“If you build it, they won't come,” Bison Ventures co-founder Tom Biegala said on the Equity podcast on Wednesday. The phrase is an internal mantra at Bison, an early-stage venture firm betting on “frontier technology” companies building in materials science, robotics, biotechnology, climate change and sustainability. This is intended to discourage founders from solving problems they believe exist.
According to Biegala, Bison's mantra is, “When these entrepreneurs aren't talking to their customers and testing their hypotheses around their pain points, value propositions, and product specifications, we're keenly aware that that's a big red flag for us.'' I'll let you.''
So how can founders scale frontier technology? Today on Equity, Rebecca Beran asks Viegala and his co-founder Ben Hemani to find out more.
Listen to the full episode to hear Rebecca and Bison's founding team discuss:
Even though AI is at the heart of modern drug discovery, why is it not a “magic bullet” for biotech companies? Which robot startups are attracting investor attention? How to find, and how not to find, product-market fit when building frontier technologies. When to look for venture funding rather than grants.
Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo and posted every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and all casts. You can also follow stocks × and threads (@EquityPod).