Demis Hassabis

So when I got to this section, my note was very simple.

WTF.

It says, in September 2010, Demis and Mustafa appeared before a strange kind of investment committee.

David Gammon declared himself ready to commit capital, but he'd only go forward if DeepMind did things his way.

Entrepreneurs seeking his support were required to visit his home and pitch to Gammon, his wife, and his three teenage sons.

Each family member would get an equal say on whether to invest.

I said to Demis, if you can't explain this to my younger son, you're not going to get his vote.

There was a painfully large gap between the grand science of the DeepMind business plan and an invitation to chat with a middle schooler.

That is just flat out bizarre.

So eventually, Demis raises money from Peter Thiel.

There's some interesting background here that I think you'd be interested in.

As a general matter, Peter Thiel doubted that going on boards was a good use of his partner's time.

Startups should be left to sink or swim.

The art of venture capital, he liked to say, was to back contrarian ideas, not coach company founders.

Thiel had taken the unusual position that collective decision making should be avoided.

The way he saw things, if investments were chosen based on voting, the Founders Fund portfolio would consist of middle-of-the-road startups to which nobody objected.

Given that all the profits in venture come from a few improbable moonshots, this sort of consensus portfolio would deliver mediocre performance.

Founders Fund wired $2.3 million.

This gives you an idea of just how hard it was to raise money for his idea, for Demis' idea.

Founders Fund wired $2.3 million to DeepMind, and they assumed ownership of a bit less than half the company.