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Aaron Pickard

@notcaptpicard.bsky.social

Present: partner @ Dorm Room Fund, student @ Chicago Booth, writing at aaronpickard.substack.com Past: rocket scientist. Alum MIFP, Columbia, JTS

30 Followers  |  50 Following  |  25 Posts  |  Joined: 17.12.2024
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Posts by Aaron Pickard (@notcaptpicard.bsky.social)

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Media Review: Ask Iwata Wisdom from Nintendo's late CEO

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

22.08.2025 22:11 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Is crewed spaceflight a natural monopoly? The market for people is different from the market for satellites

Last week on Molding Moonshots, I wrote about market dynamics in crewed spaceflight!

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

18.08.2025 20:26 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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What's holding back Generative AI adoption at work? And how do we fix it?

This week on Molding Moonshots, I wrote about what I think is holding back GenAI adoption in the workplace!

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

01.08.2025 22:08 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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IonQ bought Capella Space Searching for synergies across deep tech sectors

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

18.07.2025 22:36 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Investing in Deep Tech Q2 2025 My public equities portfolio

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

03.07.2025 22:26 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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This week on Molding Moonshots, I shared how I approach deep tech investing - as a retail investor!

Link in first reply.

03.07.2025 22:25 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Reading Stoke Space's Thesis What kind of future does CEO Andy Lapsa want to live in?

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

27.06.2025 22:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Is Biotech Deep Tech? Do drug discovery startups belong in deep tech portfolios?

Does Biotech belong in Deep Tech?

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

20.06.2025 20:21 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Apple can lead AIs to knowledge, but it cannot make them think Some thoughts on a recent research paper

This week on Molding Moonshots, I wrote about a recent research paper that Apple backed.

Subscribe on Substack to receive weekly updates directly to your inbox!

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

13.06.2025 18:44 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The defense tech startup explosion What's driving this underwriting?

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

06.06.2025 21:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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What will it take to cancel the Space Launch System? It's a very persistent program

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

30.05.2025 22:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Rayni - Operate Instruments with confidence Solve scientific instrument issues in minutes. No more endless troubleshooting. Any Instrument. Any Question. Any Time.

I'm very happy to see Rayni made the New Venture Challenge finals.

Leading Dorm Room Fund's investment in the startup was a highlight of my year.

I can't wait for Sakshi and Div to share what they're working on!

www.rayni.ai
www.linkedin.com/company/rayn...
polsky.uchicago.edu/2025/05/23/1...

23.05.2025 17:51 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
An Umbra Space synthetic aperture radar satellite image of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China from May 6, 2025.

An Umbra Space synthetic aperture radar satellite image of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China from May 6, 2025.

There's not much like a crisp @umbra.space capture of a spaceport 🛰️🤓

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center - 2025-05-06 04:09:36 UTC.

22.05.2025 00:59 — 👍 11    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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Infactory: A startup snapshot Good science produces reproducible results, and AI tools should too

This week on Molding Moonshots, I wrote a mini-memo about @infactory.bsky.social!
open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

16.05.2025 17:57 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Is venture debt popular in AI? And just as critically, should it be?

This week on Molding Moonshots, I explored venture debt, and thought about why it might be a good fit for AI startups.

aaronpickard.substack.com/p/is-venture...

09.05.2025 19:27 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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This week on Molding Moonshots, I wrote about startups as a type of prototypical system.

aaronpickard.substack.com/p/the-purpos...

02.05.2025 19:15 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Air Space Intelligence: A startup snapshot A tool to help logisticians

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

25.04.2025 15:43 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Maritime Tech Market Map & Investor List VCs are warming up to startups in the water

This week on Molding Moonshots, I shared a market map of startups building in the maritime domain - and the funds investing in them!
open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

18.04.2025 16:15 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Nuclear startups should stop planning to sell energy The nuclear sector needs to move away from utilities

This week on Molding Moonshots, I wrote about the mid-term potential of the nuclear sector.

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

11.04.2025 19:27 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Reorganizing Rocket Scaleups Tracking a Trend

This week on Molding Moonshots, I looked at how launch services providers are changing their organizational structures.

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

04.04.2025 21:53 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Danti: A startup snapshot Sitting at the intersection of NLP & Earth Observation data

This week on Molding Moonshots, I took a look at Danti!
open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

28.03.2025 21:20 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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50 years ago today...

source: www.nasa.gov/history/50-y...

24.03.2025 21:07 — 👍 29    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 1
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Startups in Stealth Magnifying the first move

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

21.03.2025 20:37 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Why do you want VC money? A critical question for founders

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

14.03.2025 23:02 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Apparently we can post longer videos now, so a little test :)

One of the prettiest Soyuz roll-outs IMHO
From the documentary Baikonur, Earth (2018)

My hat off to you Andrea Sorini

11.03.2025 18:04 — 👍 51    🔁 5    💬 2    📌 0
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SpaceX: A scaleup snapshot Spacecraft and satellites and super-heavy lift launch, oh my

This week on Molding Moonshots, I put together a snapshot of SpaceX!

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

07.03.2025 19:07 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Humanoid Robots Market Map & Investor List Looking at the landscape of startups and investors

This week on Molding Moonshots, I put together a market map of humanoid robot companies, and looked at their early-stage investors. Check it out!

open.substack.com/pub/aaronpic...

28.02.2025 18:57 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Hello, world!

28.02.2025 18:55 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0