DeepTech Series Ep # 1: Making Global-Scale Impact Through Deep Tech—with Ian Rountree of Cantos

What inspires a venture firm to focus on deep tech?

 

Ian Rountree is Founder and General Partner at Cantos, a venture fund that invests in potentially world-changing deep tech startups. 

 

Cantos focuses on hardware and bio investing at the intersection of climate and industrials, life sciences and AI, aerospace and defense, and next-generation computing.

 

On this episode of Boost VC, Ian joins us to share his definition of deep tech and explain why he underwrites technical risk rather than market risk.

 

Ian discusses the value of founder empathy, challenging VCs to see the entrepreneur as their customer and LPs as shareholders in the portfolio.

 

Listen in to understand what drives Ian to make a global-scale impact, backing founders who tackle climate change, disease, armed conflict, poverty and existential risk.

 

Topics Covered

 

Ian’s biggest accomplishment before age 20

• Getting Vanderbilt to accept him off waitlist 
• Refused to take NO as answer

 

Ian’s take on who is the customer in venture capital

• Founder = customer
• LP = shareholder

 

What inspired Ian to focus on deep tech

• Tackle big problems, e.g.: climate change, poverty
• Deep tech startups outperformed rest of portfolio

 

How losing his father early informs Ian’s work

• Feels hard deadline to career and life
• Wants to play small role in changing world

 

The criteria Ian uses to decide if a startup is ‘important’

• Nonzero chance of global-scale impact
• Tackles climate, disease, armed conflict or poverty

 

How Ian defines deep tech

• Taking technical risk rather than market risk
• Cantos specializes in hardware and bio investing

 

How Ian thinks about growing the Cantos organization

• From solo GP to 4 equal partners
• ‘Fire’ himself by age 55

 

What’s behind Benchmark’s equal partnership structure

• Set up for generational turnover from jump
• May also be consequence of early success

 

Why a deep tech VC doesn’t need to be technical

• Ask expert if violation of physics involved
• Startups that change world challenge status quo

 

What differentiates software investing from deep tech

• Software involves market risk, easy to pivot
• Deep tech involves technical risk, hard to pivot

 

Ian’s diligence criteria

• Size of market, potential margins at scale
• Founder who understands their WHY

 

Connect with Ian Rountree

 

Cantos https://cantos.vc/

Cantos on Twitter https://twitter.com/cantos

Ian on Twitter https://twitter.com/ianrountree

Ian on LinkedIn    https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianrountree/

Near Frontier Podcast https://nearfrontier.castos.com/

 

Resources

 

Fred Wilson’s Blog ‘The VC’s Customer’ https://avc.com/2005/11/the_vcs_custome/

Fred Wilson’s Blog ‘The VC’s Customer (Continued)’ https://avc.com/2009/07/the-vcs-customer-continued/

Radiant https://www.radiantnuclear.com/

Tim Urban’s TED Talk on Procrastination https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_proc