Today I’m excited to announce the launch of our firm, Critical.
In many ways, this began a long time ago. Growing up, the people I admired most spent time on problems that mattered. This began with my parents, a doctor and a journalist.
In college, I met students who took a similar approach. Zack and Jake were tackling the opioid crisis and Ofek was expanding food access. They saw things that were broken and began doing something about it.
We started Critical for these founders: young people who see the world as their responsibility.
Critical is an inception stage venture firm that invests in exceptional students tackling major crises. Our thesis is that student founders have historically built the world’s most valuable companies and this time around they’re solving pressing challenges. This is already happening.
Halen, Luke, and Michael, are creating fossil-free fuel & chemicals; Matthew is mining metals from electronic waste; Gregory is developing a new way to diagnose life-threatening diseases. We’re grateful to partner with them.
With that, I feel lucky to build this firm with people I admire. My co-founders are my twin brother, Sam, and longtime friend Seungkwon. Since we were kids, Sam and I had an unspoken dream that we would one day work together. It’s not accidental that we call Seungkwon our triplet.
We founded Critical with Wharton’s amazing Tyler Wry, the first believer in this mission. David Beisel has become one of our closest mentors. Gus embodies the type of empathy I strive to have. And our 39 incredible student investment partners inspire my day to day work.
We’re grateful for our backers and thought partners, a mix of founders, investors and healthcare & energy executives, including Adam Miller, Aarti Chandna, Gary Swidler, Dan Mendelson, and Seth Goldman. Thank you to John, Lauren, and Goodwin; Nils, Lisa, Michael, and the whole John McNeil Studio team; Notably; Or and Chen for the day to day; and Tim De Chant for covering our story.
In the next decade, students will build some of the most innovative solutions to today’s urgent problems. If you’re a student founder working on something that matters, I’d love to talk.
