Can Venture Capital Help Unlock 'Underdeveloped' Caltech?

Ben Bergman

Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.

Can Venture Capital Help Unlock 'Underdeveloped' Caltech?

The California Institute of Technology ranks as one of the top universities in the world when it comes to receiving patents. But more of those inventions should successfully be making it to market, at least according to the investment thesis of Freeflow, a new pre-seed and seed stage venture firm that exclusively backs Caltech startups focused on human and planetary health.

"The people there are amazing scientists who are not afraid to tackle the hard problems," said Freeflow founder and managing partner David Fleck, who was an early Google employee who has spent the last 20 years tackling big data. "But as I started to spend more time there I realized the ecosystem was somewhat underdeveloped. They needed investors that could help them with capital and help them develop a company."


Fleck wants to be that investor. "We're the only one that we know of having this approach," he added.

David Fleck, who started Freeflow after he sold his online commenting service, Disqus, for a reported $90 million in 2017, hopes to broaden the perception of Los Angeles from a consumer tech hub to a place with the sorts of deep tech companies more commonly associated with where he spent most of his career, Silicon Valley.

Fleck, who started Freeflow after he sold his online commenting service, Disqus, for a reported $90 million in 2017, hopes to broaden the perception of Los Angeles from a consumer tech hub to a place with the sorts of deep tech companies more commonly associated with where he spent most of his career, Silicon Valley. He believes most L.A. VC firms, clustered in Santa Monica, neglect what they view as the hinterlands of Pasadena, where Caltech is based.

"It's very hard to go from west to east," Fleck said. "We made a conscious decision to say we are a Pasadena firm."

Freeflow has raised $8 million of capital so far and is aiming to close a $30 million fund by the end of the year with the help of the heavy hitters on its advisory board who are also serving as limited partners; Fred Wilson, founder of Union Square Ventures, Chris Farmer founder of SignalFire, and Chris Douvos, founder of Ahoy Capital.

Wilson, an early investor in Twitter, Tumblr and Etsy, is based in New York but spends several months every winter in L.A. "He became a good friend and mentor and encouraged us to go after the thesis," Fleck said.

Freeflow is fully independent of Caltech. That differs from the approach of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which launched its own venture fund as a public benefit corporation in 2016, The Engine, focusing on "tough tech." Stanford University backed an accelerator starting in 2013, StartX, though the university ended funding last year.

Caltech has had some notable success. Earlier this year, a federal jury in Los Angeles ruled Apple owed Caltech $837 million for selling WiFi chips that infringed on the school's patents and Broadcom, which sold the chips to Apple, owed Caltech another $270 million. (The companies are planning to appeal.)

Freeflow is aiming to back 20 startups over the next 18 months with check sizes averaging around half a million dollars and recently announced its first four investments:

  • Appia Bio: Developing a stem cell therapy platform for the development of new drugs to treat cancer, which was initially developed in the Caltech lab of professor and Nobel laureate Dr. David Baltimore.
  • Entos: Making physics-based machine learning software that maps chemical space to discover promising new molecules for therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics through a SaaS model.
  • Molecular Instruments: Designs and synthesizes kits for quantitative bio-imaging in drug development, clinical pathology and diagnostics and academic research.
    • Toofon: Developing an autonomous, heavy lift drone for last-mile delivery and emergency response, which came out of Caltech's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST).
    https://twitter.com/thebenbergman
    ben@dot.la
    LA Tech Week 2025: Sunday’s Event Lineup

    Here's the Sunday, October 19th lineup for LA Tech Week 2025, organized by location so you can easily explore events that fit your goals and schedule. Dive in and see what’s happening near you!

    ARTS DISTRICT

    3:00 PM

    BEL AIR

    3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

    BURBANK

    6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

    CULVER CITY

    9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

    4:30 PM – 7:30 PM

    INGLEWOOD

    10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

    • Spinovation: The Future Is Femme, The Future is Frequency: See Details Here
      Sonder Impact, Black Women Spin, Sip & Sonder

    KOREATOWN

    12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

    MARINA DEL REY

    12:00 PM

    • Sunday Tech Brunch
      Sawubona

    MID CITY

    9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

    • Women in Cleantech Hike and Network: See Details Here
      Women in Cleantech and Sustainability

    SANTA MONICA

    9:00 AM

    10:00 AM

    3:45 PM

    4:00 PM – 7:30 PM

    • OFF THE HOOK Santa Monica Seafood Festival: See Details Here
      Spin PR Group, City of Santa Monica, Tech St.

