Helping transform the moving world. Co-Founder and Managing Partner @UPPartnersVC, INTJ ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ

Santa Monica, CA, USA
Joined February 2012
Ben Marcus retweeted
Eyes on scene before the boat leaves the pier. ๐Ÿ“ท Sector Southeastern New England and Office of Rapid Response and Prototyping (CG-RAPTOR) tested drones that launch remotely the moment a distress call comes in, streaming live video to watchstanders and cutting time to receive critical information by up to 77%. @USCG is modernizing our capabilities to reduce response times and build a more agile, capable force. #CoastGuard #SearchAndRescue #AutomomousSystems
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BETA becomes the first company to receive an FAA special airworthiness certification to fly potential customers in its electric VTOL aircraft. Read more here: beta-technologies.visitlink.โ€ฆ
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NEWS ๐Ÿ“ฃ Reliable has raised new capital and officially surpassed $1B in valuation. ๐Ÿ“Weโ€™re expanding: new offices in Seattle, WA & San Diego, CA. We're moving fast to build certified autonomous flight systems that make aviation safer and more accessible reliable.co/pr/reliable-roboโ€ฆ
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Ben Marcus retweeted
LIVE: Skydio CEO and co-founder talks drone dominance, unveils new autonomy and mission software capabilities. xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1rxmqpEZjโ€ฆ
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BETA's H500A Electric Engine is built for extreme weather. At @GKNAero, the engine underwent icing tests, representing the most severe atmospheric conditions in support of development and Part 33 Engine Certification. BETA's engine technology is engineered to be reliable and safe in demanding conditions.
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Ben Marcus retweeted
JSX CEO Alex Wilcox on @heartaerospace's ES-36: "Someone needs to build it. No one's building 30- to 50-seat airplanes anymore other than ATR. For something that's going to have 40% of the energy costs ... I think that's the future." thepointsguy.com/news/jsx-caโ€ฆ
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Ben Marcus retweeted
๐€๐ฌ๐œ๐ž๐ง๐ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ”: ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐…๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐‘๐จ๐›๐จ๐ญ ๐ˆ๐ง๐Ÿ๐ซ๐š๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฎ๐œ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž ๐„๐ซ๐š ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฐ๐žโ€™๐ซ๐ž ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ž๐ It is an honor and a joy to work with the critical industries our civilization runs on to build a new era of Flying Robot Infrastructure that helps keep us all safer and makes our world more efficient. Together with our customers we have made immense progress towards this future over the last year. You can see it in the metrics - 2M flights/year and exponentially growing - and you can see it in the thousands of individual stories where a drone helped save a life, protect an asset, or just save someone from tedious manual work. But weโ€™re still just getting started. On stage at Skydio Ascend, we announced two new categories of products that will shape the next decade: โ€ข The software Commands: DFR Command, Asset Command, and Security Command. Weโ€™re now tapping the true potential of software-defined, autonomous, dock-based drones with industry-specific applications for Public Safety, Energy Infrastructure, and Physical Site Security. Each Command brings together specialized autonomy, customized interfaces and workflows, and deep integrations with complementary software and systems to orchestrate fleets of flying robots and deliver end-to-end solutions for each industry. This makes drones easier to adopt and integrate than ever before, and orders of magnitude more effective once youโ€™re operating them. โ€ข F10 Lightrunner: This is the most advanced fixed-wing drone that has ever existed. Itโ€™s launched and caught with a robotic arm (RTOL); its gimbal is on the wingtip which means it never gets obstructed by the wing (SideEye); and it has the evolution of @SkydioHQ Autonomy for fixed-wing aircraft (Foresight). All of these together represent one of the great feats of engineering in the history of aircraft, but we didnโ€™t do it just for fun. F10 will bring the benefits of Drone as First Responder and fully automated drone inspection of critical infrastructure to all the landmass in the free world with 100mph speed and up to 30-mile coverage radius. We build the coolest technology in the world, with the best team in the world, to serve the most important customers in the world. LFG.
