In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Ali Tamaseb, the author of "Super Founders", to discuss what really differentiates billion-dollar startups from the rest, as well as to reveal why nearly everything we thought was true about them is false!
Ali brings the perspective of an entrepreneur and previous startup founder, as well as a highly technical academic researcher to DCVC, a company that backs entrepreneurs solving trillion-dollar problems to multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its costs.
Ali has walked in the shoes of many of the scientist-turned-entrepreneurs that we back and has first-hand experience with the challenges they face. At DCVC, he works on a broad spectrum of areas ranging from computational health/bio to cybersecurity. More specifically, Ali likes to identify early-stage highly technical and defensible startups in diagnostics tools, neuro-technology, precision medicine, synthetic bio and bio-logic, disruptive healthcare models, financial technologies, alternative data, next-generation computing, cryptography and blockchain.
Ali received a B.Eng. in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London and graduated from the SIGM program at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He did research in the fields of neuroscience and human-computer interaction. Ali has 6 publications, including one book, holds a number of patents, and has won medals in national and international olympiads and innovation fairs. Ali was an honoree of the British Alumni Award, and Imperial College President’s Medal for Outstanding Achievement. Ali and his work has been featured in BBC, Guardian, Forbes, The Telegraph, and others. Ali has given talks and been on panels at major events and conferences including two TEDx talks.
Ali Tamaseb on What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups