He Built A $2.5 Billion Business At Age 50 That Is Disrupting A 7,000 Year Old Industry
Joe DiSimone took his own path to entrepreneurship. His latest venture, Carbon, is altering how things are made. He’s assembled one of the most capable boards and line up of investors to transform the $300 billion manufacturing industry.
Joe recently appeared as a guest on the DealMakers Podcast. During his exclusive interview, he shared how his team is making a difference in how the world makes things, the fundraising process, and growing as a founding CEO.
Joe DiSimone was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Ever since high school, Joe found he had a knack for Chemistry. For both understanding it and for teaching it.
He attended Ursinus College, and then Virginia Tech rolled out the red carpet for him. On a tip from a faculty advisor, he went to check out the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. It is one of the top 10 chemistry departments in the country.
All he had to do was teach organic and polymer chemistry, and they gave him $500,000 to start a research program. That led him to become a professor and enjoy an extended stint in academia for 25 years.
He taught a lot of kids organic chemistry. He also learned that people have very different learning styles. He learned that if you want to be a great teacher, you have to take responsibility for explaining complicated topics.
It turns out that is a really important trait for entrepreneurs too. It’s a valuable skill whether you're doing it in a classroom setting, talking to VCs or investors, or your own employees.
His position in academia enabled Joe DiSimone to get involved in important startups before launching his own venture.
The first was BioStent. A partnership with an interventional cardiologist at Duke University. They developed a coronary stent that was polymeric instead of metal-based. It has replaced permanent implants with materials that will go away after 18 months when the blood vessels can operate on their own again.
Thousands of people have benefited from this technology. The company was acquired by Guidant, and then Abbott.
Next it was Liquidia Technologies. A company that recently went IPO. A partnership with one of Joe’s Ph.D. students, Jason Rawland.
They developed technology for leveraging tools from the computer industry to make precision particles. It has spawned a new and more effective way to deliver medicines to the airway.
It has proven valuable in treating diseases like COPD, pulmonary hypertension, IV delivery of chemotherapeutics, and vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer vaccines.
You don’t hear of many professors becoming hot startup entrepreneurs. We hear so much about young entrepreneurs that you might think you missed the boat if you’ve already hit 25. Joe DiSimone is reshaping those assumptions.
Although a reluctant CEO, at 50 years old, Joe says he thought he was ready for a new challenge. He and his wife made the leap for Silicon Valley.
He got the school to give him a sabbatical to pursue his idea. That was six years ago.
The way things are made hadn’t changed much for over 7,000 years. Not until Joe dipped his toes into his own venture, Carbon.
Pretty much everything from the parts in your car to medical devices and sporting goods were based on a molding and casting approach that was pioneered far back in history.
Such a molding and casting approach is very archaic. Medieval at best. Joe and his team figured out how to make polymeric parts with light without using molds.
It has been groundbreaking in that we now have the ability to get to those amazing designs instantly, versus waiting for months.
It accelerates product teams and the ability to do things. It’s a breakthrough approach in 3D printing. An $8 billion industry.
Joe found something even bigger than that. Manufacturing polymers, which is a $300 billion market. It's fueling digital printing and manufacturing at-scale manufacturing.
In addition to a very family-oriented culture, Carbon has built a dream team of board members and investors, while raising $680 million in the process at a $2.5 billion valuation.
Carbon’s board includes Chairman and CEO of DuPont, Ellen Kullman, CEO of Ford Motor Company, and former CEO of Boeing’s Aircraft Division, Alan Mulally, Sequoia’s Jim Goetz, as well as founding VP of Engineering at Tesla, Craig Carlson.
Their investors include Google Ventures, GE, Adidas, BMW, and JSR. They’ve also got Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, and the Walmart family, as well as international sovereign funds.
They have a global presence, with a team of 500, and are well on their way toward being a great public company.
During the interview, Joe shared three of the most important components of building a successful company as being:
3. Having a great team of people that are committed, passionate and talented
DiSimone has found a lot of similarities between academia and entrepreneurship. You’re bringing people along, you're painting a vision for the future and how the world can be different.
Of the most fundamental differences are the fact that in academia, there is responsibility and accountability for the outcome.
Listen to the full podcast episode to find out more, including:
The benefits of working with your children · The key to future-proofing your tech business · Two of the top challenges that entrepreneurs aren’t warned about · Joe’s top advice for starting your own company
