Proud to have made history with the team at @RainmakerCorp.
This spring at @DiscipulusVent, I met @jared_western. Spent two hours at a party with him going deep on waste-to-energy. By the end of the week I knew I was leaving SLC.
Since high school I've been obsessed with one question: why can't we turn our waste into cheap fuel?
This summer I get to answer it — building the physical intelligence layer at Western Chemicals in El Segundo. Western deploys duckweed to wastewater plants and converts the output into fuel cheaper than trad petrochem processes.
Looking for housing in the LA area, ideally close to the refinery. DM if you have leads.
We still have some space at our facility open house tomorrow evening! Come meet our team and experience the duckweed!!
Register to attend here: https://t.co/Tj7YrSYZvs
Somebody is going to build the technology
Somebody is going to build the trillion dollar company
I hope Christians take seriously the responsibility to build, so they can guide the world towards ever more of the love, abundance, and virtue Jesus alone can offer
Documentary recapping Rainmaker's historic accomplishment for the Great Salt Lake this past winter
We are the first company to repeatedly prove we're making it snow
The care, toil, and brilliance of our team was heroic
But we still need more water, the jobs not finished
To properly introduce Western Chemicals, we’ll be hosting an open house at our new facility on Friday 6/5 at 7:30PM!
Space is limited! Register to attend here: https://t.co/Tj7YrSYZvs
SUPER excited to announce we co-led the pre-seed for Western Chemicals. They turn wastewater into the world's cheapest fuels. And they are going to do it at planetary scale.
Shadow's LP base includes a deep bench of A/E and GC firms, and well before I met Jared, wastewater treatment specifically had moved into the foreground of those conversations. Every firm I talked to is betting that wastewater is its next big vertical after data centers.
Our investment is a bet that Western solves a unique treatment problem for wastewater plants, dramatically cuts the cost of powering the plant, AND is strongly incentivized to do all of it because of the massive upside of producing biofuel at net-negative cost.
How will they do it?
Announcing the Western Chemicals $4M Pre-Seed Fundraise!
We are now building the WORLD’S FIRST vertically integrated duckweed-to-ethanol plant capable of producing 10,000+ gallons of fuel-grade ethanol annually.
Wastewater-to-fuel at planetary scale starts NOW!
🇺🇸 We're hiring our first full-time team member in the Gundo at @DiscipulusVent
Founding Investor: work directly with me on sourcing, picking companies, running Cohorts, and pitching LPs.
Front row seat to building the best hardtech program in the world.
If you care about American reindustrialization, apply today (link + JD in thread).
El Segundo, CA. In person.
Fuels, chemicals, and plastics are a $6T market that powers EVERY car, plane, factory, and product in modern reality.
Today, they come from oil refineries, or from corn ethanol plants that burn through HALF of America's corn supply.
@DiscipulusVent founder @jared_western & the Western Chemicals team are building biochemical refineries that turn wastewater into the world's cheapest fuels to REINDUSTRIALIZE America🇺🇸
Western Chemicals Pilot Plant is now officially under construction in El Segundo! We are spinning up domestic fuel production capacity with historic speed, stay tuned for updates!
TSMC just confirmed an American semiconductor packaging plant by 2029 in Arizona.
Granular Labs is betting on that future. Smart semiconductor packaging built to push compute into the edge, critical for the robotics revolution.
Part of @DiscipulusVent Spring Cohort.
🇺🇸 EXCLUSIVE: @PalmerLuckey x @DiscipulusVent Spring Demo Day Fireside Chat.
We cover Why El Segundo, Founding Anduril, Defense Tech Incentives, State of Hardtech VC, SVB Collapse, Erebor, Founder Advice, & more.
Highlights:
(00:00) Palmer Luckey
(00:20) Why Anduril chose El Segundo over the Bay Area
(01:20) The Facebook acquisition & Bay Area mercenary problem
(02:43) Building across veterans, Democrats, Republicans & libertarians
(03:33) How the four Anduril founders' roles have evolved
(04:21) "Want to work on tech? Don't start a company"
(06:02) What Palmer learned from Oculus about delegation
(06:44) How not to become Lockheed or Raytheon
(07:33) Why the government rewards being slow & expensive
(09:25) Anduril's real failure mode: becoming Google, not Lockheed
(10:21) The state of hardtech venture capital
(10:55) Why ZIRP killed serious investing
(12:31) The vibe shift toward energy, defense & agriculture
(13:01) Erebor & the SVB collapse that almost killed Anduril
(13:32) Why no American bank is actually aligned with America
(15:18) How Biden accidentally saved Anduril
(17:10) Palmer's one piece of advice for founders
(17:38) Bonus: the One Piece anime fan edit