I sit down with Tom Chi, founder and general partner of At One Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage, deep tech companies focused on cleaning up industry. Tom is an engineer by training and was a founding member of Google X team, where he helped lead early work on self-driving cars and augmented reality.
In this episode, we dig into why centralized production is so fragile, why climate solutions only scale when they deliver superior economics, how AI and robotics may decentralize production, and why the future depends on reconnecting wealth creation with real value creation.
Enjoy.
Recording date: May 27, 2026
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:41 Concept Of Distributed Sophistication
08:48 Fragility Of Centralized Production Systems
15:05 Venture Capital’s Role In Deep Tech
20:23 Deep Tech Unit Economics
26:52 Deep Tech Investment Timelines
32:49 Outdated Production Systems
36:22 Investors Piling Into Industrial Tech
43:24 Creating More Independent Business Ownership
50:43 AI And Warfare
54:41 Wealth Creation vs. Value Creation
58:00 Story Behind AtOne Ventures
01:02:17 Vertical Integration
01:05:11 Middlemen’s Role In The Real Economy
01:10:37 Tom’s Book: Climate Capital
01:11:35 Rapid Fire
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Connect with Tom Chi:
At One Ventures: https://www.atoneventures.com/
Book - Climate Capital: https://www.atoneventures.com/insights/our-climate-playbook-is-broken--and-entrepreneurs-are-the-only-ones-who-can-fix-it
Buy The Book Here: https://www.amazon.com/Climate-Capital-Investing-Regenerative-Future/dp/1394351240
Remember to go direct!
Jordan
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