Last week the team headed to Brooklyn for our Q2 retreat. As usual, we reviewed the previous quarter and made decisions about the new one. We also visited the Statue of Liberty and learned how the entire project, which gave America its most recognizable icon, was essentially conceived by a random person with a dream.
Almost all of our conversations for the three days focused on quantum biology and the QuBiT project. We’ve fiscally sponsored QuBiT so far, but as they are heading towards obtaining their own 501(c)(3) status, and as the project is entering into a crucial fundraise, it made sense to think about our degree of support and how we could help them going forward.
In short, we concluded to go all in on helping them raise the money they need and get set up as a full-fledged research organization. They’re aiming to raise $20m by July, since that’s when their current funding runs out, and we think it’s far better that quantum biology have a chance to break through rather than just inching forward in the background. We’re going to do everything we can — it’s hard to know if it will work, but we’re absolutely going to try.
In practice, this means that for the next quarter, all of Leverage’s publications will be focused on quantum biology in some way. We’re producing briefs now, meant to help QuBiT communicate with a huge range of possible audiences. We’ll do a piece on why we think now is the time for quantum bio, and we’re now planning two events, one devoted to quantum bio, and Bottlenecks 2024, which will feature the QuBiT project in one way or another.
At the same time, we’re still committed to our programs, so we’re planning to publish pieces from each, in all cases bearing some connection to quantum biology. It’s an aggressive publication timeline, but we think we can do it, so stay tuned. (We will, of course, be continuing our history of science research, with Dan now looking into Stephen Gray and the identification of electric repulsion, and we’ll also be continuing with our regular monthly introspection events.)
The new focus on QuBiT means that we’re pushing off a planned Metascience event and, as we decided at the Leverage annual retreat in Q1, our initiatives are still on the back burner. That’s okay, though. It’s time for quantum bio!
For this retreat’s outing, we went to see the Statue of Liberty. Like everyone else, we were impressed by the statue’s size, beauty, and message. One thing stuck out to us in particular, however, which is that the person who conceived the project — which was a gift from one country to another, a symbol of friendship in addition to the new symbol of a nation — was a French scholar of US constitutional law with no special background in architecture, fundraising, or international diplomacy.
Leverage has a long history celebrating seemingly random people achieving great things — the Statue of Liberty was an amazing example to see.
Until next time,
Geoff
p.s. For those interested in what we accomplished last quarter, check out our Q2 update to the board. Or, click here to sign up for our newsletter and get updates from Leverage straight to your inbox.