Dave Messina
@DaveMessina
General Partner, @Pioneer_Fund leading the Future of Health Fund. Co-founded @CofactorGenomic. @YCombinator alum. previously Human Genome Project.
**A grand unified theory on what will happen in biotech in the next 10-20 years** the two major forces reshaping industrial biotech in the next decade are: 1. China 2. AI - and they're critically linked how? China's low R&D cost basis democratizes execution by providing…
These new Lp(a) drugs seem like they could be a big deal for a lot of people
Every startup needs someone in the neighborhood with a forklift
Healthcare captured 26% of all vertical AI financing dollars and >30% of large deals ($50M+ rounds) in Q1 2025, for a total of $2.7B in capital raised across 152 deals.
One of the most interesting things about watching this is 12 years later the YC interview hasn’t changed at all. Almost makes me wonder if we should bring back the live audience component
Watch @typesfast pitch Flexport to Paul Graham and Sam Altman for the first time at Startup School 2013:
pixar accidentally solved the AI alignment problem in 2015. their movie - Inside Out demonstrates that human memory is an active, emotionally weighted system, not passive storage. memories change valence over time, get contaminated by current emotional states, and are filtered…
ai memory that just logs your inputs will always feel uncanny unless it observes passively. most of the important memories aren’t declared, they’re revealed through your actions & behavior. & they are also often subconscious. this is the most interesting & important problem in…
Kraftful has been acquired by @Amplitude_HQ: amplitude.com/blog/amplitude… Our AI product will form a core new VOC part of the Amplitude platform as we announced on stage to the full Amplitude team yesterday. Here’s how we got here... Six years ago, we set out to help teams build…
In the span of a few years, tech people in Silicon Valley shifted from "humanoid robots don't make sense" to "humanoid robots will obviously be a multi-trillion dollar market." @pioneer_fund has been investing in the space since 2022.
Proud to be supporting you, @DaneshSamy !
Exciting milestone for Argon AI—we’ve raised a $5.5 million seed round led by @CrosslinkCap and @WireframeVC , with support from @ycombinator , @pioneer_fund , and industry operators. Grateful to our customers for their trust and our investors @ThePhilBoyer, @harsh1,…
What a loss. One of the clearest thinkers in biology. If you ever heard him give a talk, you’d never forget it.
Between alarms and sheltering, I learned last night that my postdoc mentor, Professor Atul Butte @atulbutte, has passed away, and he is only 55 years old. This is devastating news 💔. Atul was a giant in so many ways. He was a visionary leader in translational bioinformatics…
Floored by this study: 750k women were offered a $40 upsell for an AI to read their mammograms 36% paid it (out of pocket) Those that did were 21% more likely to have their cancer detected The positive predictive value for cancer was 15% higher for those who chose AI The…
I see some of my smartest colleagues and friends stuck a cycle of getting degree after degree. You don’t have to do this. Academia is broken. Many more opportunities for you outside.
Project Hail Mary vibes
Voyager 1 is still kicking and making us proud after 47 years. NASA just fired up thrusters that hadn’t worked since 2004 — from 15 billion miles away. Hats off to everyone working to keep this mission alive. npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-…
hiring 1-2 interns in person in sf this summer. cheryl saved a spot just for u :) this won't be your typical internship experience. you will: - live and work in person with us in our hacker house - get more done in a week than a year in a big tech company - experience a…
The next decade’s progress in human health will be astonishing. And we’re already underway.
Ozempic is a miracle drug. This looks like another:
I’ve long loved the em dash. And now sadly I avoid it — people see it as a ChatGPT tell.
Moderna unified the role of CTO and head of people - the new leader determines which jobs are better done by humans or AI. It's among the first in what will very likely be a series of org chart reimaginings.