    6:00 PM

    7:00 PM

    • Pritam: A Musical Legend - Live in Concert: See Details Here
      American South Asian Network

    7:00 PM

    • Building AI workflow editor in React with Workflow Builder SDK: See Details Here
      Workflow Builder

    7:00 PM

    8:00 PM

    • Unlock Apple's Corporate Advantage for your Startup!: See Details Here
      iStore by St. Moritz

    TOPANGA CANYON

    3:00 PM

    • Dreamore Hike and Picnic: LA Tech Week: *Invite Only*
      Dreamore

    VENICE

    10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

    • Coffee, Walk, and Schmooze: See Details Here
      JFE (Jews For Entrepreneurship) Network

    VIRTUAL (LA)

    10:00 AM

    • Level Up with LinkedIn: A Student’s Guide to Networking & Opportunities (Virtual Event): See Details Here
      FIMAC

    10:00 AM

    WEST ADAMS

    1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

    For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

    Enjoy LA Tech Week 2025!

    Download the dot.LA App


    LA Tech Week 2025: Saturday’s Event Lineup

    Here's the Saturday, October 18th lineup for LA Tech Week 2025, organized by location so you can easily explore events that fit your goals and schedule. Dive in and see what’s happening near you!

    BEVERLY HILLS

    2:00 PM

    CENTURY CITY

    7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

    CULVER CITY

    9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

    10:00 AM – 11:30 AM

    1:00 PM

    DTLA

    7:00 PM

    • {MiniMax x Nakid x SkyPortalx}: TECH/MOTION/MUSIC/ART: See Details Here
      MiniMax (Hailuo AI)

    10:00 PM – 2:00 AM

    EL SEGUNDO

    10:00 AM

    • Venture on the Green: *Invite Only*
      BLCK VC

    4:00 PM

    INGLEWOOD

    7:00 PM

    • Valar Atomics, Durin and Discipulus Ventures - Night With A Nuclear Reactor: See Details Here
      Valar Atomics, Durin, Discipulus Ventures

    MARINA DEL REY

    8:30 AM

    12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

    5:00 PM

    • LOST iN Sunset Sail: Navigating the Tides of the Creator Economy & Media: See Details Here
      LOST iN

    PASADENA

    9:00 AM

    PLAYA VISTA

    2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

    SANTA MONICA

    7:00 AM

    9:00 AM

    • Pedal & Network: Tech Cyclists @ LA Tech Week 🚵: See Details Here
      Instafill.ai

    9:30 AM

    • Getty Center Guided Tour & (Optional) Photography Scavenger Hunt: See Details Here
      NEW MOON Impact Productions

    10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

    11:00 AM – 2:15 PM

    12:00 PM – 5:00 PM

    1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

    1:30 PM

    • Self-Defense in Court and the Streets: See Details Here
      Santa Monica Striking, Luri Inc.

    2:00 PM

    • SMARTUP 500: THE FIRST AT TECH WEEK LA - Launching the world’s first Startup Ranking: See Details Here
      Smart Times

    2:00 PM

    • NLPs (No Lame Panels) The Creator X Founder Rooftop Party: See Details Here
      Startup Village, Sanctuary

    3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

    4:00 PM – 6:30 PM

    • Just Do It?: Helping Founders Perform Like Olympians: See Details Here
      Elite Psychology Group

    5:00 PM

    6:00 PM

    6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

    6:00 PM

    6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

    • The Future of Hospitality: Poetry, Provenance & Passports: See Details Here
      Villa Kitchen, Airble, We Speak Dance, Techstars San Francisco

    7:00 PM

    • 🚀 Investor x Founder Open Mic Pitches: See Details Here
      Feathr, Los Angeles Fun Events

