Drew Oding

Venture capitalist and company builder at 8VC focused on industrial, healthcare, and defense sectors.

Claims

As speaker

Mentioned in

Key positions and views

The U.S. must urgently rebuild its domestic industrial capacity, especially in shipbuilding and pharmaceuticals, to ensure national and economic security.

A hands-on, company co-founding model ('8VC Build') is a superior venture capital strategy for tackling complex, foundational problems in sectors like biotech and defense.

Genomic medicines represent a technological and economic revolution on a scale comparable to artificial intelligence.

A critical 'capital gap' exists for growth-stage industrial companies, as traditional financing is too risk-averse and government incentives are poorly designed for startups.

Successful re-industrialization requires a new, collaborative framework between the federal government, state governments, and innovative startup companies.

Podcast consensus on Oding

Points of consensus

▶Oding consistently advocates for rebuilding the U.S. industrial base, citing specific deficits in domestic pharmaceutical production and shipbuilding capacity as critical geopolitical and economic vulnerabilities.Apr 2026

▶He repeatedly emphasizes a hands-on, company-creation approach to venture capital, detailing the 8VC Build program's significant resource allocation (30%), large initial check sizes ($3M-$40M), and use of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence.Apr 2026

▶Oding identifies a critical need for new financing and policy mechanisms to support capital-intensive startups, pointing to a 'capital gap' for growth-stage industrial firms and the ineffectiveness of tax incentives like bonus depreciation for startups.Apr 2026

▶He views the alumni networks of successful tech companies like Palantir and SpaceX as a primary talent pool for building new companies, particularly those targeting government contracts or physical infrastructure.Apr 2026

Points of debate

▶Oding's prediction that genomic medicines will have an economic and societal impact 'nearly as large' as artificial intelligence is a bold claim that runs counter to the current market's overwhelming focus on AI as the singular, dominant technological force.Apr 2026

▶His assertion that a new level of collaboration between federal/state governments and startups is essential for re-industrialization faces the practical and historical friction between slow-moving public sector bureaucracy and agile private sector innovation.Apr 2026

▶The view that many biotech companies go public 'too early' in their lifecycle contrasts with the significant market pressures and investor incentives that often push for early IPOs to achieve liquidity and access public market funding.Apr 2026

▶Oding's focus on building US-based manufacturing and supply chains (e.g., Resilience) presents a potential conflict with decades of economic orthodoxy favoring globalized, cost-optimized supply chains, a debate central to current U.S. industrial policy.

Key themes

▶Venture-Led Industrial Policy

Oding champions a model where venture capital actively participates in rebuilding America's strategic industrial capacity. By co-founding companies like Resilience (pharmaceuticals) and Saronic (defense), 8VC is not just funding but architecting solutions to national security vulnerabilities like supply chain fragility and declining shipbuilding capacity.

This theme suggests a shift in venture capital's role from purely financial speculation to a form of private-sector industrial strategy, potentially creating opportunities in sectors previously deemed too capital-intensive or slow-growing for traditional VC.

▶The 'Build' Model of Venture CapitalApr 2026

Oding details 8VC's 'Build' program, which formalizes an in-house company creation process. Allocating 30% of the firm's resources, this model utilizes full-time Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and provides substantial initial funding ($3M-$40M) to tackle complex, foundational problems from scratch, citing Sutter Hill Ventures as a successful precedent.

For analysts, this model represents a higher-conviction, higher-control investment style that contrasts with the diversified, 'spray and pray' approach, indicating a belief that the most significant future value lies in solving problems that require more than just capital.

▶Financing the Physical WorldApr 2026

Oding identifies a major 'capital gap' for growth-stage industrial companies that need project or infrastructure financing. He argues that traditional private credit is too risk-averse and that existing government incentives like bonus depreciation are poorly structured for startups, hindering the re-industrialization he advocates for.

This highlights a market inefficiency and a potential opportunity for new financial instruments or funds specifically designed to underwrite the risk of scaling physical infrastructure and manufacturing for growth-stage companies.

▶Macroeconomic Concerns and Sector-Specific Bullishness

While expressing bearish views on the broader U.S. economy—predicting a recession within three years and the national debt reaching up to $40 trillion—Oding remains highly bullish on specific technological frontiers. He forecasts that genomic medicines will have an impact rivaling AI and is actively building companies in capital-intensive sectors like defense and biotech.

This dual perspective suggests a strategy of investing in non-cyclical, mission-critical sectors that can thrive due to fundamental technological shifts or government necessity, even amidst macroeconomic turbulence.

Source episodes

Timeline

2018

Venture capital firm 8VC, where Oding is involved, formalizes its internal company-building program, 8VC Build.

Summer 2020

In response to supply chain issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, 8VC and Arch Venture Partners co-found Resilience, a CDMO for domestic pharmaceutical production.

Current Year (Contextual)

Oding predicts the U.S. national debt will reach between $38 trillion and $40 trillion by the end of the year.

Next 2-3 Years (Prediction)

Predicts the next official U.S. recession will be declared within this timeframe.

By 2050 (Prediction)

Predicts that humans will successfully land on Mars.

Suggested prompts

How does 8VC's 'Build' model de-risk investment in capital-intensive sectors like biotech and defense compared to traditional venture investment strategies? &nearr;What specific policy changes, beyond fixing bonus depreciation, does Oding believe are necessary to bridge the 'capital gap' for growth-stage industrial companies? &nearr;Given his prediction of an imminent recession and rising national debt, how does Oding justify the high-capital requirements of the companies he is building in the current macroeconomic climate? &nearr;What are the primary hurdles—technological, regulatory, or financial—to Oding's prediction that genomic medicines will rival AI in economic and societal impact? &nearr;

Key concepts

Venture Capital Strategy 5 ep Biotech & Healthcare 6 ep Government & Policy 5 ep U.S. Industrial Base 4 ep Capital & Finance 3 ep Future Technology 3 ep Defense & Geopolitics 2 ep Macroeconomics 2 ep

Notable quotes

“I think there's going to be almost as much of a change in like the way that our economy and our lives work from genomic medicines as from AI.”

Drew Oding · How 8VC Builds Billion-Dollar Companies | Palantir, Addepar, Saronic

“It's now 30% of what we do, all of our capital employees, and 30% of it goes into companies we co-founded.”

Drew Oding · How 8VC Builds Billion-Dollar Companies | Palantir, Addepar, Saronic

“building ships in the United States again, which is an area that we probably have fallen behind the most in terms of our capacity and that's on the defense side but also on the commercial side as well”

Drew Oding · How 8VC Builds Billion-Dollar Companies | Palantir, Addepar, Saronic

“there really needs to be basically infrastructure financing or project financing for growth stage businesses that's a little bit more willing to take risk.”

Drew Oding · How 8VC Builds Billion-Dollar Companies | Palantir, Addepar, Saronic

Report last updated: Apr 21, 2026

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