DNX

Interview

• An investor who has founded a company — unleashing the entrepreneur’s inner “magma” into the world.
• Opening a New Frontier — “Deep Science” DNX is a venture capital firm that invests primarily in B2B software and AI startups, but we are increasingly expanding into deep tech powered by AI. Representative investments in this space include ROMS, iSiP, and Tres Alchemix. Given my background — investing at a VC firm focused on biotech and hard tech, and serving as VP at a drug discovery startup — this is the domain I pursue with particular focus. “Deep tech” has become a well-established term in the industry, but I prefer to define my investment territory with a different phrase: Deep Science. The idea is to look at science through the lens of software. One clear example is AI-native drug discovery. Traditional drug development has relied heavily on screening vast compound libraries against target proteins, combined with expert intuition built over years of experience — a process that is slow and expensive. AI software has the potential to transform this dramatically. If we can find better drug candidates faster and at lower cost, the upside is compelling not only as an investment, but as a social impact story: getting breakthrough treatments to patients suffering from diseases that have long had no answers. Through our investments in iSiP and Tres Alchemix, I feel that DNX has opened a genuine new door into Deep Science as an investment category. And I intend to keep looking beyond AI drug discovery — toward any social challenge that AI-generated outputs could help solve in ways that simply weren’t possible before.
• Close Support and Hard Truths — Standing With Founders as a Fellow Operator I often use the analogy of driving a car to describe what it’s like to run a startup. The founder is the driver — behind the wheel of a vehicle called a startup, navigating a road that doesn’t yet exist, pressing forward toward a purpose they’ve mapped out for themselves. The investor sits in the passenger seat. We fuel the journey with risk capital at the right moments, and when the driver is uncertain about the road ahead, we offer guidance from where we’re sitting. The founder’s success is our success. I know firsthand how hard that journey is — I’ve been the one in the driver’s seat myself. I still wake up from nightmares about not being able to make payroll. I draw on those experiences, including the painful ones, as I watch founders grow and try to offer honest, substantive guidance on how they’re running their companies. Beyond capital, that might mean sitting in on C-suite hiring interviews, or standing at an exhibition booth helping with sales. The support takes many forms. At the same time, there are moments that call for directness, for example when I see a founder making excuses, or a judgment call that concerns me. I try to share the kind of advice I wish someone had given me when I was in their position. Cheering from the passenger seat, yes, but also willing to reach for the brake when something looks dangerous, and offering a path forward from the perspective of someone who has been there. That, I think, is where my particular value lies.
• Seeking the Founders Whose “Magma” Is Ready to Erupt The founders I want to invest in are the ones carrying magma inside them. What I mean by magma is a particular kind of energy: a deep anger at the way things are, an almost visceral sense of urgency about a specific industry or problem, a conviction that things must change and that they are the ones to change it. I often find this energy in founders who have taken a significant detour in life — those who have stumbled, gone the long way around, or broken with the expected path in some meaningful way. The road of a startup is relentlessly difficult. Without a sustained, burning source of drive like this, even the most capable founders can lose their heart before they get where they’re going. I want to keep walking alongside the founders who feel that pull, those who have found a way to channel their sense of urgency into a sustainable business model, and who have chosen the startup path as their way of taking it on.