Human 3 with Brom and Sam

Ever wondered what Pioneer Fund’s Future of Health Fund is excited about? Want to know how to impress Dave Messina? Are you curious about how different funds communicate and interact?

Give a listen to our first in a potential series of the Human 3 podcast: VCxVC talks, hosted by Samantha Rector.

Dave Messina is a General Partner at Pioneer Fund, managing Pioneer’s Future of Health Fund, a fund of over 100 Y Combinator healthtech alumni investing in top health startups.

He’s spent over 25 years in healthcare and has been leading healthcare investments at Pioneer Fund since 2019. Dave has led over 100 deals and has invested in companies including Gilgamesh Pharmaceutical, Assort Health, Freshpaint & PostEra, among many other impressive companies.

We see a lot of companies in techbio as tech companies that use a lot of the same technology that the tech companies who get the headlines use. The tech is often the same even though there’s an overlay of science and regulation.

Dave has been a friend of XEIA’s for several years and has been the lead investor on several common deals including NeuroBionics’ pre-seed, Kerna Labs’ pre-seed and the pre-seed of a very exciting, but also VERY stealth NewCo. We couldn’t have thought of a better friend to bring on for the first VCxVC Human 3 pod.0:00 - Who is Dave Messina of Pioneer Fund?

1:19 - Sam’s recent call to conversation

2:17 - Dave’s take on breaking the conversation rhythm as a biotech VC

3:30 - XEIA’s first VCxVC podcast

4:35 - What is Pioneer Fund and the Future of Health fund?

7:45 - YC and biotech investments

12:30 - How Pioneer and XEIA met each other

14:24 - Pioneer and XEIA’s first coinvestment; NeuroBionics (plug podcast)

14:50 - How Pioneer decides to invest in companies that are not YC alum, like NeuroBionics

16:57 - Why NeuroBionics is so cool

21:56 - The transition from academia to being a founder; what we look for

26:15 - A tough reality for technical founders

28:50 - Another coinvestment; Kerna Labs and its coolness (plug podcast)

34:08 - Tech companies in the life sciences

34:59 - XEIA’s historical focus in techbio: discrete biological problems

37:55 - A shift to drugs that promote lifespan and healthspan more broadly

38:50 - “Pure play techbio” & our third coinvestment: a super stealth company

39:56 - Jack O’Meara and Pioneer’s investment in Aerska; riffing on repeat founders

40:58 - The startup pace

42:22 - Underwriting really young companies as early stage investors

43:28 - Dave’s work on The Human Genome Project (!!!!!)

50:05 - Empowering the individual, non-expert to use LLMs and biological data responsibly

52:51 - Consumerization of health

55:50 - Benefits of AI in healthcare

58:55 - SiPhox and at-home testing

1:00:23 - AI in bio and drug discovery (what it was, what it is and where it’s going)

1:02:50 - Phone ringing interruption lol (ends at 1:03:02)

1:05:08 - What does the future of bio look like? Is data generation key?

1:06:44 - Tighter feedback loops between data generation and predictions; specialization as key

1:08:40 - How AI will impact the future of biopharma

1:09:55 - Dave’s take on SaaS in techbio

1:14:06 - The last burning question for Dave

1:16:26 - How to get in touch with Dave

Brom Rector and Sam Tabone from XEIA Venture Partners - a VC firm that invests in the future of human health, wellbeing and performance - discuss $HIMS Q2 results and the HIMS business more broadly.

We spend a lot of time discussing the legality of HIMS current FDA strategy and how/if HIMS can compete in a world with increasing competition from players like Function Health and Superpower.

This is not financial advice.

www.xeiavp.com

Watch the video recording on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BM6x59oMnKg?si=qF0xDvgUMvU60ctP

2025 has been the start of a bull period for psychedelic medicine.

​Psychedelic Biotechs like GH Research, Compass Pathways and Lykos Therapeutics are releasing impressive, late stage clinical trial data

​Capital is following the data: Cybin just raised $500M and Johnson and Johnson's Ketamine-inspired antidepressant Spravato broke $1B+ / year of topline.

​A new administration seems surprisingly interested in accelerating the FDA approval of psychedelics as treatments for mental health disorders

​Learn how top VCs and LPs are mapping and allocating to this exciting space in this special event designed for family offices and HNWIs.

​You will learn:

​The contrasting approaches that biotech and pharma are taking to commercialize psychedelic medicine

​Where we see the highest-leverage points for investing

​Lessons from past failures

​And of course there will be plenty of time for interaction and Q&A

​This event is run by Brom Rector and Sam Tabone of XEIA, a venture capital fund that invests in "Human 3 - the next epoch of human health, wellbeing and performance". As part of their Human 3 thesis, they have invested in 8 psychedelic medicine companies from pre-seed to pre-IPO.

The past few years have been rough for psychedelic and shroom stocks, but recent news from ATAI (and Recognify), Compass Pathways and GH Research + positive regulatory tailwinds from RFK and MAHA make me think that Psychedelics are back on the menu in 2025.

In this video I discuss:

(0:00) - why psychedelics are hot again in 2025

(5:45) - latest thoughts on Compass a month after their Phase 3 topline data

(9:45) - thoughts on ATAI / Recognify, and how this feeds back into our psychedelic macro theme

Join our investing in psychedelics webinar www.psybio.org

Ryan Field is the CEO of Kernel, a brain-computer interface company founded by Bryan Johnson. Kernel is a cutting edge, non-invasive BCI that uses fNIRS to image the brain. Imagine if getting an MRI was as easy as putting on a bike helmet: that's Kernel in a nutshell.

