Ep 113: Katie Rae, CEO & Managing Partner of The Engine

This episode was previously for members only. In an effort to make content free, this episode is now available for everyone. Today's guest is Katie Rae, CEO & Managing Partner of The Engine. The Engine is a venture capital fund, spun out of MIT, that invests in early-stage companies, solving the world's biggest problems through the convergence of breakthrough science, engineering, and leadership. A for-profit organized as a public benefit corporation, The Engine not only maximizes for investor returns but also for purpose. Its investing focuses on several so-called “tough tech” domains: reversal climate change, biological human health (e.g. agriculture), “compute of tomorrow” and infrastructure (e.g. quantum computing). Primarily, it invests early at the seed stage or small Series A as the lead investor. I was excited for this one, as Katie is an old friend and a longtime fixture in the Boston innovation community. She's advised hundreds of founders and invested in a myriad of companies. Now at The Engine, she serves as a board member at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Form Energy, Via Separations and Lilac Solutions. We have a great discussion in this episode about tough tech, why it matters and what led Katie to switching gears to focus exclusively on what historically has been an underfunded field of innovation. Enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.