I am excited to announce the launch of our new Venture Capital Fund Future Frontier Capital (FFC)! I am fortunate to work alongside my long-time talented partner at IP Checkups, Mark Garner.
FFC aims to be the first check for exceptional founders building technologies at the forefront of innovation.
We believe frontier technologies have the power disruptive or incremental innovations that solve problems by increasing efficiency and/or reducing waste. Furthermore, pre-seed frontier technology companies are a bleeding edge indicator of the next hot technology trend.
Our secret weapon is the combination of our rich deal sourcing network, our software, which enables us to identify emerging technology categories with ease, and our 20+ years experience advising large corporates and startups on how to establish strong technology, business, and intellectual property based control positions. We leverage our knowledge and experience to invest in the most talented and visionary founders who are transforming the world with their innovative companies.
FFC builds on my past experiences. In my first career, I was a professional musician with a focus on improvisation. I learned how to be entrepreneurial and think outside the box. During this period, I had amazing opportunities to spend significant time in Senegal, Brazil, Peru, and Mississippi studying and playing music. I was particularly interested in music of the African Diaspora, and the transmission and evolution of music and culture from West Africa via the transatlantic slave trade to the Americas.
This early exposure to African culture helped create my worldview, which is based on respect for family, friends, and community, gratitude, and generosity. Spending significant time attempting to see the world from other peoples’ points of view has been essential. I am grateful for these experiences. During this period, I had dozens of amazing teachers and mentors including Edris Makward, Dou Dou Ndiaye Rose, and Bob Ra-Kalam Moses
My second career started more than 20 years ago when I started an intellectual property strategy and software firm, IP Checkups (IPC). We have advised dozens of large corporations and start-ups on how to strategically build and leverage intellectual property (control) assets that align with their R&D and business objectives.
Starting in 2016, with the support of Lee Fleming and Bowman Heiden, I began teaching courses to engineering graduate students at the Coleman Fung Institute of Engineering Leadership at the University of California, Berkeley. More recently, I have taken a part-time position at the Haas School of business to train and mentor students on deep tech commercialization projects. Through the program, called the Deep Tech Innovation Lab, we team students from Haas school of business, Berkeley engineering and Berkeley law to work on real-world, deep tech commercialization projects coming from startups and research labs, including from Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.
Throughout my career, I have guided dozens of entrepreneurs and start ups on IP, R&D, and business strategy. I made the logical next step to join an early stage, tech-focused VC firm. My relationships with patent attorneys, technical experts, university and R&D lab researchers, tech transfer departments, and corporate development leaders provide FFC with amazing, high-quality deal flow.
We have developed software to analyze competitive technology landscapes to identify emerging trends and pick winners.
My experiences as an entrepreneurial musician, a founder of an operating company providing IP strategy and analytics, and now as a university professor have equipped me with valuable knowledge and wisdom that I can pass on to founders to help them navigate the complex world of starting a tech company.
I am very excited to begin this new journey. There is a lot to learn, and a lot of great startups to fund.
Please feel free to message me if you have interesting startups or would like to learn more about the fund.
And don’t forget to ignore the confusion!