Kernel is developing several applications on top of their device including (A) predicting which antidepressant you will respond best to and (B) BrainAge, a cognitive assesment that tells you how young your brain is relative to your chronological age.

Ryan joins Brom Rector and Sam Tabone on the podcast to discuss:

(0:00) - Ryan’s background

(7:30) - history of Kernel

(10:00) - non-invasive VS invasive BCI (Kernel vs NeuraLink)

(25:00) - what Kernel can do: depression treatment response + brain age

(31:00) - Kernel's AI: black box or hand tuned features

(45:00) - How Kernel can detect cognitive impairment

(55:30) - Kernel's alcohol study

(58:00) - Kernel vs cheap neurotechand more!Get your Brain Age measured at https://www.kernel.com/brainage

I interviewed Michael Huseby to learn about his life story and his new book: Fundamentals: Your Friendly Guide to Investment Funds and SyndicationsThis is a great listen for anyone interested in starting an investment fund or interested in making the transition from "practitioner" to "practitioner operator", like Michael did when leaving BigLaw to start his firm, and like I did when leaving the hedge fund I was to start my own fund. We cover: 0:00 - Michael's backstory. Big Law. Going blind. The road to Entrepreneurship16:30 - from legal practitioner to legal entrepreneur23:30 - how TIL is different, a law firm run like a startup37:30 - how Michael is growing his firm + law in the age of AI44:30 - trends in the private markets world51:00 - what are the attributes of successful fund managers54:00 - 506(b) vs 506(c)1:03:00 - most common mistakes people make when starting a fund1:07:30 - Michael’s views fund-in-a-box services like AngelList, Carta and SydecarMichael's law firm: https://www.investmentslawyers.com/Michael's book: https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Friendly-Guide-Investment-Syndications-ebook/dp/B0FCMJL1G8/ref=sr_1_1

Replay of our webinar on investing in brain computer interfaces. Join our upcoming July 30th event on investing in psychedelic biotech: psybio.org

Xylo is a biotech startup that is using computational methods to design novel brain drugs to treat mental health disorders and neurodegeneration. Many of their drug candidates are inspired by naturally occurring psychedelic drugs but are specifically designed to not induce hallucinations. Xylo's cofounders Josh Ismin and Sam Banister join Brom Rector and Sam Tabone to discuss:

(3:25) - Xylo origins + why design novel psychedelic molecules?

10:30) - How Xylo’s AI approach is different than other non-hallucinogenic psychedelic companies like Gilgamesh and Delix

(21:30) - What is the head twitch response?

(25:30) - How Xylo’s drugs are different than other psychedelics even though they hit the same receptor (5HT2a)

(26:30) - How Lykos’ failure to get MDMA approved impacts Xylo

(32:00) - Running trials in Australia

(43:00) - How has Xylo has evolved over the years

(50:30) - How will AI change drug discovery

(53:00) - How much of the neuro receptor space has been characterized

(56:00) - Is Xylo bullish or bearish on AIMore on Xylo here: https://www.xylo.bio/

More on Brom, Sam and XEIA here: www.xeiavp.com

Arye Lipman is the cofounder of Biosphere, a startup that recently raised millions of dollars from Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Chris Sacca's Lower Carbon Capital to Unleash Industrial Biomanufacturing at scale. Biosphere is replacing the 1950's steam bioreactor with a modern, UV-enabled design that reduces the capital intensity of biomanufacturing.

Arye joins Brom Rector and Sam Tabone to share how biomanufacturing promises to unlock a new era of global abundance and American sovereignty. We also discuss: (0:00) - what is biomanufacturing

(5:00) - biomanufacturing vs traditional manufacturing

(10:00) - how Biosphere's UV bioreactors are 10x better than traditional bioreactors

(28:30) - what a 10x cost decrease in biomanufacturing unlocks.

(35:00) - can we grow a steak without a cow?

(42:00) - how biosphere raised from Founders Fund and Lower Carbon Capital

(51:00) - is biomanufacturing "woke climate" or American Dynamism?

(55:50) - how Biosphere is working with the DOD

(1:07:30) - Trump’s view on biomanufacturing

(1:12:00) - Consciousness, dolphins and the CIA Check our biosphere here: https://www.biosphere.io/

Compass Pathways ($CMPS) released an interim readout from their Phase 3 trial of Psilocybin (COMP360) for treatment resistant depression (TRD).

The data was positive and highly anticipated by the psychedelic community, but the stock dropped 50% on June 23rd. Brom Rector and Sam Tabone of XEIA Venture Partners react and comment in this emergency podcast.

We discuss:

(0:00) - what did the Compass Pathways data readout actually say

(12:00) - putting the Compass trial results into context vs SSRIs, Lexapro, Spravato and Ketamine

(19:00) - why Compass crashed

(24:00) - will Comp360 get FDA approval?

(26:00) - will COMP360 be commercially successful?

(30:00) - price targets for Compass Pathways $CMPS

(35:00) - will Compass get acquired?

(40:00) - are we bullish or bearish on Compass?

Learn more about Brom, Sam and XEIA at www.xeiavp.com