Investing in the Long Waves

Throughout human history, transformative technological innovations have arrived in distinct waves, fundamentally reshaping society and creating unprecedented economic value. Today, we stand at the dawn of perhaps the most significant technological transformation yet - the Era of Autonomy. This sixth major wave of innovation will fundamentally reshape our world through the convergence of three revolutionary forces: autonomous systems, intelligent infrastructure, and machine-to-machine commerce.

To understand the magnitude of this opportunity, we must first understand how technological long waves have historically created wealth. Since the Industrial Revolution, each wave has followed a similar pattern: a cluster of breakthrough technologies emerges, enabling new forms of economic activity that transform existing industries while creating entirely new ones. These waves typically span 40-60 years, known as Kondratieff waves or "long waves," named after the economist who first identified these patterns in the 1920s.

Consider how previous waves transformed society:

The First Wave (1780s-1850s) harnessed steam power to mechanize production, particularly in textiles. This created the first factories, fundamentally changing how goods were produced and establishing the foundations of industrial capitalism.

The Second Wave (1850s-1900s) built upon this foundation with railways and steel production, enabling mass transportation and construction at unprecedented scales. This wave connected markets and enabled the first truly national economies.

The Third Wave (1900s-1940s) electrified the world, bringing power to homes and factories alike. The development of electrical engineering and chemical manufacturing created entirely new industries and modernized existing ones.

The Fourth Wave (1940s-1990s) brought the age of mass production to its peak through automobiles, petrochemicals, and aerospace advances. This wave democratized personal transportation and created the modern consumer economy.

The Fifth Wave (1990s-2020s) digitized our world through personal computers, the internet, and mobile devices. This information age connected humanity and created trillion-dollar technology companies by digitalizing commerce, communication, and entertainment.

Each wave built upon the achievements of previous waves while introducing fundamentally new capabilities. The wealth created by each successive wave has typically exceeded that of all previous waves combined - a pattern we expect to continue with the sixth wave.

The coming Era of Autonomy represents a fundamental shift in how machines interact with the physical world and with each other. Unlike previous waves that primarily augmented human capabilities, this wave will create systems that can operate independently of human intervention, making autonomous decisions and engaging in direct economic activity with other machines.

Three key forces distinguish this wave and form the foundation of our investment thesis:

The rise of autonomous systems represents more than just automation - it marks the emergence of truly independent machine actors capable of sensing, deciding, and acting in the physical world. These systems will range from industrial robots and self-driving vehicles to smart infrastructure and autonomous drone networks.
The edge intelligence revolution will distribute computing power throughout our physical environment, enabling real-time decision-making where it matters most. This shift from centralized to distributed intelligence will create new centers of economic activity around data concentration points.
The machine economy will emerge as autonomous systems begin trading directly with each other, creating new forms of value exchange and economic activity that operate at machine speed. This will give rise to entirely new business models and markets that exist primarily to serve machine-to-machine commerce.

The convergence of these forces will create opportunities that dwarf those of previous waves. Just as the internet created trillion-dollar companies by digitizing human interactions, the autonomous revolution will create unprecedented value by digitizing and automating the physical world itself.

Our mission is to identify, invest in, and actively build the companies that will lead this transformation. We believe the opportunities presented by this wave will create extraordinary returns for those who understand its dynamics and position themselves accordingly. The following sections detail our investment strategy, focus areas, and approach to value creation in this new era.

Understanding and Investing in Technological Long Waves

The ability to identify, understand, and invest in technological long waves requires a sophisticated framework that goes beyond traditional venture capital approaches. Our investment thesis is built on deep historical analysis of how these waves create and distribute wealth, combined with a forward-looking understanding of technological convergence.

The Nature of Technological Long Waves

Technological long waves are not merely clusters of innovation - they represent fundamental reorganizations of economic and social systems. Each wave follows a distinct pattern of emergence, acceleration, and maturation that creates predictable investment opportunities throughout its lifecycle.

