I work on projects that can positively bend the arc of humanity over multiple generations, or are just fun, ideally both.

Please reach out, my email is not that hard to find. Twitter @byersblake.

Investing

I am an avowed generalist. I’ve backed early stage companies across personal finance, cancer treatments, quantum computing, blood screening, and enterprise software that have all gone public.

My current investments include superintelligence, mathematical reasoning, coding agents, AI drug development, brain computer interfaces and human longevity.

  • Neuralink - Series B. Brain computer interfaces. Founded by Elon Musk.

  • OpenEvidence - Series B. AI medical information for physicians. Founded by Daniel Nadler.

  • NewLimit - Series A. Longevity. Founded by Brian Armstrong, Jacob Kimmel and me.

  • Factory - Seed. AI coding agents. Founded by Matan Grinberg.

  • SpaceX - Growth (2018). Multi-planetary humans. Founded by Elon Musk.

  • Chai Discovery - Series A. In silico drug creation. Founded by Jack Dent and Joshua Meier.

  • Xai - Series A. Understand the universe. Founded by Elon Musk.

  • Harmonic - Series A. Mathmatical superintellegence. Founded by Vlad Tenev.

  • Vial - Series A. Clinical drug development at scale. Founded by Simon Burns.

  • Xaira - Series A. AI drug discovery. Founded by Marc Tessier-Lavigne.

I was a partner at GV for a decade where we scaled the firm from a $50M fund to a $2.5B fund. I invested in 38 companies, 10 of which have gone public, 7 have been acquired, 17 are still active and 4 have shutdown.(1) I joined the firm soon after the founding and helped grow the firm from a $50M fund to a $2.5B fund. My early stage investments while at GV included:

  • Robinhood - Seed. Nasdaq IPO. Mobile trading.

  • IonQ - Series A. Nasdaq IPO. Quantum computing.

  • SOFI - Series B (personal). Nasdaq IPO. Neo bank.

  • Forty Seven - Series A. Nasqad IPO, Acquired for $4.9B. Cancer therapies.

  • Denali - Series A. Nasdaq IPO. Neurological therapies.

  • Arcus - Series A. Nasdaq IPO. Cancer therapies.

  • Grail - Series A. Acquired for $7B. Blood test for cancer screening.

  • Armo - Series B. Nyse IPO, then acquired for $1.6B. Cancer therapies.

  • Gusto - Seed. Last round at $10B. Payroll and benefits platform.

  • Kensho - Seed. Acquired for $550M. Finance AI.

NewLimit - Give everyone +20 years of healthy life

I co-founded NewLimit with Brian Armstrong (CEO and co-founder of Coinbase) and Jacob Kimmel to radically extend human healthspan. Our focus is on partial epigenetic reprogramming as a mechanism for age reversal, starting with the immune, metabolism and vascular systems. Even if we achieved functional age reversal in just one of these systems, the impact on humanity would be immense. But we’re aiming for much more—over the next few years, we plan to expand our efforts to many additional cell types.

Already, we’ve found a way to restore youthful function in aged livers. This breakthrough has shifted our perspective on the likelihood of success, and we’re now highly optimistic that aging is a plastic, reversible cell state.

We’re looking for team members in functional genomics, computational biology, machine learning, software engineering, and general operations. If you’re passionate about transforming the future of health, come join us!

Scientific Research

I have a PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford but I’ve been running research experiments since high school and continued even into my time at Google Ventures. My published papers cover atherosclerosis, induced pluripotent stem cells, neurodegenerative diseases, and optogenetically controlled human neuron transplants.

(1) Investment metrics as of Summer 2024