Prad Parthiban’s Post

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Building & Investing in DefenseTech & CriticalTech Startups // Chair, Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs New York // Ex-J.P. Morgan, DoD & NASA // Neuroscience -> 2x Founder -> VC

Excited to start a new role as a Senior Director on Newlab's Ventures team (CriticalTech & DefenseTech/Dual-Use Investment focus)! I've been searching for months for the perfect role that blends my background in DeepTech/Defense investment & commercialization, provides an intellectual sandbox to leverage my skillsets, gifts and passions to solve the world's most intractable problems using tough tech startups as the medium, and build an entire ecosystem of partners in academia, tech transfer labs, city/state/federal labs and gov't partners... it takes a village to drive industry forward in America. No one company can do it on their own. What Newlab is doing is different-- shifting how VC's operate from a first principles level. The last few months, been helping the Leadership stand up Newlab's emerging work with DARPA, & after spending time with Garrett Winther Carl Wolf and Liz Keen often at late nights at the Brooklyn office, it's clear that the whole team here is willing to put in the insane amount of hard work it takes to think different and more ambitiously about how to de-risk private investment with industry customers & physical assets that allow for rapid tech validation like a set of "proving grounds." It means going the extra mile to secure private roadspace for self-driving car pilots, waterway access to put our startups' boats on an active port, robots on open air mines, and drones in controlled urban airspace with fast-tracked permitting... It means building deep relationships with cities and states to unlock regulation + non-dilutive capital. This model gives us more quant data than anyone else on how to invest smarter and more strategically and we don't need to rely on outdated B2B SaaS West Coast investing models. The Industrial Age is here and it will take a different approach to VC to build the next age of innovation. No more pattern-matching or intellectual laziness. It's not gonna be easy to build -- but JFK said that we don't do things "because they are easy, but because they are hard." So here's to putting in the hard work and doing something no other VC is doing at our scale at Newlab -- excited to join the team, build cool shit and change the world. "Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs, 1997 Special thanks to Brandon Corts for giving me my first tour with Newlab nearly two years ago with Pete Mathias -- that's when I "got it" — I told him I'd want to work here someday. And here I am. To those that "get it," let's get it.

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Pete Mathias

Venture Capitalist | “2024 Rising Star in VC"

1w

Let’s GET IT!!!

Jamie Niu

Co-Founder & CEO @ Podium Automation

1w

👏💪

Olivia O'Sullivan

Partner & COO @ Forum VC | Marketer | Community Builder | Ultra Runner

1w

What an awesome fit! So excited to see what you'll do at Newlab. They're lucky to have you :)

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Karina Nemeth

CEO @ MGC | Distributing electronics ecosystems to bring the power of industrial thinking back to the people (& their AIs)

4d

Congrats! Your background and fit for the role are inspiring. I'm working on an industrial solution I'd like to introduce to Newlab when I come by NY in January. LMK if you'd like to scale the commercialization of your investments locally.

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Trevor Burgess

Founder | CEO of VoltSafe Inc. - Groundbreaking electrical power transfer technology that drives social, economic and environmental impact worldwide, by eliminating design flaws associated with pronged plug designs.

1w

(VoltSafe) will be connecting with you on this focus area soon Prad!

Jenn Halweil

Chief Story Engineer #GoBeyond...Shifting our stories + data from black and white to technicolor & our attention economy to one of impact | @Emmys Nominated | Team @Marvel | Sustainable Futurist 🌊

1w

Congrats Prad! Much deserved. Looking forward to seeinf you on the ferry one of these days.

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Victoria Lee

Co-Founder of Welcome To Chinatown

1w

Congratulations Prad Parthiban! I was just reading Newlab's impact report this week and inspired by their work.

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Manasa Gummalla

Vice President | Healthcare and Life Science Startup Banking @ J.P. Morgan

1w

Congratulations Prad!!!!! I can’t wait to see all you accomplish.

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Jessica Shen

Growth @ Credal | Asian Founders Club

1w

So proud of you! You’re gonna kill it :)

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Dan Connell

VP of Operations at Newlab

1w

onward and upward! congrats and welcome!

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