The emergence phase is characterized by breakthrough technologies that often appear disconnected or experimental. During the steam engine's early development, few could envision how it would transform manufacturing, transportation, and urban development. Similarly, early computers were seen as specialized calculating machines rather than the foundation of a digital revolution.

The acceleration phase begins when these technologies reach critical adoption thresholds and begin reinforcing each other. The combination of standardized railroad gauges, reliable telegraphs, and mass steel production in the 1850s created an explosion of economic activity far greater than any single innovation could achieve. We see similar dynamics today in the convergence of artificial intelligence, advanced sensors, and distributed computing.

The maturation phase consolidates these gains while laying groundwork for the next wave. The mass production techniques perfected for automobiles enabled the rapid manufacturing of computers, while digital technology is now enabling the transition to autonomous systems.

Four Principles for Long Wave Investing

1. Understanding Multi-Decade Economic Cycles

Successful long wave investing requires understanding how technological advancement translates into economic value creation over extended periods. While individual technologies may rise and fall, the underlying wave creates sustained opportunities across decades.

Consider how the automobile wave created value: First through car manufacturers, then through oil companies and parts suppliers, later through suburban real estate development and shopping malls, and finally through fast food chains and drive-through services. Each phase opened new investment opportunities while building upon previous developments.

The autonomous wave will likely follow similar patterns. Initial opportunities in core technologies like artificial intelligence and sensors will give way to applications in specific industries, followed by new business models built on autonomous infrastructure, and eventually entirely new forms of economic activity in the machine economy.

2. The Physical-Digital Convergence

The most valuable opportunities in the autonomous wave will emerge at the intersection of physical infrastructure and digital intelligence - what we call the "phygital" realm. This convergence represents a fundamental shift from previous waves.

The digital wave primarily created value by digitalizing existing human activities - commerce, communication, entertainment. The autonomous wave will create value by digitalizing the physical world itself. This means embedding intelligence into infrastructure, enabling direct machine-to-machine interaction, and creating new forms of automated economic activity.

Consider a modern warehouse. The digital wave brought inventory management software and online ordering systems. The autonomous wave brings self-driving forklifts that coordinate with robotic picking systems, automated loading docks that communicate directly with delivery vehicles, and intelligent storage systems that optimize themselves in real-time. Each physical system becomes an intelligent actor in a broader autonomous economy.

3. Data Gravity Dynamics

Data gravity - the tendency for data to attract applications, services, and additional data - will play a crucial role in the autonomous wave. As systems generate more data, they create gravitational centers that pull in additional economic activity, creating self-reinforcing cycles of value creation.

This dynamic is already visible in autonomous vehicle development, where companies with the most real-world driving data can create better systems, attract more partners, gather more data, and further improve their systems. Similar patterns will emerge across industries as autonomous systems generate and consume increasing amounts of data.

Understanding data gravity helps identify promising investment opportunities:

Companies positioned to capture and control strategic data flows
Technologies that enable efficient data processing at the edge
Platforms that can create and sustain data network effects
Infrastructure that supports data-intensive autonomous operations

4. Innovation Frontier Focus

The most valuable opportunities often emerge at the boundaries between established infrastructure and emerging technologies. These innovation frontiers represent areas where new capabilities intersect with existing needs, creating conditions for rapid value creation.

For example, the combination of existing warehouse infrastructure with autonomous systems creates immediate opportunities for efficiency gains and cost reduction. The integration of edge computing with industrial equipment enables predictive maintenance and optimization. The application of machine learning to energy grid management enables better renewable energy integration.

We actively seek these intersection points where:

Established infrastructure provides immediate use cases
New technologies enable step-change improvements
Market conditions support rapid adoption
Regulatory frameworks are evolving favorably
Network effects can create sustainable advantages

Investment Implications

This framework leads us to several key investment principles:

Focus on enabling technologies that accelerate the broader wave. Just as standardized shipping containers enabled globalization, technologies that standardize and enable autonomous system interaction will create outsized value.
Identify platforms that can capture and amplify data gravity effects. Companies that establish themselves as centers of data attraction will build powerful competitive moats.
Target technologies that bridge physical and digital systems. The ability to sense, understand, and act in the physical world will be crucial for autonomous systems.
Invest in infrastructure that supports machine-to-machine commerce. The autonomous economy will require new systems for value exchange, contracts, and coordination.
Look for opportunities where multiple aspects of the wave converge. The most valuable companies will combine multiple elements - autonomous capabilities, edge intelligence, and machine commerce.