    7:00 PM

    • Life is a Pitch - LA Edition: *Invite Only*
      DeepMyst

    TOPANGA CANYON

    5:00 PM – 8:30 PM

    • Walk&Jam: Use AI to make art while hiking Topanga Canyon: See Details Here
      Formhaus llc, Wonderland Immersive Design

    TORRANCE

    1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

    • Crunches & Conversations Presented by The Differentials and KIS Training Studios: See Details Here
      The Differentials, KIS Training Studios

    VENICE

    1:00 PM – 4:30 PM

    • Beyond the Language Barrier: Exploring AI's Next Frontier: See Details Here
      Medusa AI

    VENICE BEACH

    8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

    • SŨRFED Club @ Venice Beach: Founders, Creators, Investors share the waves: See Details Here
      SŨRFED Club, Go Vitamins

    WEST ADAMS

    9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

    • Funders Shaping Democracy, AI & Media: See Details Here
      New Media Ventures, New Rising Ventures

    WEST HOLLYWOOD

    4:00 PM

    6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

    9:30 PM

    • Vibe Check Comedy Show, Tech Week Edition! @ Hollywood Improv: See Details Here
      Vibe Check Comedy

    For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

    Enjoy LA Tech Week 2025!

    Download the dot.LA App


    LA Tech Week 2025: Friday’s Event Lineup

    Here's the Friday, October 17th lineup for LA Tech Week 2025, organized by location so you can easily explore events that fit your goals and schedule. Dive in and see what’s happening near you!

    ARTS DISTRICT

    8:30 AM – 12:00 PM

    • Power Day: Ideas, Pitches, Connections: See Details Here
      Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)

    6:00 PM

    • WEB3 GAMING IS DEAD - Happy Hour: See Details Here
      Plassa Capital, Yee-Haw Monster Trucks

    BEVERLY HILLS

    10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

    1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

    2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

    3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

    4:00 PM

    6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

    • So you went viral, Now what? (pt II): See Details Here
      Verci, Study Fetch, TechSpace

    8:00 PM

    • Private Pool: GP x LP x FO: *Invite Only*
      Visionlist Commons , Bay Area Innovest

    BRENTWOOD

    8:00 AM

    • Founders & Investors Hike: See Details Here
      Salehpour Legal, Technology Founders of America

    CARSON

    11:45 AM

    • Lightspeed x SVB Porsche Experience: *Invite Only*
      Lightspeed Venture Partners, SVB

    CULVER CITY

    8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

    11:00 AM

    1:00 PM

    • Surf Parks & Wave Pools: From Doja Cat to Mark Zuckerberg: See Details Here
      Surflytics

    8:00 PM – 12:00 AM

    EL SEGUNDO

    11:30 AM – 2:00 PM

    5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

    HOLLYWOOD

    10:00 AM

    • AI, Revenue, and Reality: How Fortune 500s Work With Startups That Ship: See Details Here
      Sunrise AI, OpenTable

    12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

    • Unplugged: LA Tech Week Recharge Experience with TAY × Checked Out: See Details Here
      TAY Fitness, Checked Out

    9:00 PM

    INGLEWOOD

    8:00 AM

    • TCSI Presents: Caffeine & Connections: See Details Here
      The Cyber Security Intellects Nonprofit

    LONG BEACH

    7:00 AM

    MALIBU

    10:00 AM

    • Great Leaders Podcast & Profiles: See Details Here
      NEW MOON Impact Productions, Origin Studios

    12:30 PM

    MARINA DEL REY

    9:00 AM

    • Keeping Your Freedom as a Founder: Real Talk on Funding: See Details Here
      Lighter Capital

    10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

    • D-Wave Research Day & Hackathon!: See Details Here
      USC Information Sciences Institute, D-Wave

    4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

    • The Sky is Not the Limit: All About Aerospace: See Details Here
      Sunstone Management, USC Viterbi Startup Garage

    PASADENA

    10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

    11:30 AM – 1:30 PM

    • Deep Tech Entrepreneurship Pillars of Pasadena Tech: See Details Here
      Innovate Pasadena, Pasadena SBDC, City of Pasadena

