Saying No to Moonshots

Hello,

“So…you’re doing moonshots at OS Fund? Awesome!” was a common response to last week’s announcement of OS Fund II.

I appreciate the aspirational high fives, but actually, it’s not what we’re doing.

Many people hear “science investments” and immediately think of “moonshot” hype and failure stories, i.e. fantastic possibility, decade-plus time scales, excessive risk, and binary outcomes. Even the term “moonshot” suggests the company’s success is, well, a shot in the dark.

These perceptions often result in people being deterred from the hard sciences, from investors to engineers to students to career changers and governments. Media fuels these narratives, reinforcing them. This slows societal progress.

OS Fund is investing in deep tech companies that marry hard science and technology to solve big problems and make money. No moonshots; just visionary solutions to complex problems that are market ready or very nearly there.  Next generation impact investing.

The moonshot fallacy unveils an assumption that the coolest, most important, and world-changing possibilities can’t be realistic or practical in the here and now. We are conditioned to think and believe that the fantastic and transcendent are beyond our grasp.

OS Fund proves otherwise – right now.

Bryan