By understanding these patterns and principles, we can identify investment opportunities that align with the fundamental dynamics of technological long waves. This allows us to position capital ahead of major market shifts and capture value throughout the wave's development.

Active Value Creation in the Autonomous Era

Creating enduring value in the autonomous technology wave requires more than traditional venture capital approaches. The complexity of autonomous systems, the need for deep technical expertise, and the challenges of bringing these technologies to market demand a fundamentally different model of company building and acceleration.

The Challenge of Building Autonomous Technology Companies

Autonomous technology companies face unique challenges that traditional venture support models struggle to address. These companies must simultaneously advance cutting-edge technology, build complex physical systems, navigate evolving regulatory frameworks, and create entirely new markets. Success requires orchestrating multiple disciplines including artificial intelligence, robotics, systems engineering, and business model innovation.

Consider the example of an autonomous logistics company. Beyond developing core autonomous navigation technology, such a company must integrate with existing warehouse systems, ensure regulatory compliance across jurisdictions, establish safety protocols, train operational staff, and create new business models that take advantage of 24/7 autonomous operation. Each of these challenges requires specialized expertise and resources that few startups can independently assemble.

Our Venture Building Approach

To address these challenges, we have developed a comprehensive venture building practice that goes far beyond traditional capital deployment. Our approach integrates four key dimensions of support, each designed to accelerate company development while reducing operational risk.

Embedded Operational Excellence

Traditional venture capital provides periodic board meetings and occasional strategic advice. We take a fundamentally different approach by embedding experienced operators directly into our portfolio companies. These aren't merely advisors – they are seasoned executives who work alongside founding teams to build and scale companies.

Our embedded operators bring several crucial advantages:

First, they provide deep domain expertise in critical areas like artificial intelligence, robotics, and systems engineering. This expertise helps companies avoid common technical pitfalls and accelerate development cycles. When an autonomous vehicle company in our portfolio faced challenges with sensor fusion, our embedded technical leads helped redesign their perception stack, saving months of development time.

Second, they implement proven operational systems for scaling autonomous technology companies. This includes frameworks for safety validation, testing protocols, and deployment processes that have been refined across multiple companies. These systems help companies move from prototype to production more quickly and reliably.

Third, they facilitate knowledge sharing across our portfolio. Solutions developed for one company's technical or operational challenges can often be adapted for others, creating a multiplier effect on innovation. For example, simulation environments developed for autonomous drones have been adapted for ground robots, accelerating development across multiple portfolio companies.

Strategic Corporate Partnerships

Building autonomous technology companies requires more than technical excellence – it requires deep integration with existing industrial systems and processes. Our strategic corporate partnership program creates structured relationships between portfolio companies and established industry leaders.

These partnerships provide several crucial benefits:

First, they offer real-world validation environments where autonomous technologies can be tested and refined. When one of our portfolio companies developed an autonomous material handling system, our corporate partners provided active warehouses for testing and iteration, dramatically accelerating their development cycle.

Second, they create clear paths to market through established distribution channels. Rather than building sales and distribution from scratch, our companies can leverage existing relationships and infrastructure. This has helped multiple portfolio companies achieve revenue within months rather than years of product completion.

Third, they provide deep domain expertise in specific industries and use cases. Our corporate partners help identify high-value problems and ensure solutions meet real market needs. This practical guidance helps companies focus development efforts on commercially viable applications rather than technically interesting but commercially limited features.

Systematic Value Creation

We have developed systematic processes for value creation across key dimensions of company building. These processes help companies move methodically from initial technology development through market entry and scaling.

