Who is Laura Deming?
Issue #3: Laura Deming & Longevity
👋 Hey Friends,
At WaitWho.Is, we help you find the most innovative thinkers, leaders, and entrepreneurs from across the globe to inspire you to think deeply and explore curiously.
Each week, we introduce you to one of our favorite thinkers and highlight some of their best content. We’ll also let you know about the new folks that we’ve indexed so you can see all of their best content in one place.
Who is Laura Deming?
We’ve been huge fans of Laura’s work since she was launched into the limelight from landing the coveted Thiel Fellowship back in 2011 (which she dropped out of MIT to pursue...3 years in).
In the years since, Laura’s founded The Longevity Fund (which has done extremely well — $500m in follow-on capital and two IPOs) and become one of the most influential thinkers dedicated to answering the question: how can we fight aging?
In pursuit of the answer, Laura has written and spoken extensively on the topic of longevity to spark interest in the space and support the next generation of biotech entrepreneurs.
So, that’s where we’ll start you off.
If you already have a curiosity with longevity and want to jump in, you can’t go wrong by starting with Laura’s brilliant primer: Longevity FAQ: A beginner’s guide to longevity research. From there, head to her “How can I help?” page where she provides some guidance on getting involved in the space.
Now, if you’re not already excited about the prospect of eliminating aging, we want to point you to two videos:
Laura’s 2013 talk at TEDMED where she introduces longevity as the next emerging market.
Her 2018 interview with Craig Cannon from Y Combinator (below) where they discuss Laura’s background, the Longevity Fund, the ethics of longevity, and how immorality might transform society.
Both of these videos should provide a nice introduction into the possibilities unlocked by the longevity research Laura is supporting and give you something to think about.
Want to learn more about Laura?
Follow her on Twitter @LauraDeming and find all of her talks, essays, and interviews at WaitWho.Is/laurademing/
Who else?
This past week, we launched WaitWho.is profiles for the amazing:
Melanie Perkins — Founder & CEO of Canva
Andrew Chen — Partner at a16z & growth expert
Rahul Vohra – Founder & CEO of Superhuman
Nick Szabo — Creator of the "smart contract"
Sheryl Sandberg — COO of Facebook
Aaron Harris — Partner at Y Combinator
Avichal Garg — Partner at Electric Capital
Ryan Hoover — Founder of Product Hunt
Who do you want to see?
Is there a certain person you would love to see featured?
We’d love to hear from you and get suggestions about who to feature next or who to add to the directory. Just hit reply :)
Have a great week!