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Meet the Heart ES-36. 36 seats. 20% more passenger + payload capacity than ES-30. 125 miles all-electric / 745 hybrid, plus reserves. Targeting โ‰ฅ40% lower operating costs vs legacy regional aircraft. Learn more about the ES-36: bit.ly/4yaKrth Read the full announcement: bit.ly/4AtYdbY Media kit + high-resolution assets: bit.ly/3V9OhUT
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Ever wonder what the @USSpaceForce is all about? I got a behind the scenes tour as part of the @DeptofWar Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC). Check out the video and an article I wrote about it here: linkedin.com/pulse/guardiansโ€ฆ
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What an awesome day with the @usairforce at Nellis and Creech. My first time flying on a C-17, visiting the @AFThunderbirds hangar, intubating a manikin, and spending time with the MQ-9 Reaper pilots and sensor operators. You can read more about my experience here linkedin.com/pulse/best-outcโ€ฆ
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Saving the Santa Monica Airport(SMO): Building education and jobs for our future. ๐Ÿ›ฉ๐Ÿš€ Santa Monica Airport helped write Americaโ€™s aviation history. Its most important chapters should be written here, by us. City Hall is preparing to shut it down. I will fight to keep it open and put it to work for all people who live and go to school here. Weโ€™ve only scratched the surface of what this airport can produce, because Santa Monica has refused to invest in it. That is a political choice. I will make a different one. Keep SMO open. Expand its public use. Build an innovation and education hub on this land. Aerospace and aviation just poured billions into the Los Angeles area. Those are high-paying jobs and innovation hubs. They should be in Santa Monica. A real industry here makes us less dependent on tourism and gives this city a stable economic base for years to come. That starts in our schools. Hands-on educational programs from Santa Monica grade schools all the way through Santa Monica College, built with private partners. Public-private partnerships that train Santa Monica students for Santa Monica jobs, and boost enrollment at Santa Monica College, where numbers have been falling for years. More local paychecks mean more business for our restaurants, our shops, and our neighborhoods. Santa Monica can lead on clean fuels, electric flight and quieter transportation. We can be the city America looks to for the innovation and future of flight. Some want a closed airport and a vacant promise. I want jobs, training, and a future built in Santa Monica. Keep the airport. Expand its purpose. Build the future here. Make it the economic engine we know it can be. A Higher Standard for Santa Monica Derrick Townsend for Santa Monica City Council 2026 โ€“ at Santa Monica, CA
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Ben Marcus retweeted
The state of New Mexico is putting $2 billion into getting startups to build there. I flew out with @UPPartnersVC and their New Mexico-focused fund, UP.Abundance, to see what that actually looks like. We went inside a $1B fusion facility breaking ground with @_Pacific_Fusion, cloud-seeding drones with @RainmakerCorp, and autonomous aircraft with Reliable Robotix . New Mexico state has the second-largest sovereign wealth fund in the US with $75B under management. Silicon Valley might be where you raise, but that doesnโ€™t mean it has to be where you build. New INSIDE Startups episode out now.
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Reflecting on the amazing Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC). I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to meet the incredible men and women of the @USArmy. Huge thanks to @DeptofWar for inviting me to participate. You can read more about our day with the Army here linkedin.com/pulse/train-howโ€ฆ
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Wrap up of the incredible Joint Civilian Orientation Course (JCOC) hosted by @DeptofWar
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Ben Marcus retweeted
Replying to @UPPartnersVC
@UPPartnersVC is betting that some of the most ambitious startups of the next decade wonโ€™t be built in Silicon Valley. Through UP.Abundance, their New Mexico-focused fund, theyโ€™re backing companies building in the physical world and helping them expand into the state. Thereโ€™s serious capital behind it. New Mexico has a $75B sovereign wealth fund, with $2B allocated across venture funds to invest in startups and help bring them into the state. I flew out with the UP.Partners team to see what that looks like on the ground. A $1B fusion R&D facility breaking ground with Pacific Fusion. Cloud-seeding drones with Rainmaker. Autonomous aircraft with Reliable Robotics. When youโ€™re building companies like these, where you build starts to matter a lot more. New INSIDE Startups episode out now.
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Ben Marcus retweeted
New Mexico is trying to convince some of Silicon Valleyโ€™s most ambitious startups to build there instead. I flew out with the @UPPartnersVC team to see how theyโ€™re doing it through UP.Abundance. The state holds the second largest sovereign wealth fund in the US, with $75 billion AUM. $2 billion is being allocated across venture funds investing in companies that build or expand in New Mexico. We spent the day with Pacific Fusion, Rainmaker and Reliable Robotics, three companies working across fusion energy, cloud seeding and autonomous aircraft. For startups like these, access to land, infrastructure, talent and incentives can have a huge influence on where they build. Can a state offer enough to convince founders to move somewhere they otherwise wouldnโ€™t? New INSIDE Startups episode dropping soon.
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Wired: closing your round at SMO JSX terminal Tired: closing your round at YC demo day Expired: closing your round at philz in Palo Alto
Wow JSX just added Santa Monica to Oakland service
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โ€œWhy did you move the @GalvanickCo LA office to three blocks north of SMOโ€
Squad @flyjsx just started service between Oakland and Santa Monica airport. Much more convenient than LAX. Founders, builders, Gundo brothers, investors- be advised ๐Ÿซก
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