Michael Thompson, Board Member at Oklo & Joby on Betting on The Future

Intro

My first conversation with Michael Thompson who is on the board of Joby Aviation ($JOBY) and Oklo ($OKLO). He previously started Reinvent Capital with Mark Pincus and Reid Hoffman where he was Managing Partner and made early investments in the physical economy through Joby, SpaceX, Nimble Robotics, Oklo and many other companies. This is a special edition of We The Builders conversation from Reindustrialize.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro02:35 From hedge fund to physical-world techonolgies03:45 "Where is all this power gonna come from?" The case for nuclear04:50 Why nuclear stalled07:05 Where AI value will accrue: physical-world technologies07:55 "Recursive industrialization": SpaceX, Cursor & frontier models09:15 Joby: amplifying world-class engineers with AI10:50 Does eVTOL need a charging network like Teslas?11:30 Breaking down the Joby aircraft: airframe, controls, powertrain18:55 Why these companies need vertical integration and technical founders20:25 How to value SpaceX and Joby (it's not next year's EBITDA)22:25 Why Joby went public through a SPAC23:50 "Henry Ford never built a mile of road": financing the infrastructure25:15 FAA certification is like FDA approval27:35 Reinvent Capital and the "1870s thesis"28:55 Nimble: specialized robots and forward-deployed training data30:25 What he's changed his mind on

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