John Forbes brings an operator-first background to deep tech investing, having served as Chief of Staff at climate startup Perimeter and helped build it from zero to product-market fit before joining Julian Capital and Deep Checks. He's known for seeking founders who reveal "absolutely absurd" secrets about the world that almost no one else knows, using these non-obvious insights as a core filter for finding opportunities in frontier markets.
Video Interview
On why no customization is better than bad customization in cold outreach
"No customization is better than wrong customization. And again, just give founders enough surface area to get excited about you in the business and give them the chance to book that meeting."
On the question every founder should ask at the end of an investor call
"How close is this to your wheelhouse and what are your main concerns? And it puts you on the spot. And lets you give them, like oftentimes I'll know exactly what my next set of follow-up questions was going to be, but I want to be respectful of their time and not make them go over."
On what separates the founders who jump off the page
"People will say when you meet an incredible founder, they jump out of the page at you. And that is entirely true. Like we will take a call every once in a while and think, wow, this person is special."
On why raising too large a round can narrow your options
"If you raise a very, very large round, it just sets the expectation for that next round that much higher because you're going to want to raise an up round, which means you're going to want to raise an even larger round, which means you might, you know, as you go higher and higher in round size, the number of funds that are applicable to you might narrow and narrow."
On why co-founder relationships are a top reason startups fail
"Making sure that your relationship with your co-founders and your relationships in the rest of your life are in a really strong place to be able to endure the challenge that is to be starting a startup, I think, is one of the most important things that you can do."
About their Fund
Julian Capital
Sectors
Deeptech / Hardware, Robotics, Biotech, Climate, Energy, Materials, Chips, Medtech, Food & Ag, Transportation
Rounds
Pre-Seed - Seed
Avg Check Size
$400K - $2M
Notable Investments
Julian Capital is the best deeptech seed fund for founders who value (1) future fundraising help (2) introductions to initial hires and customers and (3) help with branding and design. Why? Because they own DeepChecks.vc—the central hub of deeptech fundraising, where they know every VC in the space and have thousands of scientific founders in their CRM who can help founders.
Unlike typical deeptech funds, they provide full-stack design execution by building and maintaining portfolio companies' websites from scratch, plus hands-on growth strategy work backed by founder Julian Shapiro's background as VP of Marketing at Webflow and growth lead at major startups.
They invest in robotics, chips, energy, materials, medtech, chemicals, and nearly every other deeptech hardware sector.
Notable Fund
Investments
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Popular Investors
investor name
Active in
Rounds
Avg. Check
Links
Defense
Deeptech / Hardware
Energy
+
7
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Series A
Unknown
$100K - $5M
Unknown
Defense
Deeptech / Hardware
Energy
+
7
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Series A
Unknown
$100K - $5M
Unknown
Biotech
Health
Deeptech / Hardware
+
2
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Seed
Unknown
$250K - $2M
Unknown
Climate
Deeptech / Hardware
Materials
+
4
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Seed
Unknown
$400K - $1.5M
Unknown
Deeptech / Hardware
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Robotics
Biotech
+
7
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Seed
Unknown
$400K - $2M
Unknown
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Deeptech / Hardware
Robotics
Biotech
+
2
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Seed
Unknown
~$750K
Unknown
Fintech
Deeptech / Hardware
Devtools
+
2
View more in profile...
Unknown
Pre-Seed - Series A
Unknown
$250K-$1M
Unknown
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