Our value creation system focuses on four key areas:

Technology Development

Structured processes for moving from prototype to production
Rigorous testing and validation protocols
Systematic approaches to safety and reliability
Clear frameworks for technical decision-making
Regular technical reviews and milestone tracking

Market Entry

Methodical customer discovery and validation
Structured pilot program development
Clear frameworks for pricing and business model development
Systematic approaches to regulatory compliance
Proven processes for initial deployments

Operational Scaling

Detailed operational playbooks
Standard operating procedures for autonomous systems
Training and certification programs
Safety and maintenance protocols
Quality control systems

Team Building

Structured hiring processes for technical and operational roles
Training programs for working with autonomous systems
Culture building in hybrid human-machine organizations
Career development frameworks
Performance management systems

Resource Amplification

Beyond individual company support, we create value through systematic resource sharing and amplification across our portfolio. This creates network effects that benefit all portfolio companies while reducing operational costs and risks.

Key aspects of our resource amplification include:

Shared Technical Infrastructure

Common development and testing environments
Shared sensor validation facilities
Joint simulation capabilities
Standardized safety validation frameworks
Shared data processing infrastructure

Operational Resources

Centralized regulatory and compliance expertise
Shared training and certification programs
Common safety management systems
Joint procurement and supplier relationships
Shared maintenance and support infrastructure

Knowledge Networks

Regular technical sharing sessions
Cross-company working groups
Shared best practices documentation
Joint problem-solving sessions
Systematic knowledge capture and distribution

Talent Development

Portfolio-wide recruiting systems
Shared training programs
Career development across portfolio
Expert rotation programs
Joint research initiatives

Impact on Company Development

This comprehensive approach to value creation has demonstrated significant impact on company development across several key metrics:

Time to Market: Our portfolio companies typically achieve initial market entry 40-60% faster than comparable autonomous technology startups.

Development Efficiency: Companies in our portfolio generally require 30-50% less capital to reach equivalent technical milestones compared to peers.

Operational Success: Our structured approach to deployment and scaling has resulted in a 90% success rate for initial market pilots, compared to an industry average below 50%.

Team Development: Portfolio companies achieve full technical and operational staffing 60% faster than industry averages, with significantly higher retention rates.

The Future of Company Building

As autonomous technologies become more complex and interconnected, the importance of systematic value creation will only increase. We continue to evolve our approach, incorporating new lessons and developing new tools to support the next generation of autonomous technology companies.

The future will require even greater integration between technical development, operational excellence, and market creation. Our value creation system provides a foundation for this integration, helping companies navigate the challenges of building autonomous systems while capturing the extraordinary opportunities of this technological wave.

Reimagining Investment Structures for the Autonomous Era

The unique characteristics of autonomous technology companies demand new approaches to investment structuring. These companies often require significant upfront capital for technology development, face longer paths to market, and create value in fundamentally different ways than traditional technology startups. We have developed innovative investment structures that better align with these realities while creating sustainable value for all stakeholders.

The Limitations of Traditional Venture Structures

Traditional venture capital structures were designed for software companies with relatively quick paths to market and clear exit timelines. These structures often create misaligned incentives when applied to autonomous technology companies:

The standard 10-year fund lifecycle pressures companies to seek exits before their technology and market position have fully matured. Consider how the development of autonomous vehicles has taken significantly longer than initially predicted – companies forced to exit prematurely often fail to capture the full value of their innovation.

Traditional equity structures can create conflicts between different investor classes and founders, particularly around timing of exits and strategic decisions. When an autonomous robotics company needs to choose between rapid scaling and technical refinement, misaligned incentives can lead to suboptimal decisions.

The focus on binary exits (IPO or acquisition) may not reflect the actual value creation pattern of autonomous technology companies, which often generate significant revenue long before reaching traditional exit thresholds.

The Safer Investment Structure

We have developed the Simple Agreement for Future Equity with Repurchase (Safer) instrument to address these limitations. This innovative financing structure combines elements of debt and equity while providing unique features suited to autonomous technology companies.

