Ventures

This is my first conversation with Mike Grace, co-founder and CEO of Longshot.Longshot is building giant space guns.Timestamps:(00:00:00) Technological inertia(00:02:07) Why rockets won(00:04:36) The V3 cannon(00:07:48) Von Braun and the space race(00:09:53) Why a better rocket isn't enough(00:16:48) Survive until you're lucky(00:18:21) Making a dent in history(00:20:10) A thousand new Americas(00:26:26) Why wealthy societies resist new things(00:35:07) Going bankrupt(00:37:41) Making every kilo count(00:40:48) Companies become their incentives(00:45:00) SpaceX dominance(00:48:28) Reputation matters(00:50:38) Capital as a moat(00:52:42) Making the gun cheaper(00:55:11) Real estate requirement(01:03:21) The path to orbit(01:06:55) Spend money to save time(01:15:22) Mike's hardest decision

This is my first conversation with Laurence Allen, co-founder and CEO of Terranova.Terranova builds robots that raise land by autonomously injecting wood chips underground. The company is preparing to expand its facility to 26,000 square feet and put its machines in the hands of construction contractors. The ambition is to protect cities from flooding and expand entire countries' coastlines. Timestamps:(00:00:00) Increasing Injections(00:01:47) Why wood chips(00:06:31) Building robots from steel(00:10:16) Economics of Terraforming(00:13:02) Direct air capture economics(00:16:39) Constraints(00:19:06) Owning your own destiny(00:22:33) The hardware J curve(00:26:22) Expanding Terranova's factory(00:27:36) Construction is the bottleneck(00:30:18) Winning with your friends(00:34:49) Printing land(00:38:22) Land arbitrage at scale(00:40:49) Scaling Terranova(00:42:58) Building a generational company(00:47:17) The cost of hiring fast(00:51:18) Laurence’s hardest decision

This is my first conversation with Akhil Voorakkara, co-founder and CEO of Ulysses.Ulysses is building the ocean company.Timestamps(00:00:00) An engineering family(00:04:58) Independent thinking(00:10:03) Ruthless prioritisation(00:13:27) Put the fries in the bag(00:23:09) Scaling speed and ownership(00:31:25) Building the ocean company(00:32:36) True vertical Integration(00:36:12) Be your own biggest customer(00:37:45) Role of a CEO(00:39:49) Building Ulysses HQ2(00:46:35) The blue wall(00:50:25) The Ulysses subscription(00:53:51) Scaling the fleet(00:57:05) Opening the ocean to civilisation(00:58:02) Akhil's hardest decision

This is my first conversation with Robin Renz, co-founder and CEO of Hyperdrives.Hyperdrives is manufacturing super-efficient, highly power-dense, low-cost electric motors by solving their cooling problem. Their new engineering facility enables the company to iterate on the production line for the first time, in pursuit of manufacturing millions of motors. Timestamps:(00:00:00) Hyperdrives(00:03:35) Ambition exceeding comfort(00:06:02) Growing up in a car workshop(00:07:37) Making electric motors smaller and cheaper(00:10:41) Innovation in electric motors(00:12:05) The heat constraint(00:17:54) Building for the masses(00:21:30) Electric vs combustion(00:24:05) Products vs licensing(00:27:03) Working with automotive OEMs(00:34:18) Electrifying mines, ships and aircraft(00:40:05) Chinese urgency(00:49:40) Faster iteration wins(00:51:55) Feedback as a founder(00:54:22) Choosing the right partner(00:57:54) Scaling production and the team(01:00:55) Hire for attitude. Train for skill.(01:03:30) Radical ownership(01:08:55) Reindustrialising Europe(01:11:23) Robin's hardest decision

This is my first conversation with Mollie Claypool, co-founder and CEO of AUAR.AUAR builds and operates microfactories that produce timber panels for homebuilding. The team is preparing its first V3 deployments from its 11,000-square-foot facility in London, working toward deploying 1,000 microfactories by 2030.Timestamps:(00:00:00) Why the West has a housing shortage(00:03:55) Timber and microfactories(00:07:50) Prove by doing(00:10:12) The Capex problem(00:12:49) What homebuilders care about(00:14:37) MasterBuilder(00:19:37) Winning over builders and site managers(00:21:42) Redesigning the team for scale(00:24:27) Building the factory that builds factories(00:30:06) Filtering for ownership(00:37:39) Necessity of good design(00:39:05) Renovating homes and old warehouses(00:43:44) Biggest unexpected problems(00:46:50) Deciding what needs her attention(00:50:28) Being a one-two punch(00:53:29) Thinking in parts and systems(00:57:40) Not being the hero(00:59:32) Scaling to 1,000 microfactories by 2030(01:03:23) Rabid Urgency(01:06:12) Her mother’s only advice