    PLAYA VISTA

    9:00 AM

    12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

    • Vision to Venture - AI Media Showcase powered by Google AI: See Details Here
      Google

    SANTA MONICA

    7:00 AM – 8:30 AM

    • Signal Run : RTC x Wildwood VC: See Details Here
      Run Tech Club, Wildwood Ventures

    7:30 AM

    8:45 AM – 10:45 AM

    9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

    • Slash Burn Rates & Scale Your Startup: See Details Here
      Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA)

    9:00 AM

    • Driving a Digital Ecology Relay: What is at Stake: See Details Here
      The PORT GLOBAL, GLOBAL PORTAL INSTITUTE

    9:30 AM – 11:30 AM

    10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

    • The Enduring Value of Inclusive Capital: See Details Here
      Founders Registry. Nervana

    10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

    10:30 AM

    11:30 AM – 1:00 PM

    • Advisors to Investors Lunch: Venture Capital for enterprise leaders: See Details Here
      Collinear Capital, Worlds

    12:00 PM

    • Powerhouse Capital & a16z speedrun Investor Lunch Mixer: See Details Here
      Powerhouse Capital, a16z, speedrun

    2:00 PM

    • Where Robotics Meets Heart - Embedding Family Values in a Future with AI: See Details Here
      Trove, Puerto Rico Blockchain Association, MindfulBytes

    2:00 PM

    3:00 PM

    3:00 PM

    3:00 PM

    • Workshop: Create An Enterprise Chatbot and Unlock the 70% of Data Data You’re Not Using: See Details Here
      Aparavi

    4:00 PM

    5:00 PM – 10:00 PM

    5:30 PM

    5:30 PM – 9:30 PM

    6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

    • USC Alumni Founders & Investors: See Details Here
      USC Alumni Entrepreneurship Network, Techstars

    6:00 PM

    • Social Currency Series/Greenlit presents PitchPop: See Details Here
      Social Currency Series, Greenlit

    6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

    6:30 PM

    6:30 PM – 10:00 PM

    6:30 PM

    • Lets get the LA Bioeconomy brewing: See Details Here
      Founders, Friends & Fermentation, Saku Biosciences

    7:00 PM – 11:30 PM

    7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

    7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

    7:00 PM

    7:00 PM

    • Liquid Equity 2: The Premiere Gathering for Founders, Creator
      Coeus Collective

    7:00 PM

    7:00 PM

    • For the Love of Tech | Speed Dating for Tech Professionals: See Details Here
      Feathr, Los Angeles Fun Events

    7:00 PM

    SOUTH LA

    3:00 PM

    TORRANCE

    9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

    • The Future of Space & Security Panel: See Details Here
      Northwood Space, Anduril Industries, Impulse Space, Astranis

    VENICE

    9:00 AM – 10:45 AM

    9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

    11:00 AM

    11:30 AM – 2:30 PM

    12:30 PM

    • Creative Partners: Human + AI Storytelling: See Details Here
      Othelia, Primordial Soup

    2:00 PM – 3:45 PM

    5:00 PM

    • EarthHouse: Critical Minerals, Mobility & Modern Power: See Details Here
      The Strategye Group, Alpha Sierra One

    6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

    6:00 PM

    • Pizza+Soda: *Invite Only*
      Schmoozd , The KINN

    7:00 PM

    VENICE BEACH

    2:00 PM – 6:30 PM

    5:00 PM

    8:30 PM – 2:00 AM

    VIRTUAL (LA)

    2:30 PM – 4:00 PM

    3:00 PM

    • Government of Alberta: ProcurementAsCode // Done in 60 Seconds: See Details Here
      Government of Alberta

    4:00 PM

    • Stop Hitting Yourself 🥊: See Details Here
      Stop Hitting Yourself, HOWDY, Company Policy, Snowbird Global

    WEST HOLLYWOOD

    3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

    6:00 PM

    WESTSIDE

    5:00 PM

    5:30 PM – 8:30 PM


    For updates or more event information, visit the official Tech Week calendar.

    Enjoy LA Tech Week 2025!

    Download the dot.LA App


    RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
    Trending