Why We're Living in a Biological Singularity With Ben Lamm | MOONSHOTS Live #297

Ben Lamm (0:05)

I was a little terrified backstage when Palmer's like, there's something on the screen that says I'm not supposed to say this. It's like, for the love of God, whatever it is, please don't make it about Colossal.

Peter Diamandis (0:14)

Please don't say it.

So I remember at Abundance 360 last March, just before you came on, Elon was there, and he said, yeah, I want a pet wooly mammoth. How are you doing on that project?

SPEAKER_3 (0:33)

We get that request.

Ben Lamm (0:34)

Yeah, but there was actually an amazing, I think it was either American Dad or Family Guy episode, where they explain Chris, did you see this?

Salim Ismail (0:42)

Yes, they did. It's all over the internet.

Ben Lamm (0:43)

It was like, explain Chris Byrne, it was amazing. And it was amazing because then at the end, they're like, yeah, the wooly mammoths came out, and they're about the size of a dog. That's actually how big they were. The fossils were just wrong, right?

It was like amazing because it explains Chris Byrne, but I was like, you know, we get the request, like the number two request we get is teacup mammoths.

Peter Diamandis (1:03)

Teacup.

Ben Lamm (1:04)

Teacup mammoth.

Peter Diamandis (1:05)

Like, like, like.

Ben Lamm (1:05)

Yeah, everybody wants a teacup, like they want to take a mammoth and put it like, yeah, and put it in your purse, right? And so when, I mean, we can engineer a new melanin, make it pink, and then Paris may want one. So we're, we are not working on that currently, but we're making good progress on the mammoth project.

Peter Diamandis (1:22)

Amazing. So let me kick this off. So you've started like four successful companies before Colossal and in gaming, in defense, in AI, in mobile. And so you knew nothing about synthetic biology before you started. Now a company worth over $10 billion.

So why, what made you make the extinction your MOONSHOT? And having no background in synthetic biology, was that a hindrance or an advantage?

Ben Lamm (1:54)

Oh, I think it's a massive advantage. You know, I think that it affords me the opportunity to go into rooms of, you know, Palmer talked a little bit about this too, of like hiring people to replace you and hiring people that are much smarter than you, right? And so I get, what's great about this from my vantage point is like, I get to deal with a lot of the same bullshit, but at the same time I can go in and like sit down with like the best Shapiro and learn about ancient DNA extraction and like how not to do things. But then like the next meeting I can go learn about like where we're pushing the boundaries of multiplex editing and how many edits that we can make at once, right? And so I would say that, you know, I knew how to, and I guess in all of my career, I've known how to ask the right questions because I'm really curious. But I really do kind of subscribe to that old adage of like putting the top smartest women and men around you just asking them questions, right? And so I get to go to meetings to just ask questions. And, you know, 90% of the time, I think people are like, okay, if you knew more about biology, this meeting would go faster. But then 10% of the time, but then 10% of the time, they're like, we never thought of it that way, right? Because it...

Peter Diamandis (2:58)

By the way, this is such an important lesson for all of us as entrepreneurs, right? Just because you're not an expert in an area doesn't make it an area that you shouldn't go into if you love, if you attract the best talent around you.

Ben Lamm (3:12)

Yeah, George Church, and this is the only brag that I will say, which I'm very proud of. George Church says that I am the best student he's never had, because I will literally just pepper him and be like, hey, my favorite times of the year are during holiday seasons when no one's working, because I will just get on calls for hours and hours and hours with George Church and just talk about the possibilities with synthetic biology.

Peter Diamandis (3:34)

Who's George Church for?

Ben Lamm (3:36)

So if you don't know George, George is the father of, arguably, the father of synthetic biology. He's the head of genetics at Harvard, and a lot of the next-gen read-write technologies that were invented came out of the Church lab, and his lab's prolific. There's been numerous multi-billion dollar companies that have spun out of the lab. It's probably the most active startup biology lab in the world.