Bilal Zuberi (Lux Capital) - Why investing in technological innovation is overlooked by most VCs, how to invest in at the intersection of deep tech x consumer

Our guest today is Bilal Zuberi, Partner at Lux Capital. Lux Capital Investing in people inventing the future. Some of their investments include Happiest Baby, Citizen, Carbon Health and Duck Duck Go. Bilal also founded GEO2 Technologies and comes from an extensive technical and science background. What we explore on today’s episode is how to invest at the intersection of deep tech and consumer.

Some of the questions I ask him:

1. One of your focuses is investing in Deep Tech. We haven’t covered Deep Tech yet on the podcast, what is deep tech?
   1. Business model innovation vs technological innovation
   2. Mission-oriented go to market chops
2. When you think about consumer deep tech companies, what do you think about? What are the use cases where consumers could benefit from deep tech?
3. Betting on teams that own the problem, not just the solution
4. How is investing in deep tech different to other types of categories when you think about return timeline?
   1. How flexible are you with the length?
5. Even if you do have an incredible consumer tech product with a clear competitive advantage or compelling value prop, how do you analyze the marketing and branding?
   1. Would you invest in a company that has compelling technology, but you don’t understand the branding or how it would work?
   2. Can brand be a sustainable competitive advantage?
6. How do you analyze deep tech products? What’s your diligence process?
7. What’s tends to be the reason why you pass on a consumer-focused company?
8. Why did you join Lux and how do you describe Lux’s investment philosophy?
9. How are you thinking about today’s market when it comes to price?
10. What’s one thing you would change about venture capital?
11. What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? Professionally - High Growth Handbook

Personally - Engineering Marvels of the World

1. What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve received?
2. What’s one piece of advice you have for founders?