D. Scott Phoenix

Entrepreneur D. Scott Phoenix is a Partner at Fifty Years, a deep-tech venture capital firm investing at the pre-seed and seed stages in founders and scientists tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges. The firm’s portfolio includes companies such as Solugen, Astranis, Athelas, BillionToOne, Opentrons, Substack, and others.

Previously, Phoenix co-founded and served as CEO of Vicarious, an artificial general intelligence and robotics company that raised approximately $250 million from investors including Dustin Moskovitz, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, DCVC, and 8VC. Under his leadership, Vicarious conducted pioneering AI research published in leading scientific and machine-learning conferences and journals. The company was acquired by Alphabet in 2022, after which Phoenix spent a year as Chief Product & Revenue Officer at Alphabet’s robotics and AI company Intrinsic.

Earlier in his career, Phoenix was an entrepreneur in residence at Founders Fund, participated in Y Combinator’s 2008 batch, and developed an open-source game. He has also made personal investments in deep-tech companies including PsiQuantum, Sila Nanotechnologies, Tenstorrent, Zipline, and Science, and has advised venture firms including Felicis Ventures, Base10, and 8VC.

Phoenix is particularly interested in the challenge of “alignment”—directing exceptional talent toward humanity’s hardest problems, ensuring AI reflects human values, and fostering greater understanding across societal divides.