💰 The next trillion+ dollar industry

On this week’s episode of the Exponential View podcast, I spoke to Deep Nishar, Softbank Vision Fund's Senior Managing Partner. Deep focuses on fields such as frontier tech, genomics technologies and synthetic biology - and has invested in some market leaders including Zymergen, Slack and Collective Health. It was a pleasure to talk to Deep, particularly about issues other than COVID-19, although we did begin our conversation by touching on it briefly.

Here are some highlights from our conversation, and you can listen to the conversation in full here. 

Why are the genomics technologies actually getting better every year: what is the underlying driver? Is there a Moore's law for these technologies?

Deep Nishar: “Part of it definitely is that a lot of new innovations are happening in this field at a breakneck pace. If you take the example of AI and machine learning, we know that just in the last five years, the number of papers published in the field of deep learning has grown exponentially. I gave the example of AI, the same is true of genomics. Some of the smartest minds in the world are working on these technologies, and they're seeing an influx of multidisciplinary talent. Biologists are becoming a lot smarter about AI and machine learning and automation.

There is also funding. Now that the world has recognized the power of these technologies, countries such as China have made them a national priority, and they are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in it. Some level of core funding is required in order to make progress in many of these fields. Finally, we are seeing commercial success from companies and that begets more success. When people see that many of these technologies are not just academic successes, but also that they are able to generate real economic value that they can partake in, then more people want to be involved in that space.”

Investors come in and they understand what it means to take a company from seed to series A milestone or series A to a Series B milestone in this sector. How would you categorize the maturity level of understanding how to build and grow a company in this particular field? 

Deep Nishar: “My sense is that maybe 15 to 20 years ago, we were definitely at the infant and the toddler stage. We've seen one crop of these companies come and go – these were the infamous biofuels companies from 20 years ago and the green tech companies from 10 years ago. So we have learned the business, and the industry has learned a bunch from the near successes or the not successes of that space. A lot of times it happens when you're in the first half of the chessboard. All the pieces haven't quite come together, the science may be there, the early technology may be there, but the product may not be ready. If the product is ready, maybe the market is not ready.

But now, I believe that in some way, we are at the teenage stage. In the teenage years, we've learned quite a bit. And in some, as in the case of Zymergen and 10x Genomics, where products are actually hitting the shelves, they are in the market, we are becoming young adults. That's a great place to be.”

What is your message to founders now, as we stare down the barrel of an incredibly difficult time? What are you telling people to do to get through this?

Deep Nishar: “The first rule of any business is to stay in business. So the way you stay in business is you keep your employees happy and motivated. In these difficult times, you are kind and compassionate to them and understand that many people have to stay at home. But they also have to worry about childcare, perhaps taking care of sick people around them, they’re worried and while they may not be able to put in all the hours that they normally do into our business, their hearts and minds have to be in the right place. 

The second part is doing right by our customers and our suppliers – ensuring that we enable them to both stay in business and flourish as much as they can in this environment. The third is to work closely with our capital providers and ensure that we understand their limitations, and we are giving them the best possible data and information about how our businesses are working. “

Listen to our full discussion here.