Emmanuel Vallod, Partner and Head of Venture Research at Hivemind Capital, joins Ian Bergman to explore the funding gap between academic research and startup formation. They discuss Dark Matter Lab, a new model for supporting frontier technologies before a company fully exists, and why AI infrastructure, deep tech, robotics, and other research-heavy projects may require a different approach to pre-seed investment.

The conversation also goes inside some of the technologies being developed today, from the engineering challenges behind space-based data centers to new computing architectures and robotics designed around how humans actually interact with intelligent machines.

🧭 1:36 Meet Emmanuel Vallod

🚀 2:20 Why Space Is Hard for AI Data Centers

🛰️ 4:15 What Space-Based Compute Could Actually Look Like

⚙️ 10:13 The Technology Needed to Make It Work

💡 15:16 When Breakthrough Research Has No Company Yet

🧪 17:12 Why Valuable Research Gets Stuck

💰 20:09 The Idea Behind Dark Matter Lab

🔬 26:07 How to Evaluate Research Before There Is a Product

🏛️ 29:39 Why Grants Are Not Enough

🧠 32:17 Why Frontier Tech Needs Technical Investors

📈 36:14 Can Private Capital Fill the Research Funding Gap?

🤖 39:44 Why Humanoid Robots May Be Wrong for the Home

🚀 45:07 What Changes If Dark Matter Lab Works?

🔎 45:51 Where to Follow Emmanuel and Dark Matter Lab

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