Danielle Strachman and Harry Ghandi are investors at 1517, a venture capital fund dedicated to backing dropouts working on hard problems and sci-fi scientists at the earliest stage of their companies. I am proud to be partnered with 1517 for my biotech company, AION.

Danielle co-founded the Thiel Fellowship. After running it for a few years, she and her co-founder Michael Gibson realized that if each grant they awarded had been a seed investment in the fellowship recipients’ startups, they would have effectively been one of the top-performing venture funds in the world. Driven by that insight, they went on to launch 1517.

Harry Gandhi is a former Thiel Fellow, who went on to co-found a company where he worked on developing the next generation of bio-sensors and electronics to help us monitor our health. After this stint as a founder, he joined 1517 as a venture partner where he now invests and helps guide new founders like him along their journeys.

In our conversation, we talk about the archetype of Thiel Fellows and 1517 founders, the dynamics of fundraising, building successful deep tech start-ups and much more.

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