The Compute 100: Shahin Farshchi, General Partner at Lux Capital.

Today's guest is Shahin Farshchi, General Partner at Lux Capital.

Shahin's path into venture started with a failed startup. After a PhD at UCLA designing low-noise amplifiers to capture brain signals, he bootstrapped a wireless biosignal monitoring company and learned the hard way that hospitals wanting a product and hospitals paying for one are very different things. A mentor told him he should raise venture money next time – his response: "What's venture capital?" With no network to speak of, he cold-emailed a list of VC firms offering to scout semiconductor deals. Lux Capital, the first hit on a Google search for "nanotechnology venture capital," wrote back the same day, and he joined full-time in 2006. Nearly 20 years later, he's one of the firm's most active investors in deep tech, backing companies like Majestic Labs, Cognichip, and Unconventional AI. Lux just closed Fund IX at $1.5B, its largest ever, bringing total AUM to roughly $7B. We're thrilled to have Shahin on the podcast for a conversation about the semiconductor cycle, the case for younger founders in chips, and the shrinking universe of venture-scale outcomes.

Shahin: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahinf⁠ Lux Capital: ⁠https://www.luxcapital.com/⁠

The Compute 100 is led by Brian Schechter and Gaby Lorenzi, compute-focused investors at Primary. Primary is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture firm that backs founders building across markets including compute, industrials, healthcare and vertical AI. With $1.6B AUM and a 60+ person operating team, Primary delivers unparalleled support to teams across recruiting, finance, GTM, and brand. Primary's compute portfolio includes Etched, The Biological Computing Company, Haiqu, and Atero (acquired by Crusoe).

Primary: ⁠https://www.primary.vc/⁠ Follow us on X (⁠https://x.com/thecompute100⁠) and check out our daily newsletter (⁠https://newsletter.thecompute100.com/⁠).