wanted to build a better financial infrastructure.
They didn't care.
It's not that they don't care about money.
It's that they care more about building trust in the market.
And trust in the market is the most powerful thing.
Um, like, yeah, I mean, getting to the point where like, if Brian asked me for anything, I will do it.
Like, you want trust like that.
You want to be able to develop trust where, like, someone asks you for something, they do it immediately.
No, no strings attached.
There's that great scene in town.
Have you seen, I'm not saying that this is the level.
This is the level of trust, but not the, like, you do.
And it's like Ben Affleck goes to his friend, and he's like, I, I, you know,
Give me your keys.
We're going to drive somewhere and we're going to hurt some people and you can't ask me any questions.
And he goes, who's driving?
It's like there's this amazing city in town that represents the ultimate trust.
But also they're on the evil side.
So I'm like, it's probably not the best example in this meeting.
But like the high level of trust, you want a high level of trust.
Yeah.
So go for trust, but maybe don't hurt people.
Yeah, sorry.
It's just, it's just like such a great scene in this movie.
I don't know why I think about it when I think about, like, just absolute trust in two characters.
That's, like, the scene I think about.
But I don't always think about the fact that they're about to go, like, hurt people, you know?
Yeah.
So Jesse and Brian are great examples because of just what they've been able to do.
But, man, I sit back and I'm just like, who on the science side, like think about the impact of the founders of that quality who build the projects in science around health, around longevity, around health.
you know, what, what, what, whatever it is, like, there is just going to be, I, I can't wait for the
next several years where the projects of that magnitude, the gateway projects like you described,
who are going to be, be onboarding people into personalized medicine or, you know, onboarding
people into self-discovery of their own autoimmune diseases, things like that. I just, I think there's,
how cool is that? Like, talk about living in the future, like everyone hears at the beginning and
There's going to be a couple moments over the next three years where there's a new tool that everyone in this room is experimenting with that is that they trust that allows them to get more information than they used to get.
Like, that's so exciting.
100%.
100%.
Well, this is awesome.
Hey, also, you know, feel free to reach out through DMs.
If anyone has any questions or you're pitching a company where we're.
We are, we have a fun.
We're trying to invest.
But also, I'm just interested if you guys have weird things you're thinking about.
I like to hear about the edges.
So, dude, we were, we, so Aaron and I put on this,
Aaron is like an amazing.
community organized.
She brings together the entire D-Syce space,
and she's been amazing at this.
We always talk about things.
But your conversation about today has got me thinking, Aaron,
like, we should do a space here where we bring on the projects who are like on that,
like cyborg implant.
Like on the edge.
Because I think we could do like a really cool group of people to come and bring like just the wildest ideas.
Yeah.
Dude, you should definitely.
And the funny thing about those people is they don't think they're on the edge, right?
Like, they're, like, very practical about the, like, they're like, this is the answer.
Like, why is no one else knowing this, right?
Right.
And like, and it's such a beautiful thing to see.
It's like, you know, it seems irrational to the average person, including me.
And the, but then when you talk to them, it's like very practical.
It's like a practical solution.
They're like, this is obviously the way that we need to pursue the science.
It's awesome.
So, yes, I think you should do that.
Bring together like two to three of these and just be like, hey, what gets us from where?
Yes.
How do we mitigate discomfort?
Yeah.
Completely. And I think these conversations are at least a component of that as well as more of those in-person connections as well. At the beginning of the space, we were talking about some of the upcoming D-SI gatherings and really excited to have more of these different overlaps, especially with folks.
outside of the kind of core D-size space or whatever sectors each of us are building in,
that we just think it's typical and normal to be thinking about,
oh, how might we do head transplants or whatever else we're all up to?
So I'm really excited to see those connections.
Yeah, I think that just the high density, like I wasn't expecting to be in like,
the jungle of Honduras getting pitched the most free ideas.
Like that was the most surprising part, like the setting, the context, and then I'm like,
these are the most talented people pursuing the craziest ideas I've ever heard.
That was awesome.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Do you think that, or what mechanisms do you think might need to be in place to enable more
of that?
other, like, hubs, different cities that might already be established at scale, whether that's
different biotech or, like, just technology hubs in general, like San Francisco or London or
Boston or New York. Are there any other mechanisms kind of for that in-person gathering component that
you hope you see more of to accelerate.
You know, Boost originally, we actually housed companies.
We provided housing and office space.
Hagerhouses are a good way of congregating those people in order to like have them live on top of each other and figure out like where the core beliefs are of this big movement.
It can work most places in microcosm.
The thing that surprised it just, yeah, it just surprised me.
It was like awesome because it felt more like they live this together fish.
I don't know.
It was very, it was, I don't know if there's any place that I think longer stayed places.
So like.
Not necessarily living in Prospero.
You could if you want.
Like I think that's great.
But I think like they've been doing these kind of, you know, weekend events or one week events.
