Summit | Krishna Visvanathan (Crane): From contrarian view to a consensus bet, twice and counting

0:00Krishna Visvanathan:The first time I met James, 2019, he's 19 years old, he dropped out of school at 14 and he pitched me this idea that he was going to build a non-invasive sensor for the brain. I truthfully had no sense whether the idea for CoMine and the product was buildable and whether it would be successful. But I knew James would be successful at some point. and I felt that we had to be with him from the beginning and try to be a great supporter of his for as long as he allowed us the privilege to do so. Since then, he has now founded a second company, originally called Flux, now renamed to Olex Computing, also based in London.

0:45Krishna Visvanathan:And the idea with Olex is to build a next-generation inference processor, which, of course, is all the rage. But when James pitched me the idea in 2024, it was still very much, he was in a very small universe of a few founders really thinking about solving that problem. But we always had that philosophy, go early back on things that we feel could be very large and take as much risk as possible, unapologetic. Still the case, but I'd say we take even bigger risk now because we want to see an even bigger outcome. We are live. We are live. In five. We are live. Four.

1:21James Dacombe:We are live. Three.

1:22Krishna Visvanathan:We are live. Two. We are live. One.

1:34James Dacombe:so chris i left the title being from contrarian view to a consensus bet twice and counting because i think that we should center the conversation around what meeting james did for you as an investor because it had quite some impacts. Let's just first maybe make sure people know exactly who James is. So can you share that story in case anyone doesn't know? And your own relation to him, of course.

2:02Krishna Visvanathan:Yeah, of course. And James, James Daycomb is a founder I've had the great privilege to work with now for six years. The first time I met James, 2019, he's 19 years old. he dropped out of school at 14 and he pitched me this idea that he was going to build a non-invasive sensor for the brain and and he is the inspiration is actually worth sharing the inspiration for him to start that company was two grandparents who he loved dearly who both had dementia and he felt that that was a problem that he needed to try to address and so being obviously a person with extreme IQ he did his own research and he put together a series of thoughts around which the forming of coal mines was based technological ideas and principles and that's what he pitched and that was the start of the journey and I had the great privilege to co-lead that first round James' first ever round with Local Globe, Julia, a good friend of mine and we'll unpack that a bit more But that was the history of James.

3:16Krishna Visvanathan:And since then, he has now founded a second company, originally called Flux, now renamed to Olex Computing, also based in London. And the idea with Olex is to build a next generation inference processor, which, of course, is all the rage. But when James pitched me the idea in 2024, it was still very much he was in a very small universe of a few founders really thinking about solving that problem. and we wrote the very first with the only institutional check in that very first round and James runs both companies at the same time and that hopefully gives you at least an initial insight to the exception that he is.

3:57Krishna Visvanathan:So is that enough?

3:58James Dacombe:It's perfect. And then my follow-up question to it is of course meeting someone like James and seeing what's possible firsthand what does that make you? I asked you this when we spoke last time what did that make you think the next founder you met I mean

4:19Krishna Visvanathan:I think truthfully when I met him originally the overwhelming impression was of dare I say it the purest form of an entrepreneur really clearly he was highly intelligent but the thing that was overwhelming. It was, okay, here's an individual who is going to start multiple companies. Maybe five, maybe ten, I don't know. And our view, my view, and my underwrite in that moment was I truthfully had no sense whether the idea for Comine and the product was buildable and whether it would be successful. But I knew James would be successful at some point. And I felt that we had to be with him from the beginning and tried to be a great supporter of his for as long as he allowed us the privilege to do so.

5:15Krishna Visvanathan:And that was the decision. So lucky for us, CoMine is working out very well. It looks like it's going to be a really fantastic company. The company's made amazing progress on this product and it will be, hopefully we'll get FDA approval sometime in the next 12 months. And of course, that original hypothesis that here's a guy who's going to start multiple companies, played out.

5:40James Dacombe:Chris, the hidden question that was in my question was very similar to what Dave just told us here on stage about raising the bar. That means you're subtracting people. Absolutely. You have also shared with me, and you've alluded to it earlier here, that meeting James did change, and also your own experience in venture in general, building confidence around your own thesis and around your own decision making and ability to vet founders has changed you to make bigger bets.

