Seth Bannon
Founding Partner, Fifty Years. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounder@sethbannon ↗LinkedIn ↗fiftyyears.com ↗
Seth Bannon co-founded Fifty Years, a seed-stage venture fund backing deep tech startups solving critical global issues across synthetic biology, climate, and frontier technology. A Y Combinator alumnus who previously founded Amicus, he has seeded companies including Solugen, Astranis, Upside Foods, and Substack.
1shows
1appearances
15statements
4resolved
3supported
0contradicted
75%fully supported
9said about them ↓ Everything Seth Bannon said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Bannon: One-for-one impact models like Toms Shoes are inherently flawed
“We really don't like the sort of like one for one model companies. Right. So like the Tom's shoe or like for every shoe we sell, we're going to donate shoes to a country in the third world because then the good you're doing always has to be defended. When you'…”
Bannon: Animal agriculture will be completely eliminated within 100 years
“I believe that animal agriculture will be eliminated from the face of the earth within the next hundred years.”
Bannon: The Friedman Doctrine is one of history's most dangerous economic ideas
“We think it's actually one of the most wrongheaded and probably dangerous doctrines in the history of the world, and I know it sounds a little Strange to say that an economic doctrine is very dangerous, but we think it's allowed a lot of businesses to pursue p…”
Bannon: Deep tech startups should shift to debt after three equity rounds
“So almost every single deep tech company that we've invested in has a clear path to growing off of equity for maybe three rounds, and then growing off of project or debt financing for the rest of their life.”
Bannon: A 15-20 year fund lifecycle is VC's biggest opportunity
“I think the biggest opportunity in investing right now might just be a fund that has a 15 to twenty-year life cycle.”
Bannon: Impact investors lack tech skills, tech VCs only care about profits
“When we talked to investors, we found that they all basically fell into one of two buckets. Either you had the people who really cared about the why, or, you know, what are traditionally called impact investors, but who knew basically nothing about technology …”
Bannon: Solving societal problems gives startups a systemic competitive advantage
“I believe you can. And so, we get this question a lot, and one of, I think, the analogies that I like to give is, at some point, people thought the transition to the cloud was going to be a really big deal, and that cloud-based companies would have very real a…”
Bannon: Synthetic biology seed costs now match standard SaaS seed budgets
“There have been a number of changes over the last five years that actually allow you to get from idea to prototype product on the same amount of money you would need to raise for a seed round if you're raising for a SaaS company, right?”
Bannon: Mission-driven funds get more technical diligence help than traditional VCs
“Given our fund's mission, people are willing to help us do that more so than they would be with a traditional fund.”
Bannon: Silicon Valley talent is largely wasted on trivial tech problems
“I think there's just such incredible talent in Silicon Valley, and I think it is largely going to waste. I think that way too many incredibly talented people are working on incredibly trivial things, and I see it around me a lot where people are going through …”
Bannon: Othellis blood diagnostic hardware costs $250 and $5 per test
“The Ethelus device cost 250 bucks, and each test Costs five dollars, and it gives you results in minutes, and it works.”
Bannon: 83% of MBAs would take a pay cut for societal impact
“Net Impact did a study of MBA students and found that 83% would take a 15% pay cut to work for a company that had positive societal or environmental ends.”
Bannon: Fifty Years requires a clear path to $1B in revenue
“Our sort of like very high level filters are we want founders that are interested in building billion dollar businesses that have positive impact. Then we want to see ourselves a path to a billion dollars in revenue. And then we want to see ourselves the path …”
Bannon: 87% of millennials measure business success beyond financial performance
“Deloitte, for example, did a study of 7700 millennials across 29 countries. And 87% of the millennials they surveyed said that the success of a business should be measured in terms of more than just its financial performance.”
Bannon: Y Combinator has heavily shifted focus to biotech since 2013
“Even if you look at something early stage like Y Combinator, right, they have invested way more attention and resources into attracting and helping synthetic biology and biotech companies than they did four years ago. Four years ago, they weren't doing it at a…”
The other half of the tape: Seth Bannon's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 8 times in 7 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 2Delian Asparouhov 2Chris Sacca 2Michael Ma 1Immad Akhund 1
Statements about Seth Bannon, by other people (1)
Delian Asparouhov names Seth Bannon as the best board member he works with
“Probably have to be Seth Bannon from 50 years. I think he, you know, sort of Dives, you know, sort of deep into the companies that he's involved in and, you know, sort of ask some, you know, sort of pretty great pointed questions.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 8
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 2 mentions in 1 episode
2022 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Coinbase's Brian Armstrong on The Rise & Short Term Correction in ICOs, The Regulatory Framework Required For Blockchain To Succeed & How The Rise of Blockchain Disrupts The VC Industry
- 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Seth's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Founding Partner, Fifty Years | 1 | 15 | 75% 3/4 | full record on 20VC → |