Blake Byers

I work on projects that can positively bend the arc of humanity over multiple generations, or are just fun, ideally both.

Please reach out, my email is not that hard to find. Twitter @byersblake.

Investing

I am an avowed generalist. I’ve generated large multiples on companies that have IPOd across personal finance, cancer treatments, quantum computing, blood screening, and enterprise software.

My current investments include superintelligence, mathematical reasoning, coding agents, scaled drug development, brain computer interfaces and human longevity.

  • Neuralink - Series B. Brain computer interfaces. Cofounded by Elon Musk.

  • The Bot Co - Seed. AI powered robots for your home. Cofounded by Kyle Vogt.

  • NewLimit - Series A. Longevity. Cofounded by Brian Armstrong, Jacob Kimmel and me.

  • Factory - Seed. AI coding agents. Cofounded by Matan Grinberg.

  • SpaceX - Growth (2018). Multi-planetary humans. Cofounded by Elon Musk.

  • Chai Discovery - Series A. In silico drug creation. Cofounded by Jack Dent and Joshua Meier.

  • Xai - Series A. Understand the universe. Cofounded by Elon Musk.

  • Harmonic - Series A. Mathmatical superintellegence. Cofounded by Vlad Tenev.

  • Vial - Series A. Clinical drug development at scale. Cofounded by Simon Burns.

  • Xaira - Series A. AI drug discovery. Cofounded by Marc Tessier-Lavigne.

Extending Human Healthspans (+20 years of healthy life)

I co-founded NewLimit with Brian Armstrong (CEO and co-founder of Coinbase) and Jacob Kimmel to radically extend human healthspan. Our focus is on partial epigenetic reprogramming as a mechanism for age reversal, starting with the immune, metabolism and vascular systems. Even if we achieved functional age reversal in just one of these systems, the impact on humanity would be immense. But we’re aiming for much more—over the next few years, we plan to expand our efforts to many additional cell types.

Already, we’ve found a way to restore youthful function in aged liver cells. This breakthrough has shifted our perspective on the likelihood of success, and we’re now highly optimistic that aging is a plastic, reversible cell state.

We’re looking for team members in functional genomics, computational biology, machine learning, software engineering, and general operations. If you’re passionate about transforming the future of health, come join us!

Past Experience

Google Ventures: I was a Partner at Google Ventures for a decade. I invested in 38 companies, 10 of which have gone public, 7 have been acquired, 17 are still active and 4 have shutdown.(1) I joined the firm soon after the founding and helped grow the firm from a $50M fund to a $2.5B fund. My early stage investments while at GV included:

  • Robinhood - Seed. Nasdaq IPO. Mobile trading.

  • IonQ - Series A. Nasdaq IPO. Quantum computing.

  • SOFI - Series B (personal). Nasdaq IPO. Neo bank.

  • Forty Seven - Series A. Nasqad IPO, Acquired for $4.9B. Cancer therapies.

  • Denali - Series A. Nasdaq IPO. Neurological therapies.

  • Arcus - Series A. Nasdaq IPO. Cancer therapies.

  • Grail - Series A. Acquired for $7B. Blood test for cancer screening.

  • Armo - Series B. Nyse IPO, then acquired for $1.6B. Cancer therapies.

  • Gusto - Seed. Last round at $10B. Payroll and benefits platform.

  • Kensho - Seed. Acquired for $550M. Finance AI.

Academic Research: I’ve published papers with over 2000 citations across atherosclerosis, induced pluripotent stem cells, neurodegenerative diseases, and optogenetically controlled human neuronal transplants. I first fell in love with basic research during high school when I moonlighted in a Stanford University chemistry lab. I continued doing basic research during my undergrad years at Duke University, during my Ph.D. at Stanford University and finally published my last paper a couple years into my time at Google Ventures.

(1) Investment metrics as of Summer 2024