6:12Krishna Visvanathan:Yeah, definitely. Today, our desire is to try to imagine any investment we make returning half the fund or the whole fund, any investment. As you know, power law applies. That clearly doesn't play out necessarily at the fund level consistently across an entire portfolio, but we start there. We try to, as Dave said, raise the bar, try to see and try to imagine an outlier company and an outlier potential outcome for the fund. And just, you know, truthfully, James was investment number 30, I think, or 31 in a fund of 35 companies, in fund one, right? and that indeed led us to start to kind of push the bar up in front.

7:02Krishna Visvanathan:We just keep pushing it. We keep pushing it. We keep trying to refine and try to understand. And as we observed him evolve, it's informed our way of judging or assessing people.

7:16James Dacombe:The reason why I double down or double click on this particular point is because one thing I continuously hear in European venture is what you might call hedging or some call it portfolio theory. We don't just do moonshots. We have five or so that are moonshot, but we also have a part in our portfolio that are meant to be a bit less risky, a bit higher chance of success. You started out the same place. You thought, I'm not going to bring this to my LPs and tell them I'm going to revolutionize how computers interface with the brain.

7:53Krishna Visvanathan:Our goal was always invest in things that we saw massive potential in. I think the vector that we apply today is a different one. We never played safe. Even Vidfund 1, we really tried to imagine things that we thought could be big. But what you define as big, a fund which is a 2018 vintage, and what you define as big for a fund, a half-current fund, which is a 25 vintage, has changed dramatically because of just the environment. But we always had that philosophy. Go early, bet on things that we feel could be very large, and take as much risk as possible. Unapologetic. Still the case, but I'd say we take even bigger risk now because we want to see an even bigger outcome.

8:35Krishna Visvanathan:That's our philosophy. There's nothing wrong with an alternative philosophy. It's just what you enjoy and what you believe in and how you want to invest, and that's how we choose to invest.

8:48James Dacombe:Let me ask you, do you think that James is, even in venture, an outlier, and that the dream of meeting another James is unrealizable?

9:03Krishna Visvanathan:or no I don't actually I think I can't I can't quite you know there's a couple other folks like him that we have in our portfolio we haven't unveiled that are you know true outliers in in the universe of entrepreneurs of course you always want to try and find you know another James I think to me the way we think about it is it's not finding another James it's finding another individual who is able to present a version of the future that just blows your mind. That doesn't have to be a carbon copy of James. It just has to be someone who really, really sets your imagination on fire. That's what we look for.

9:51Krishna Visvanathan:Then you try to understand some of the other characteristics.

9:53James Dacombe:Last time we spoke, what you described it as was, I'm not looking for another James. I'm looking for another one that can grow into becoming something like James. Yeah, absolutely. I want to ask you, what has James taught you?

10:07Krishna Visvanathan:If I reflect on that first interaction, there were two things that stood out, three maybe. Number one, extreme humility for someone who, and some folks have met him you know he's he's no less humble six years later than he was when I first met him and that's rare coupled with that was a level of self-awareness which was highly developed for a 19 year old alongside that was a level of maturity again very highly developed for a 19 year old and the combination of those three things for me is as we think about other people we invest in, trying to get a sense across those three vectors and where each individual is on that journey from not humble to humble to very humble to very self-aware or not self-aware.

11:06Krishna Visvanathan:And all of that points to that.

11:08James Dacombe:Just adding to the humility part, we were, I said, should we call this the anatomy of an outlier or something, or the anatomy of a luminary or something like that? And you're like, I don't think James would like that.

11:20Krishna Visvanathan:No, he definitely would not. And I think implicit in those characteristics, and that's what, again, we try to understand now when we meet founders is it's a capacity to actually, if you have those three elements, then you have the capacity to grow and to learn and to evolve and to develop and to be the next best version of yourself in a year or two or three. That was one thing. the other thing that is and I share this anecdote with you which I was I think I love telling it's happening with both companies actually over over the course of investing in the companies I've been invited to go see what they've achieved at different moments and both times in the lab I'm standing there and I'm surrounded by a bunch of PhDs who all are there who built the product But James is in the room as the least academically qualified person in the room, standing behind, allowing his team to just, you know, do their thing.

12:20Krishna Visvanathan:And yet, you know, you kind of know that everyone in that room is there because of the guy standing at the back of the room. And that's something special. That's not something that, you know, one learns necessarily. And literally, you feel that when you walk into either company. every founder has to create their own version of that and I think that's the thing that's been special and really instructive for me as an investor.