Josh Wolfe co-founded Lux Capital to support scientists and entrepreneurs who pursue counter-conventional solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time in order to lead us into a brighter future. The more ambitious the project, the better—like, say, creating matter from light.

Wolfe is a director at Shapeways, Strateos, Lux Research, Kallyope, CTRL-labs, Variant, and Varda, and helped lead Lux Capital’s investments in Anduril, Planet, Echodyne, Clarifai, Authorea, Resilience, and Hadrian. He is a founding investor and board member with Bill Gates in Kymeta, which makes cutting-edge antennas for high-speed global satellite and space communications. 

Wolfe is a Westinghouse semi-finalist and published scientist. He previously worked in investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney and in capital markets at Merrill Lynch. In 2008, he co-founded and funded Kurion, a contrarian bet in the unlikely business of using advanced robotics and state-of-the-art engineering and chemistry to clean up nuclear waste. It was an unmet, inevitable need with no solution in sight. The company was among the first responders to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. In February 2016, Veolia acquired Kurion for nearly $400 million—34 times Lux’s total investment.

Wolfe is a columnist with Forbes and editor for the Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report. He has been invited to the White House and Capitol Hill to advise on nanotechnology and emerging technologies, and has lectured at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, and NYU. He is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations and chairman of Coney Island Prep charter school, where he grew up in Brooklyn. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in economics and finance.

This appearance by Josh Wolfe is part of the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series. Join us virtually at youtube.com/ecorner as we bring founders, investors and industry influencers to center stage and invite them to share what it takes to become a disruptor.