Longevity is where AI was in 2015

In strategy games, you can't just skip to the endgame. You need to unlock the prerequisites first.

Take Age of Empires for example

You begin in the Dark Age with simple villagers. You then gather resources & make your way to the Feudal Age. From there you add a stable to unlock the Castle Age & only then can you train your Knights.

You can’t skip those steps; each age unlocks the next one.

It’s the same with breakthrough tech like AI.

The 1950s began the research age with simple algorithms. Then AI winter hit in the 70s. A brief revival in the 80s gave way to another winter through the 90s. VCs avoided the sector completely during these dark periods.

But researchers kept advancing, steadily unlocking the prerequisites: better algorithms, exponential compute growth, massive datasets.

The foundation was already there by 2015. But no one truly cared until ChatGPT gave people a single, vivid proof of value overnight.

Once people could chat with AI & watch it explain complex ideas in plain language, capital and talent flooded in.

AI is now unlocked & we're in the boom

& Longevity stands on the same precipice.

CRISPR, genetic editing, generative protein design… decades of research has finally built the foundation to redesign human aging.

All we need is our ChatGPT moment

A breakthrough therapy that shows people a clear extra slice of healthy life.

Maybe that genesis has begun. Maybe the GLP-1 surge is T-minus-1.

But once the mass public fully catches on to what's possible, what was once fringe will rebrand to inevitable.

The technology isn't the bottleneck right now, neither are the founders.

It's the money.

Think about how we solve most problems in this country.

We don't start with the science. We don't start with the data. We start with someone with access & money deciding a problem matters to them personally.

The moment it’s reflected in their life or someone close to them is when things change. That’s when funding shows up, when institutions pivot.

Aging affects everyone, yet the people who can invest barely invest in it at all.

Most people only invest in health & longevity when they come face to face with their own mortality.

Imagine if that urgency hit at 20 instead of 80. We'd solve aging before it touches another generation.

History has already shown us what's possible when funding meets opportunity

In 1967, WHO launched a smallpox eradication campaign costing $300MN over 11 years ($2.8BN in today's dollars). By the end, we'd eradicated smallpox. The entire investment was roughly 0.05% of today's billionaire wealth.

We can do this for aging.

If 0.05% of that wealth could end smallpox, even 1-2% could end aging.