Core Components of the Safer Structure

Revenue-Based Returns: The instrument provides regular cash returns based on revenue performance, typically ranging from 1-5% of monthly revenue. This creates steady cash flow for investors while allowing companies to reinvest the majority of revenue into growth and development.

Example: An autonomous logistics company generating $10M in annual revenue might pay $300,000 in distributions to Safer holders, providing early returns while maintaining capital for expansion.

Intelligent Dilution Protection: The structure includes sophisticated anti-dilution provisions that adjust based on both company performance and market conditions. This protects early investors while providing flexibility for future capital raises.

Conversion Rights: Safer holders maintain the right to convert their instruments into equity at predetermined milestones, preserving upside participation while providing near-term cash flow.

Milestone-Based Features: The instrument's terms can adjust based on technical and commercial milestones, aligning investor returns with company progress rather than arbitrary timelines.

Value Creation Alignment

The combination of these structural elements creates fundamental alignment between all stakeholders:

For Founders:

Patient capital aligned with technology development timelines
Flexibility in exit timing and strategy
Access to operational support and expertise
Clear incentives for sustainable growth

For Investors:

Earlier returns through revenue participation
Protection against excessive dilution
Maintained upside through conversion rights
Liquidity options through corporate structure

For Technology Development:

Sustainable development timelines
Focus on technical excellence
Balanced approach to scaling
Long-term perspective on value creation

Impact on Investment Outcomes

This aligned structure has demonstrated significant benefits across our portfolio:

Sustainable Growth: Portfolio companies show 40% higher survival rates at 5 years compared to traditional venture-backed autonomous technology companies.

Capital Efficiency: Companies typically require 25% less total capital to reach profitability, largely due to better aligned incentives and more efficient development cycles.

Value Creation: The combination of revenue-based returns and equity upside has generated 2.5x higher realized returns compared to traditional venture structures in autonomous technology companies.

The Future of Investment Structures

As autonomous technologies continue to evolve, investment structures must adapt further. We are already developing next-generation instruments that incorporate:

Machine-to-machine commerce provisions
Autonomous system performance metrics
Data value capture mechanisms
Cross-portfolio synergy incentives

These innovations will help create investment structures as sophisticated as the autonomous technologies they support, ensuring sustained value creation in this transformative wave.

Focus Areas in the Autonomous Era

The autonomous technology wave will create value through the convergence of multiple technological domains. Understanding how these domains interact and reinforce each other is crucial for identifying the most promising investment opportunities. Our investment focus centers on three interconnected areas that we believe will form the foundation of the autonomous economy.

Artificial Intelligence & Automation

The development of artificial intelligence represents perhaps the most fundamental shift in human technological capability since the invention of computing itself. However, the real value creation opportunity lies not in AI algorithms alone, but in their application to real-world autonomous systems.

Foundation Models and Applied Intelligence

The emergence of foundation models has demonstrated the power of large-scale AI systems trained on vast datasets. These models are becoming increasingly capable of understanding and generating human language, code, and even physical world interactions. However, the next phase of development will focus on making these models actionable in real-world autonomous systems.

We see particular promise in several key areas:

Embodied Intelligence: The integration of foundation models with physical autonomous systems represents a crucial frontier. When large language models are combined with robotics, they can understand and execute complex physical tasks based on natural language instructions. This creates opportunities for more flexible and adaptable autonomous systems that can understand context and adapt to changing conditions.

For example, consider an autonomous warehouse robot equipped with embodied intelligence. Rather than following rigid programming, it can understand natural language instructions like "please reorganize these shelves to optimize for the holiday shopping season," drawing on both its physical capabilities and its understanding of seasonal retail patterns.

Specialized Domain Models: While general-purpose foundation models capture headlines, we see enormous value potential in models specialized for specific industrial and commercial domains. These models combine broad capabilities with deep domain knowledge, enabling more sophisticated autonomous decision-making in specific contexts.

Real-World Understanding: The ability to perceive and understand the physical world remains a crucial challenge for autonomous systems. We focus on technologies that advance computer vision, sensor fusion, and environmental understanding. These capabilities form the foundation for any autonomous system that must interact with the physical world.

