DIY Lithium leverages design thinking to discover and exploit technological lacunae.
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Here's the cycle. A new buzz escapes the depths of hell: robots, AI, NFTs, sharing economy, blockchains, mobile, SaaS, social games, search engines, web portals, CD ROMs, whatever.
Investment rushes in. Fianciers compete on their (one) dimension: check size. As checks swell, volume must collapse. This leads to a sloppy, hysterical and naïve systemwide allocation of capital. Good things happen to bad people, and vice versa. The party peters out. Venture lemmings fritter on to the next orgy.
The frenzy and greed of the moment leaves little room for thoroughness. They leave behind Spanish galleons. We prepare to dive.
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Post-hype, we finally regain that most precious of resources: time to think. To properly cultivate these areas, we setup domain-focused laboratories. Each lab will rightly perceive the tech, what it means, and how it should serve humans.
The whole point of DIY Lithium is to slow down and do things right. We therefore feel no pressure to work according to any formal timeline or fund structure.
We deliver the best work we can, as prolifically as we can.
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One formalism we do adopt, in the spirit of interoperability with the rest of "tech", is the topical research lab-as-investment-vehicle. We never pitch products. We occasionally pitch labs. We always pitch revenue.
Another airlock between us and the more commonly perceived tech industry can be found in our collaborations with founders and firms. When, through personal relations or otherwise, it becomes advantageous to collaborate alongside or to incubate a partner, we don't resist the moment.