I think probably a three-month stay where there's like investors and entrepreneurs on site would work in a location where you're bringing them all together around one topic.
So like if it's a D-Sai or if it's a because you can, it's enough time that you can actually make progress.
We've seen it at Booth.
So I think that would work.
Cool. Yeah, definitely hope to see more of that. One space we mentioned towards the beginning is the Oroverse Hub in Boston, and hopefully we'll see more things popping up in other places.
What is that? What's that?
Yeah, it's basically a hacker space focused on D-Syce, so connecting into the traditional institutional scientific community there, and then bridging that over into the D-Sy space as well.
I know Rodrigo down below, he's helping to drive some of those efforts forward.
And there are some other collaborations in the work as well, so...
Definitely keep following along to take some of that.
I think Hagger houses are really, really valuable in this specific way where it's like whatever the most.
Because otherwise you feel insane by yourself, right?
Like you're just by yourself wherever you are feeling like, hey, this is the obvious thing we should all be doing.
But there's no one else I can talk to about it.
And so great things like this podcast or spaces, but where you're like, you don't feel insane.
And then hacker houses are like the physical extension of that where you don't feel insane with others.
Absolutely.
I feel like there are so many great quotes and takeaways from this space today.
Like don't break the law, but keep pushing things forward.
Yeah.
And like, be insane, but with other people.
Yeah, like, that's the beauty of, like, Prospera 4D size.
Like, the law is kind of being written right now.
And, like, obviously don't hurt or anyone, people.
But, like, do the, like, solve the problem you're trying to solve.
Like, you were put on this planet to do the thing.
Do the thing.
Definitely. And boost has been such a good accelerant in making or allowing and encouraging,
supporting so many projects to actually do those things. So if anyone has joined partway through
the convoy here, definitely go check out.
or follow along Adam Draper, he's always posting a ton of awesome takes across the D-Sy ecosystem
and things he's seeing from boost perspective.
And if you're building, reach out.
That's how cool connections get made and things can accelerate and kind of be implemented into the world.
Dude, well, hey, thank you guys so much.
I'm sorry I was a little late.
That was on me.
But I, if anyone wants to reach out, I would, my email is Adam atboost.Vc.
I'm more than happy to respond to all emails.
Also, we're on Twitter.
You can do that on Twitter.
Adam, thank you so much, man.
Cool. Later, guys.
Thanks for coming on.
Thanks for having me.
Have me again.
Yes, absolutely.
So many more convos to be had.
And if you join partway through, definitely jump back to the beginning to listen to the rest of the convoy here with Adam Draper.
If you know other investors as well who are interested in D.C.
Or have invested in multiple D.C.
Projects.
definitely go invite them and we'd love to have them on this space as well or do a panel from that investor perspective because that's part of this equation to help us keep building all the cool projects we're building.
One of the cool, oh sorry, go ahead.
Feel free to keep going off this point.
Okay, awesome.
One of the cool things that I thought he mentioned that is super relevant to the audience here is that Boost has a program where for a very, very low level, like, lift, they're willing to like basically give you $50,000 to try something.
And I think that that, I've talked to several projects who have said to me, man, if I just had 50 grand or 100 grand or whatever it is, I could complete like this test or this piece of the puzzle that would prove my thesis.
That would put me in a place to be able to like do the next thing.
And I think if Booth is putting themselves in a place to be willing to do that, I think that might be an awesome thing.
opportunity for many of the projects in these
these size space to take
available so I just wanted to like highlight that
and mention it and definitely DM Adam
and reach out to boost and like make that connection
Yeah, he's a great resource kind of on that side of the equation.
The other side of the equation with next-gen builders interested in D-Sai or wanting to come into the space is a community that Hannah from Peptide Dio is leading up called D-Sai Next, and we'll have her on the space next week.
So if there are any either...
early career scientists that might be pivoting away from academia, interested in building out some type of a startup, or using some of these D-Sive rails to accelerate their work.
maybe it's somebody you know from a lab or other partnerships.
Definitely invite them to join in on that space where we'll be kind of covering all the good ways to get engaged.
And so then there's a space for people at kind of earlier on to be insane together while they build out awesome things to advance science and the world forward.
In the meantime, we'll be back here on Friday as well with what did you get done this week.
So that's a weekly session for you to be able to share out different updates from your project.
And also any upcoming events for people to keep on the radar as well.
And a great way to just...
Stay in the know of what's happening here as well as share out.
So investors, other projects can know how to best engage or support you or partner in helping you take those next steps forward.
So definitely join in Friday and back here next week, Wednesday.
I know there are a bunch of other awesome D-Sy spaces on the lineup in the meantime, too.
So I'll be looking forward to seeing you on those in the meantime as well.
Thank you so much, everybody.
Thanks, Erin.
You are amazing and was an awesome, awesome space.
Amazing.
Thanks so much, everyone.
Have a great day.