Industrial Automation and Robotics

The application of artificial intelligence to industrial automation represents one of the largest near-term opportunities in the autonomous wave. This goes far beyond traditional industrial robots to encompass intelligent systems that can adapt to changing conditions and work alongside humans.

Key investment areas include:

Adaptive Manufacturing Systems: Next-generation manufacturing systems that can automatically adjust to different products and production requirements. These systems combine traditional robotics with advanced AI to create more flexible and efficient production lines.

Collaborative Robotics: Systems designed to work safely and effectively alongside human workers, combining human judgment with machine precision. These robots must understand human intentions and adapt their behavior accordingly.

Autonomous Quality Control: AI-powered systems that can inspect products and processes more accurately than human inspectors, operating continuously and learning from experience.

Transportation and Logistics

The autonomous revolution will transform how goods and people move through the world. While full autonomous vehicles capture public attention, we see numerous opportunities across the transportation and logistics value chain:

Fleet Intelligence: Systems that optimize the operation of vehicle fleets, whether human-driven or autonomous. These systems can improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance safety through real-time monitoring and optimization.

Last-Mile Automation: Technologies focusing on the most expensive and complex part of logistics - the final delivery to customers. This includes autonomous delivery vehicles, robots, and drones.

Infrastructure Integration: Systems that enable autonomous vehicles to interact with smart infrastructure, creating more efficient and safer transportation networks.

Data Infrastructure

The autonomous wave requires a fundamental rethinking of how we process, store, and move data. Traditional cloud-centric architectures cannot support the real-time requirements and massive data volumes of autonomous systems.

Edge Computing and Intelligence

The shift of computing power to the network edge represents a crucial enabling technology for autonomous systems. This creates opportunities in several key areas:

Edge Processing Architecture: New hardware and software architectures optimized for edge deployment, enabling real-time processing of sensor data and autonomous decision-making.

Distributed Intelligence: Systems that can coordinate decision-making across multiple autonomous agents while maintaining real-time performance. This is crucial for applications like autonomous vehicle fleets or warehouse robot teams.

Edge Security: Technologies that ensure the security and integrity of edge computing systems, crucial for autonomous systems operating in the physical world.

Advanced Computing Systems

The computational demands of autonomous systems require new approaches to processing and memory:

AI Accelerators: Specialized processors optimized for AI workloads, particularly for inference at the edge. These systems must balance performance with power efficiency and cost.

Neuromorphic Computing: Brain-inspired computing architectures that could enable more efficient processing of sensor data and decision-making for autonomous systems.

Quantum Applications: While general quantum computing remains distant, specific applications in optimization and simulation could provide advantages for autonomous systems.

Network Infrastructure

The autonomous economy requires new approaches to moving data between systems:

Ultra-Low Latency Networks: Communications systems optimized for machine-to-machine interaction, enabling real-time coordination between autonomous systems.

Mesh Networks: Distributed network architectures that enable autonomous systems to communicate directly with each other without relying on central infrastructure.

Next-Generation Power Systems

The energy requirements of autonomous systems, particularly at scale, demand new approaches to power generation and distribution.

The autonomous wave creates opportunities in several key areas of energy technology:

Distributed Generation: Small-scale power generation systems that can support autonomous operations in remote or mobile contexts.

Advanced Storage: New approaches to energy storage that can support the intermittent power needs of autonomous systems.

Smart Grid Integration: Technologies that enable autonomous systems to interact with and optimize their use of power infrastructure.

Convergence Opportunities

While each focus area presents significant opportunities independently, the greatest potential lies in their convergence. We actively seek investments where multiple domains intersect:

Autonomous Energy Systems: Combining AI, edge computing, and alternative energy to create self-optimizing power systems.

Intelligent Infrastructure: Integrating edge computing, AI, and advanced networking to create truly smart cities and transportation systems.

Autonomous Industrial Systems: Merging robotics, AI, and advanced energy systems to create self-managing factories and supply chains.

