The Big — But Fixable! — Problems in America’s R&D Ecosystem
About this episode
Rob chats with Katie Rae about the challenges and opportunities in America's R&D ecosystem, focusing on tough tech and climate innovations.
At this point, when you hear “venture capitalist,” you probably think of … software. Or artificial intelligence. Or cryptocurrency. The Engine Ventures , which spun out of MIT a few years ago, is different. It tries to fund what it calls “tough tech,” a somewhat nebulous category that includes companies working in energy, decarbonization, health, and infrastructure. As such, it’s backed some of the most interesting “climate tech” companies in business today, such as Form Energy, Commonwealth Fusion. On this episode of Shift Key, Rob chats with Katie Rae , the CEO and managing partner of Engine Ventures. They chat about what’s missing from America’s innovation ecosystem, how close fusion is to succeeding, and whether AI is a bubble (whatever that might mean). One more note: Early in our conversation, Katie says that Commonwealth Fusion has built “more than 300” tokamak reactors. That was, unfortunately, an overestimate. It’s actually built closer to more than 150 reactors. Her team contacted us after her appearance to correct the record. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News. You can find a full transcript of the episode here…
People in this episode
Host: Robinson Meyer
Guest: Katie Rae
Topics covered
- R&D ecosystem
- venture capital
- climate tech
- innovation
- fusion energy
Keywords
- venture capitalist
- tough tech
- climate tech
- fusion
- decarbonization
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Engine Ventures, Commonwealth Fusion, Heatmap News
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