Our KPI Is Death — Chris Kantrowitz 5/6

Chris Kantrowitz and I turn venture fundraising inside out: interview the VCs, show them who you really are, quit nickel-and-diming small funds on carry, and back strange ideas before consensus catches up.

Chris Kantrowitz and I get into Quorum Earth’s fungus-based plan to save bees from Varroa mites, then follow the science, regulation, and scrappy manufacturing behind a biopesticide company whose KPI is death.

Chris Kantrowitz and I trace the hustle that got him hired by Sony at 14, then connect dyslexia, ADHD, and instinct to the unlikely path from early video-game testing to Quorum Earth’s bee-saving biopesticides.

Chris Kantrowitz and I get into accidental authenticity: what Frank Zappa's house taught him about sycophants, how fame and money distort friendship, and how he hustled Gobbler through the venture clock.

Chris Kantrowitz and I get into the hidden technology of language: what remote work strips out of company culture, what his non-speaking son taught him about communication, and why telepathy, dreams, and the brain deserve serious experiments.

Chris Kantrowitz and I compare pre-deal venture investing with music lawyers and Hollywood agents, then get into hacker-advising WarGames, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the CAA machine Andreessen Horowitz borrowed.

Byron Reese and I trace how stories shape what people fear and build—from biased machine learning and Hollywood’s dystopian AI to Star Trek, Agora, and the fight for a more optimistic technological future.

Byron Reese and I follow the invention of probability into computer chips, then ask how stories, simulations, spreadsheets, sensors, and shared machine learning can help us choose a better future.

Byron Reese chases a weird question—why are there no Bronze Age beavers?—through Homo erectus, cave art, language, and the human superorganism he calls Agora.

Byron Reese and I unpack Infinite Progress, The Fourth Age, and Wasted—then chase recycling’s perverse incentives back to the real technical problem: building clean, cheap energy.