My first conversation with Julian Rothenbuchner, co-founder and CEO of Tumbleweed.In June 2026, Tumbleweed became the first Austrian commercial satellite, building and launching Oasis Alpha in under nine months, as they scale to industrialising microgravity. Timestamps(00:00:00) The anti-gravity machine(00:02:49) Enduring pain and complexity for simplicity(00:08:41) Building a satellite in nine months(00:13:07) Gradient descent and highly capable people plus attritional environments(00:15:52) Oasis Alpha Pre-sales(00:17:43) Pre-certification(00:20:14) Convincing SpaceX(00:22:53) Integration hell(00:24:22) Antigravity as an industrial resource(00:28:57) Not becoming a pharma company(00:33:28) Filtering for scary(00:36:36) Gradient descent to Mars(00:44:48) Accelerating cycle time(00:50:27) Scaling to larger projects(00:56:30) Irreverence for the impossible(01:04:23) Delete before optimising(01:06:45) Failure is tutition

My first conversation with Marnix Meersman, co-founder and CEO of Arqus Aerospace.Arqus is developing lasers to dazzle and destroy spacecraftTimestamps(00:00:00) Modern warfare's evolution(00:05:35) Becoming an aerospace company(00:06:45) Lindbergh(00:09:31) Using anger to move faster(00:10:55) How satellites are attacked(00:18:48) A 1% hit rate is enough(00:23:09) Why blind drones cannot return home(00:25:12) Making the laser small enough to carry(00:27:19) Bullshit radar(00:39:17) Packing the company into a Tesla(00:42:27) Bringing space qualification in-house(00:44:29) Building a clean room in six days(00:46:48) Manufacturing terrestrial lasers(00:51:43) Space-Weapons(00:57:06) Leaving the European Space Agency (ESA)(00:58:24) Optimising for cool(01:00:04) Space Police(01:05:43) Building Earth's suit of armour(01:11:45) The space-weapons arms race(01:15:11) R&D on Supercontinuum lasers

My First Conversation with Ali Mitchell, Odyssey VenturesTimestamps00:00:00 Work is life00:02:23 Building the Ninian oil platform00:09:10 The big red bus theory00:11:47 Learning human clock speed at dunnhumby00:16:22 Betting everything on Huddle.com00:20:21 Mortgaging the house for Flow00:23:01 Garrett Lord’s extreme grit00:25:46 Slaughtering sacred cows00:35:08 Booting up Silicon Roundabout00:39:14 Bringing Silicon Valley back to London00:42:38 The era of the PhD founder00:44:55 Backing founders, not technology00:47:39 Turning a farm into a deep-tech laboratory00:49:40 Running on startups & adrenaline00:51:49 The body is a battery00:53:43 Buying back the Handshake bet00:56:22 Putting founders before the fund00:58:00 Staying the underdog00:59:26 Global on day one01:01:17 The never-ending game

My First Conversation with Mark Stokes, Co-founder & CEO of MagdriveTimestamps00:00:00 Studying classics00:02:14 Meeting Dr Thomas Clayson00:05:07 Why satellite propulsion stopped evolving00:07:01 Turning metal into plasma with pulsed power00:11:28 The Battle of Salamis00:13:27 Building the shipping company for space00:16:08 Building gas stations at Lagrange points00:18:00 Science fiction that inspired Magdrive00:19:09 Iain M. Banks & post-scarcity abundance00:21:41 Why humans should live in orbital habitats00:24:38 Catalan independence & the Spanish Civil War00:31:10 Moving entire cities through space00:38:19 Scaling from physics to manufacturing00:41:15 Go Rogue mission00:44:29 Shrinking production from six months to six weeks00:47:21 Powering space construction with nuclear reactors00:48:15 Hiring Oxford’s nuclear fusion engineers00:52:17 Radical independence00:55:21 Saying yes, then figuring it out00:56:47 Testing every engineering brainwave00:58:13 Giving engineers autonomy00:59:49 Art as an antidote to stagnation

My first conversation with co-founders Fran Infante Aguirre & Tom Hubregtsen of Voltrac. Timestamps00:00:00 The Farming Labour Crisis00:01:49 Farming as a Service00:03:27 Leaving the family business00:04:57 Building the first chassis in the family shed00:08:02 Hardware at software speed00:13:25 Rebuilding the tractor from first principles00:16:47 Building Thor in ten months00:19:56 Raising €7 million with a broken shoulder00:29:55 Breaking hard problems into small steps00:34:08 Negotiating with kidnappers00:40:15 Stress testing the vehicle 00:41:27 One vehicle for farms & front lines00:46:10 Putting Thor on Mars00:50:02 Road to 10000:52:43 Learning manufacturing from Grandad00:56:12 The dog years01:01:54 A Language of Their Own01:08:15 The Limits of Velocity01:10:31 Killing John DeereLinksVoltrac: https://voltrac.eu/Fran Infante Aguirre: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fran-infante-aguirre/Tom Hubregtsen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thubregtsen/