1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Felix Hartmann, Hartmann Capital (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: So, I’m going to give the audience a pointer. Actually, quite a number of years ago, before the pandemic, I wrote a series called “Man and Superman: Human History Bifurcates,” which addresses exactly this. It’s all available on my blog for you to read. My thesis was that people who do not choose to augment are going to be at a disadvantage, and now we are seeing more real manifestations of that.

The part that excites me very much is disease, right? It’s not just augmentation, it’s also gene editing. Any kind of gene editing enabled removal of possibilities of diseases that are handed down to you with your biogenes—that’s a massive, massive opportunity and an unambiguously benevolent stream.

Felix Hartman: I think that’s where a lot of the real startups will start migrating as we raise our capabilities, right? As we become smarter, we can do more with less. I think there was going to be a diminishing game where people try to bet on apps because we can now make apps with a single person and build them in three weeks instead of two years. Fantastic, but that’s a serious game where essentially those kinds of app plays will collapse because the ease of making them becomes too low, and they become free, essentially. There’s no need to charge for them, because you might even just ask your agent to do a lot of these things. For example, “Hey, I’m going to Japan, make me a travel itinerary.” This used to be an app.

So, where do the brains go if the brains collectively get smarter and are more capable? Well, they start tackling bigger problems. To your point, I think longevity and biotech and all that are going to be a big focus. You already see the movements, whether it’s Bryan Johnson and “Don’t Die”—whether you love him or hate him—I think that is kind of the canary in the coal mine. As foreign as it used to sound, tackling death will be one of the next big things.

Sramana Mitra: Tackling death is one thing, but there are so many people living with such debilitating diseases. If you can just eliminate that, whole classes of problems can be taken out, which would enormously enhance the quality of life, right?

Felix Hartman: A hundred percent. I see tackling death as the final goalpost, and in order to get there, you need to solve all these thousands of individual diseases, right? I just think if you were to draw a graph over the next hundred years, it will look like we’re trying to tackle that. But in reality, we will need to solve all kinds of individual cancers, metabolic syndrome, heart failures, and so forth.

Sramana Mitra: So I think about biotech, AI-enabled drug discovery, and genetic engineering. All of these things are very, very promising areas. The one completely negative possibility, which we also need to be aware of, is brainwashing. The minute you open your brain up to this level of manipulation, you are opening yourself up to this level of brainwashing as well. And that’s the part that worries me about this technology. But everything has positive potential and bad potential.

Felix Hartman: A hundred percent. The good and bad news, whatever angle you look at it from, is these things will probably take a lot longer than it currently feels like. Yes, we’re going at hyper speed, everything feels amazing, right? But the reality is we’re probably still five plus years away from anything material in the invasive side. I see the timelines even when it comes to things like smart glasses. Some of the leading startups are going into their first productions. They might be selling 10,000 units this year or next year. That puts us in 2026 already. Then, if they succeed, they’re going to raise more money and might do a bigger run with like 100,000 units. It’s going to take until like 2030 for there to be millions and millions of units. And that’s just smart glass. When we go towards something like BCIs, some of these BCI startups are hoping to launch commercially in like 2028. It takes time to do these things. And even then, that—

Sramana Mitra: And there’s regulation involved. This is not something that can happen without regulation.

Felix Hartman: Correct. So, that can go in two directions. Either the regulation comes first, or the regulation lags, meaning these things launch first. And then usually regulators, they take years to figure things out. A prime example is the crypto space. Crypto was a big subject already in 2017. That was a big ICO mania. It wasn’t until this week, essentially, that the Senate passed a stablecoin bill. It is eight years after stablecoin mania that the first proper crypto bill was passed in the Senate—eight years.

Sramana Mitra: Yeah, but crypto is a financial innovation. Finance is very, very complicated. It doesn’t have the same level of regulatory framework that is easy to adopt. But the FDA is in place for medical.

Felix Hartman: No, I mean, when it’s about our lives, I’m sure there’s—we saw these—we see peptides and stem cells. Even today, the FDA goes back and forth on banning peptides because there’s lack of clarity about how safe they are, do we need them?

I think there’s a non-zero chance, I would say there’s a very large chance, that all this human enhancement will also be political. You can guess which one: one party will be pro, one party will be against. And the party that will be against will probably be the one that represents the demographic that can’t afford it, right? Because ultimately there will be price tags associated with it.

So, I don’t think everybody will be able to afford the best longevity treatments, whether it’s human enhancements and brain chips and so forth. So, then it becomes a debate of, “Well, should that even exist, because it’s not fair, right? It only makes the rich-poor gap even bigger and bigger and bigger.” So, it will be politicized on that level too.

But I think ultimately you just build and back the founders and the products that are creating a net benefit for society, and they’re creating net efficiencies. And I think that always wins in the long term. There will be hiccups along the road, but I think both efficiency and the good usually win over a long enough time horizon.

Sramana Mitra: On that note, Felix, thank you for participating. Great to have you here.

This segment is part 6 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Felix Hartmann, Hartmann Capital
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