The New/Letter #1: Welcome to the party
Were you forwarded this newsletter? Subscribe here.
WE'RE HAVING A MOMENT
The hardtech scene is rallying in El Segundo, YC is calling for deep tech, sovereign wealth managers are centering climate in their mandates, and thousands of new folks are showing up to Newlab looking for a role to play.
Welcome to the party. We’ve been waiting for you.
Three mega-trends are rearing their heads together: (1) the de-globalization of supply chains, (2) accelerating climate change, and (3) automation flipping the global workforce. Together, they will re-write the fundamentals of our global economy and shift trillions of dollars of GDP between continents, countries, corporations, as well as new generation startups that have been overlooked for decades.
De-globalization is as simple as it is complex. Countries and corporations are prioritizing industrial independence over lower costs & lower regulation across uncertain borders. It’s starting with billions of federal dollars towards securing critical components, but is quickly being followed by shifting supply chains to politically aligned networks (for example, last year Mexico surpassed China as the #1 trading partner for the US), as well as the ground-up re-invention of industrial materials, processes, and end-products that remove dependence from fragile global trade.
Climate change is more existential and more ambiguous. We know the world is heating up, but it’s far more likely the socio-economic dominoes of millions of climate refugees or the resulting regional wars will tip the world before we’re in a Mad Max situation. While many leaders bias towards regulation to slow things down, the outsized opportunities lie with building new technology across our industrial, energy, mobility and infrastructure to generate both abundant & sustainable resources. Even then, we’ll have a $15T investment gap from what’s required by 2040.
The world has had a small preview of automation shifting the global workforce over the last decades as jobs were lost to code and robots. The next few years are set to yield the greatest short term gains in productivity in history via AI and robotics but also the greatest shift in labor demand in the shortest amount of time. Will we shift to a 4-day work week or will we rage against the machine at a global scale?
Cumulatively, we’re building a fundamentally new industrial system.
One that’s underpinned by industrial independence, sustainability, and automation.
Startups have a guaranteed role as leaders in this system. A mixture of trillion dollar problems mixed with global market chaos is the biggest open door for founders to become the next titans of industry.
Newlab and others are collectively building a playbook that splits from the Silicon Valley status-quo that gave us the internet and social networks. It centers around physical sciences, advanced supply chains, piloting infrastructure, industrial facilities, and evolved high-risk capital. We’re seeing new startup cultures bubbling up across Brooklyn, Boston, Detroit, and dozens of other ecosystems that will become hot beds for the new breed of industrial startup aligned to the strength of each ecosystem.
To put it simply, welcome to the multi-decade, trillion dollar party. There’s a lot of building to do.
We’re more powerful when we work together. Join us in addressing the planet's greatest challenges.
STORIES WE LOVE
● Materials
World Resources Institute
LAST THOUGHTS
Shifts in supply chains, climate change, and automation are shaping our reality. So we're building a fundamentally new industrial system. Welcome to the multi-decade, trillion dollar party. There’s a lot of building to do.
JOIN US
©2024 New Lab, LLC. All rights reserved.
Newlab
19 Morris Avenue,
Brooklyn, NY 11205