Finding Genius Series Kunal Mehta

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For several years, Delian has invested alongside Keith Rabois, first at Khosla Ventures and now at Founders Fund. In our discussion, we spoke about Varda, a company with a bold mission to build factories in space where novel products can be developed in a zero-gravity environment. Beyond venture capital, Asparouhov’s ambitions and fascinations lie in the commercialization of space.  

Delian partnered with Will Bruey, a former Space-X engineer to found Varda. Bruey’s background is deeply technical with experience in building and operating spacecraft for over a decade. Bruey was a hardware engineer on the Crew Dragon, head of mission control on 8 of the ISS missions, and has dealt with the design and construction of spacecraft for Space-X.  

The concept of a space factory may seem futuristic, but Delian breaks down the research that reveals the immense potential of space manufacturing and how he and Bruey are de-risking this endeavor. Research projects have shown the benefits of manufacturing in zero gravity across drug discovery, semiconductors, and fiber optic cables. In one example, human organ 3D-Printing on Earth is complex and costly. Organs are printed with thin walls and gravity makes the walls collapse. In Space, this technical challenge is lifted by operating in a microgravity environment. Varda aims to build factories where the laws of physics are entirely different than factories on Earth, where every manufacturing process is predicated on operating in a gravity field.  

When Varda factories are operational, Delian envisions a future of a low orbit economy in space with Gas Depots, Space Taxis/Tugs, Space Tourism, and Varda supporting the development and manufacturing of cancer drugs, 3D Organs, semiconductors, and more.  

Varda raised a $9m round with Josh Wolf of Lux Capital, Trae Stephens of Founders Fund, and Naval Ravikant.

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In the past six months, Miami has rapidly become the tech hub of tomorrow with startups and venture funds booking one-way tickets left and right.  Kunal Mehta sat down with Mayor Suarez for the Finding Genius series. Suarez shared that no overnight success is truly overnight, his advice for NYC Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, musings from his conversation with Elon Musk, and the importance of environmental tech. Listen in to hear how he has been integrating tech into Miami over the past ten years and how he is supporting the tech community for the next ten years to come.



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Commonstock is a platform for investors to coordinate their stock trades, follow the investments of friends and family, and engage in communities for greater knowledge of stock market sharing and transparency.   

David McDonough, the founder, and CEO of Commonstock, shares more on the origin story of the company for the Finding Genius series sponsored by Trinet. Commonstock raised a $10 million seed round with Floodgate and QED in 2020. This interview took place at an interesting time in the public markets where retail investors are a driving force in the stock market. In the week before this interview, heavily shorted companies, such as Gamestop and AMC, saw their stock prices grow exponentially through coordinated trades made by retail investors. David shares his thoughts on these events and the future of the company.

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K Health allows patients to chat with a board-certified doctor on demand who can diagnose, prescribe medication, handle refills, and more for $9/month. K Health now has 4 million users across the United States and is unbundling primary medicine through data-driven healthcare.  

Allon Bloch is the former CEO of Wix and the founder of Vroom. With K Health, Bloch launched in 2018 and is now active across 48 states.



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Kunal interviews Florian Otto, founder, and CEO of Cedar. In June 2020, Cedar raised a $102 million Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz. In this episode, Florian discusses his learnings from ZocDoc, the U.S. Healthcare System,   and building a healthcare technology company.



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Prior to this conversation, Kelvin Beachum signed his 5th NFL contract with the Arizona Cardinals. Kelvin has been in the NFL for over 9-years with teams including the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, and Jacksonville Jaguars. Outside of being an offensive lineman, Kelvin has established himself as a prolific angel investor, investing in companies including Flexport, WHOOP, FreightWaves, Future Fit, Porter Road, and more.   

In this conversation, Kelvin walks us through the qualities of genius that he admires in founders and how those compare to the athletes he respects. He discusses how sports-tech companies should take a bottoms-up approach of selling directly to players and other strategies sports tech CEOs can learn from.

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