Ferdinand Reynolds

Venture capitalist (insufferable)

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

Is there a venture capital fund equivalent for vetting instagram reels because guys I’m raising

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@andruyeung For sure there’s a German word for it which is incomprehensibly long and difficult to pronounce

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@chrislevan24 https://t.co/ke8HjRN2wm

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

DON’T WORRY GUYS SHE’S ABOLISHING BINGO DUTY

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@nathanbenaich foundational models for agent payments. Actually that’s a bit 80s James Bond.

[Nathan Benaich @nathanbenaich]

hear me out, payments, but for agents

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@RasmusJarlov ...and indeed to reduce our dependence on Uncle Sam, who's looking at the Indo-Pacific like an uninterested conversationalist looks over your (my) shoulder at a drinks party.

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@DefenceHQ @PalantirTech Super! Don't ignore the fact that we have near-zero surge capacity, and startups die at the behest of unassailable sales cycles. Early-stage businesses are the crucible of innovation. That's where we'll develop our tech advantage, decision superiority, and industrial advantage.

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

The market is hypnotised by Europe's soaring defence budgets. They're a red herring. The real bottleneck isn't capital, it's 1970s-era production lines.

The generational opportunity isn't building another missile. It's selling automation to the company that builds the missile.

It's just Industry 4.0 for a customer with a much, much bigger chequebook.

[Dr. Jon Slotkin @slotkinjr]

As a neurosurgeon I care a lot about road safety.

By now you’ve probably seen @Waymo’s stunning safety results (like 91% fewer serious crashes). But they didn’t just publish data headlines. They released the raw CSV files and data dictionaries.
I did a much deeper analysis. A fascinating story emerges when you analyze how they’re achieving this.

This isn’t incremental improvement - it’s categorical. We’re looking at the potential elimination of traffic deaths as a leading cause of mortality.

The intersection breakthrough: Waymo has essentially solved intersection crashes, with 95% fewer injury incidents than human drivers in the same locations. That’s transforming the deadliest driving scenario.

The national math: If every US vehicle performed like Waymo, we’d prevent 33,000-39,000 deaths annually and save $0.9-1.25 trillion in societal costs. Even partial adoption at 27% would save ~10,000 lives per year. In terms of magnitude, this would be the equivalent of eliminating every pedestrian death nationally in a year.

The physics signature: Here’s what fascinates me: 47% of Waymo’s contacts involve less than 1 mph delta-V. They’re not just avoiding crashes; they’re converting unavoidable incidents into gentle bumps. It’s like having physics itself on your side.

We’re not talking about marginal safety gains. The data represents a fundamental shift from harm reduction to harm prevention.

The methodology matters: I used their dynamic geographic benchmarks (comparing like-for-like road conditions) and verified the findings hold across San Francisco, Phoenix, LA, and Austin. The safety advantage actually increases in more complex urban environments.

Link to raw data below….

Notes on my approach:

Analysis based on 96 million miles of Waymo Rider-Only (RO) data through June 2025, utilizing Waymo's dynamic geographic benchmarks to compare Waymo Driver performance against human drivers under similar road conditions and operational design domains.

The projections for national impact (deaths prevented, societal costs) involve several assumptions. Given Waymo's zero reported fatalities, the direct serious injury reductions were mapped to national fatality statistics using established NHTSA-derived ratios that correlate serious injury crash rates with fatality rates. This extrapolation assumes that Waymo's observed serious injury prevention capability would translate proportionally to fatality prevention. Societal cost savings are estimated by applying average per-fatality and per-injury economic costs (e.g., medical, lost productivity, quality of life) as published by NHTSA, scaling these national averages to the projected number of avoided fatalities and injuries based on Waymo's safety performance. These figures represent the potential annual impact if the Waymo Driver's safety profile were widely integrated into the national fleet.

@ethanteicher

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

Founders are pitching me autonomous agent swarms running on complex RAG pipelines.

Meanwhile, I just left a meeting for a $10B manufacturing company that runs its factories in Excel files.

Focus on solving real, ugly problems. They're still ubiquitous.

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

In light of the news that tube drivers would like to reduce their working hours from 35 hours a week to 33, I suggest we move straight to the apotheosis of their request and replace them with AI, taking their weekly hours down to a very comfortable 0.

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@madelinelawren They breed and don’t age

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@SaidHaschemi Dont forget the guys who just closed their 2021 vintage Seed fund who are still wearing AllBirds

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@nic_detommaso @Superseed_VC is hiring an Analyst in London

https://t.co/LJM46swXw8

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@SkyNews I would hardly refer to this as breaking news

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@danbowyer We mostly showered tbh - environment and that. Otherwise 🎯

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@danbowyer What even is that

[Ferdinand Reynolds @ReynoldsAFC]

@danbowyer *books flight*