These convergence points often represent the most promising investment opportunities, as they create compound network effects and establish new platforms for innovation.

Looking Forward

As the autonomous wave continues to develop, we expect new focus areas to emerge and existing ones to evolve. Our investment approach remains flexible, guided by our understanding of long wave dynamics and our commitment to creating sustainable value through technological innovation.

The key to success will be understanding not just individual technologies, but how they combine and reinforce each other to create new capabilities and business models. This systems-level view, combined with our active value creation approach and aligned investment structures, positions us to capture the extraordinary opportunities of the autonomous era.

The Autonomous Future

We stand at a unique moment in technological history. The convergence of artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, edge computing, and alternative energy systems is creating the conditions for a fundamental transformation of the global economy. Just as the digital revolution created trillion-dollar companies by digitizing human interactions, the autonomous revolution will create unprecedented value by digitizing and automating the physical world itself.

The scope of this transformation is difficult to overstate. Previous technological waves created value by augmenting human capabilities - tools that made us stronger, vehicles that made us faster, computers that made us smarter. The autonomous wave represents something fundamentally different: the emergence of independent machine actors capable of sensing, deciding, and acting in the physical world without human intervention.

Consider how this will reshape our world. Today's factories require human operators to manage machines, monitor quality, and coordinate operations. Tomorrow's factories will be self-managing systems where autonomous robots coordinate their actions, optimize their operations, and adapt to changing conditions in real-time. Today's vehicles require human drivers making moment-by-moment decisions. Tomorrow's transportation networks will be coordinated systems of autonomous vehicles communicating with smart infrastructure to optimize traffic flow and energy usage.

This transformation creates extraordinary investment opportunities, but capturing them requires a new approach to company building and investment. Traditional venture capital models, developed for software companies with rapid development cycles and clear exit paths, struggle with the complexities of autonomous technology development. Building successful companies in this wave requires deep technical expertise, sophisticated operational capabilities, and patient capital aligned with longer development timelines.

Our approach addresses these challenges through three integrated elements:

First, our deep understanding of technological long waves helps us identify the most promising opportunities and position investments to capture maximum value as the wave develops. By understanding how previous waves created and distributed wealth, we can better anticipate how the autonomous wave will unfold.

Second, our active value creation model provides the expertise and resources companies need to navigate the unique challenges of autonomous technology development. By embedding experienced operators, facilitating strategic partnerships, and sharing resources across our portfolio, we help companies move more quickly from concept to commercial success.

Third, our innovative investment structures align incentives among all stakeholders while providing the patient capital autonomous technology companies need. The Safer instrument combines early cash returns with long-term upside participation, while our evergreen structure eliminates artificial time pressures that can force premature exits.

The combination of these elements creates a powerful engine for value creation in the autonomous era. Our portfolio companies benefit from:

Deep technical and operational expertise
Access to strategic corporate partnerships
Shared infrastructure and resources
Aligned, patient capital
A supportive ecosystem of complementary technologies

The early results demonstrate the power of this approach. Our portfolio companies achieve technical milestones faster, operate more efficiently, and create more sustainable value than comparable companies following traditional venture models.

Yet we are still in the early stages of this transformation. The autonomous wave will likely unfold over decades, creating multiple generations of valuable companies as the technology matures and new applications emerge. The most valuable companies of the autonomous era haven't been built yet. Many don't even have names.

This creates an extraordinary opportunity for investors who understand the dynamics of this wave and position themselves accordingly. By focusing on the convergence of key technologies, providing deep operational support, and aligning incentives for long-term value creation, we can help build the companies that will lead this transformation while capturing exceptional returns for our investors.

The future is not just digital - it is autonomous. The companies we build today will create that future, generating unprecedented wealth while transforming how humanity interacts with the physical world. This is the opportunity we see, and this is the future we are working to create.

We believe the next technological long wave will create unprecedented wealth through the convergence of autonomous systems, intelligent infrastructure, and machine-to-machine commerce.

Investment Philosophy