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![[State of Research Funding] Beyond NSF, Slingshots, Open Frontiers — Andy Konwinski, Laude Institute](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZagdY6UJYL4/mqdefault.jpg "[State of Research Funding] Beyond NSF, Slingshots, Open Frontiers — Andy Konwinski, Laude Institute
From co-founding *Databricks* and *Perplexity* to launching the *Laude Institute*—a dual venture fund and nonprofit designed to turbocharge the path from *research breakthrough to breakout company*—*Andy Konwinski* is building the infrastructure to recreate the Databricks motion at scale: fund researchers doing open work, help them ship products that matter, and turn paradigm-shifting ideas into trillion-dollar companies. We caught up with Andy live at *NeurIPS 2025* to dig into the origin story of Laud (right resource, right researcher, right time), why the *Databricks founding model* (eight co-founders, deep research scars, years of collaboration) is becoming the gold standard for AI startups (not an anomaly), how Laudes *venture arm* backs researchers-turned-founders with 50+ professors and PhDs as LPs (Jeff Dean, top Berkeley/Stanford faculty, Databricks and Perplexity co-founders), why the *nonprofit arm* does no-strings-attached grants to fund open research before incorporation (the upstream funnel that feeds the next generation of companies), the *slingshot program* funding breakthrough projects like *DSPy, Terminal Bench, LMArena, and continual learning research,* why *NSF isnt broken but insufficient* (its $1B/year for computer science when we need $10-100B, and Silicon Valleys picker model can deploy capital more effectively), how the *post-post-training layer* (prompt optimization, context management, RAG, memory curation, tool usage) is becoming the new frontier above pre-training and post-training, why *Chinese labs are outpublishing Western labs* in open research (Moonshot, DeepSeek shipping twice as many interesting papers as American startups because OpenAI and the frontier labs stopped publishing), the launch of *Open Frontiers*—a live-streamed conference in San Francisco bringing together the 100 most influential open researchers (Yann LeCun, François Chollet, Jan Leike, Percy Liang, Berkeley AI Research, Allen Institute, and more) to share roadmaps and unify the ecosystem, why the *Laude Lounge at NeurIPS* became the VIP gathering spot (Starlink WiFi, free food, couches, and the gods of AI hanging out because conferences need a place for the VVIPs to actually sit down), and his thesis that *open research is the path to world-changing impact*—and Laud is the bridge from grant to company, from paper to product, and from researcher to billionaire founder. We discuss:
* What *Laude Institute* does: dual structure with a *venture fund* (backing researchers-turned-founders post-incorporation) and a *nonprofit* (no-strings-attached grants for open research pre-incorporation)
* The *slingshot program:* funding *DSPy, Terminal Bench, LMArena, continual learning, and Jepa-style prompt optimization* projects across Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, CMU, Wisconsin, Caltech, UI Urbana-Champaign, Toronto, Waterloo, and beyond
* The *post-post-training layer:* compound systems, prompt optimization, context management, RAG, memory curation, tool usage—the layer above pre-training and post-training where innovation is exploding
* *GEPA and DSPy:* evolutionary prompt optimization (genetic algorithms reinvented by PhD student Laxia) and the DSPy framework (a reverse compiler that takes code and compiles natural language)
* Why *NSF isnt broken but insufficient:* $1B/year for computer science (and theyre trying to cut it in half) when we need $10-100B for frontier AI research—Laud complements NSF with Silicon Valleys picker model and high-velocity grant writing
* The *PhD entrepreneurship clubs:* Computer Science Grad Entrepreneurs (CSGE) at Berkeley (started 2012), Agent at University of Washington, Research to Impact at Wisconsin, Saplings at Stanford, and more clubs forming at CMU, MIT, UI Urbana-Champaign
* *Open Frontiers:* a live-streamed conference in San Francisco (next five months) bringing together the 100 most influential open researchers (Yann LeCun, François Chollet, Jan Leike, Percy Liang, Berkeley AI Research, Allen Institute, and more) to share roadmaps and unify the ecosystem
* The vision: *open research as the path to world-changing impact,* and Laud as the bridge from grant to company, from paper to product, and from researcher to trillion-dollar founder
— Andy Konwinski
* Laude Institute: https://www.laude.org/lounge
* X: https://x.com/andykonwinski
00:00:00 Introduction: Andy Konwinski and the Laud Institute Vision
00:01:17 The Databricks Motion: From PhD Research to Billion-Dollar Companies
00:02:15 Lauds Two-Sided Model: Venture Fund and Philanthropic Grants
00:06:37 Slingshot Program: Funding the Layer Above Foundation Models
00:07:56 JEPA and DSPy: Evolutionary Prompt Optimization
00:10:29 Beyond Berkeley and Stanford: Expanding the Research Network
00:13:22 NSF Complementarity: Not Broken, Just Insufficient
00:17:03 The Laud Lounge: Creating a VIP Experience at NeurIPS
00:18:41 Open Frontiers: Reclaiming Leadership in Open AI Research
00:19:06 The Open Research Crisis: Why")
