Chris Wake, Founder of Atypical Ventures, talks about investing in engineers with empathy. Chris shares his unconventional ways of finding technical founders, and gives examples of startups reimagining and transforming the world through scientific innovations.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

[6:55] Empathy unlocks technical entrepreneurs’ potential to build innovations that are truly transformative.

[13:14] It’s okay to create new value from nerdy adventures: Chris Wake’s personal story

[17:33] What layer of the problem space are you tackling, and why is it the right place for you to be?

Non-profit organization that Chris is passionate about: Have Dreams

About Guest Speaker

Chris Wake is the Founder of Atypical Ventures, which he founded in 2019 after many startup experiences over the years in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. He focuses on foundational technologies with the potential to create new markets. Besides, he is an Associate at Creative Destruction Lab, an advisor at Swift Navigation, Vercel (formerly ZEIT), Descartes Labs, Mythic AI, among others, and he also mentors founders that build companies with Antler.

Fun Fact: Chris is a nerd. He reads IEEE and a number of technical trade publications just for fun.

About Atypical Ventures

Atypical Ventures is a New York-based venture capital firm that invests first or early in engineers with empathy turning breakthrough innovations into transformative, enduring businesses. Atypical is driven by the belief that embracing the unfamiliar and often uncomfortable, individually and organizationally, is the clear path to growth. Its portfolio companies include: OASIS, ribbonhealth.com, pienso, instant.org, nextmv, LOGICINK, Recycleye, Skopos, phosphorus.io, and Buddy Insurance.

Next Week’s Episode

Coming up next week in Episode 78, we welcome a special guest, Sam Toole, Principal at Primary Venture Partners, to talk about investing in healthcare technology.

Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode that will drop next Tuesday.

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Create Net New Value from Nothing