Introducing our Partners

Last month, right around the time we emerged from stealth, Lanyon AI officially closed its initial fundraising round, led by Dimension, and with participation from Industrious Ventures and angel investor Siqi Chen. We are thrilled to be partnering with such an exceptional group of people as we pursue our core mission of building the future of scientific and technical computing, and we would like to take a moment to introduce some of these wonderful new members of Team Lanyon.

When we first met Simon Barnett, Zavain Dar, and the other partners at Dimension, what struck us immediately was how utterly research-focused they were. In stark contrast to the traditional venture capital stereotype, their initial questions were not about run rates or market share (“those things will come,” they said), but about research direction, conceptual strategy, and the ideas that excited us most. They encouraged us to think about the grand narrative arc of what we were building, and about how we fit into the broader picture of science and the future, in a way that we found refreshing and energizing in approximately equal measure.

We think of Lanyon AI as a fundamental R&D lab, guided by a clear philosophical vision: to formally verify the physical universe, and render it amenable to rigorous and intelligent computation. We knew from the beginning that we only wanted to partner with people who would afford us the freedom to pursue these lofty research objectives, to break down the barriers between the physical, computational, and mathematical universes, without pressure to chase a quick buck or pivot to the latest fad. And we knew right from our first meeting that Dimension were those people. In some ways they understood our mission, and its significance, better than we did ourselves.

When we first met Taylor Sargent of Industrious Ventures, I must confess that we did so harboring a certain degree of envy. Industrious was partnering with companies building lunar bases, reusable rocket boosters, supersonic jets, and all kinds of other stuff that seemed so much cooler than anything we were doing with AI and math. But Taylor made it clear right from the start that Industrious would help us with one of the things we knew Lanyon needed most: contact with physical reality.

As three nerdy theorists fresh out of academia, we knew that convincing people in critical industries like aerospace, nuclear, and defense that Lanyon would be the solution to all of their woes was going to be a tall order. But Industrious knew these industries, and the people behind them, better than anyone else we spoke to, and Taylor made it clear that he was willing to do whatever he could to help. We knew from that moment onwards that partnering with Industrious was a non-optional component of our future success. Industrious’s Alexandra Johnson even helped us coordinate our first press release!

Siqi Chen was one of the very first people I spoke to after we incorporated the company, and also the first person to invest in us. Over the course of a couple of phone calls, Siqi patiently and candidly explained which aspects of what we were doing he was personally most (and least!) excited about, scotched a couple of my more fanciful ideas, and made a number of uncannily prescient predictions about how things would unfold going forward.

Siqi’s early support allowed us to lease our first office space, buy our first computers, and hire the professional legal counsel that ultimately guided us through the remainder of our fundraising process. I won’t speak for Ammar or Jimmy, but at least for me, the dinner that the three of us had at Tommy’s Tavern to celebrate Siqi agreeing to invest marked the psychological moment where Lanyon AI transitioned from being a hypothetical endeavor to a real, operating company. Like all good angels, Siqi helped us to interpret our visions, and heralded the many great events to come.

Corresponding Press Release (PR Newswire)