When Jamie Gar graduated from Stanford University in 2007 with a Masters in Aeronatics, there was one place he wanted to go next: the Desert.
Specifically, the Mohab Desert. A company called Scaled Composites has spent years developing experimental aircraft on its dry land, and Gall wanted it.
He may have tried to get a more traditional aerospace job, but Gar was worried about “working for five years at Latch.” But with scaled composites? “I knew to build something, and I'll do it soon, and I'll be a graduate of a university who owns the actual results,” he said.
Two years later, Gull jumped over to SpaceX where he helped make the Falcon 9 Rocket reusable. It is a major milestone in the company's history and the foundation that built an invaluable business.
Currently, Gull is preparing for a new challenge. We will launch an early stage deep technical fund called WaveFunctionVentures. Last week, he closed $15.1 million for the Wave feature's first fund, which is already out.
Gall has invested nine investments in startups spanning industries such as nuclear energy (deep nuclear fission), humanoid robots (Persona AI), and of course aerospace (broadship industry). He told TechCrunch he expects to make around 25 or pre-seed investments from the fund. (Gull rejected the name of Anchor LP and said that with support from other funds and “large family offices,” the rest of the fund was filled by wealthy individuals.)
The emergence of Wave functions occurs when deep technology funding is on the rise, and is partly supported by the growing attention in areas such as aerospace and defense. Earlier this year, a new Silicon Valley-based deep technology fund called Leitmotif broke the cover with $300 million in capital from the Volkswagen Group, part of a bid to lift and manufacture US and European hardware and manufacturing startups.
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It's an environment that appears to be ripe for someone with a background like Gall, not just his past as a skilled aerospace engineer.
Near the end of time with SpaceX in 2016, Gull launched Angel Investing and bets on companies like Boom Supersonic, K2 Space and Varda. He also co-founded Tallinnair for Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (EVTOL) as part of Y Combinator's Winter 2020 batch, becoming a venture partner for YC's Pioneer Fund. (Tallinn was acquired in 2023 by another EVTOL company, Ampaire.)
Gull wants to quickly prototype all of this variety of experiences for use in Wave functions, establish a startup, establish an Angel Investing, and install an Engel Investing.
“I can really take advantage of it and help all founders get through those early stages when things are the kind of thing that is the most uncertainty, and then help them build their businesses,” he said.
Gall also believes deep technology will be a place of great returns in the next 10-20 years. Startups in this space may need more capital in advance, he said, but they can leverage funds other than government contracts and asset-backed loans to scale and establish a stronger moat than software companies.
It takes time to reach those big returns and Gal is fine with that. He began his career as an avid builder, but he also knows the value of patience.
When he was in scaled composites 15 years ago, one of the projects he worked on was Stratolaunch, the largest plane in the world at the time. It was a very complicated aircraft and remained developed long after Gall moved to SpaceX and beyond.
It wasn't until 2019 that Gull and his Tallinn co-founder Evan Mucasey were planning to head to “fly-in” (a cool plane not a car show) at Mojave Airport.
“I called a friend and said, 'What time should I be there for the plane show?' And he said, '6am,' which doesn't make sense,” Gar said. He had no idea what his friends were hinting at, but he believed it was worth it early on.
Sure enough, as the seagulls and Mussey approached the airport, they parked on the runway and had a Stratoranche prepared for flight. They landed and, according to Gar's memories, Stratran took off after 15 minutes.
“I think it's almost ten years after I've been working on a computer screen,” Gar said. “It was wild.”