I am sure you have seen today’s AtaiBeckley (ATAI) news.
Let me share some very personal thoughts today.
I found myself facing some starry eyes over the last few weeks because it made me look back on an amazing time. Back to 2014. Back to my very first psychedelic experience, which enriched my life beyond any imagination and ultimately became the beginning of this entrepreneurial journey. Back to founding Compass and ATAI in 2017. Back to more than ten years of memories, friendships, setbacks, breakthroughs and incredible people.
And maybe most of all, the last weeks reminded me how profoundly psychedelics have shaped my life - not only professionally, but personally, philosophically and spiritually.
It is Time for the Next Chapter
Psychedelics needed an evangelist ten years ago. Now it is all about commercialization.
When I first started contemplating bringing psychedelics back into mainstream medicine in 2014 - which ultimately resulted in founding Compass and shortly after ATAI - it was widely seen as a crazy idea with virtually no chance of success.
Looking back today, it is almost funny how quickly collective memory changes. Today, psychedelic medicine feels almost inevitable. Back then, it was anything but.
I believe I was uniquely positioned for that moment and that task because three things came together at exactly the right time: my biotech background, my willingness and ability to commit substantial amounts of my own capital (I invested well over $100 million of my own money into ATAI over the years), and my deep conviction - not only in the science, but also in the broader - including spiritual - significance of these substances.
More than ten years later... we have validation that we are achieving what so many people thought was impossible: Psychedelics have reached mainstream awareness and acceptance. Together, ATAI and Compass raised more than $1.5 billion, including both companies going public on Nasdaq. I am proud to say that I was instrumental in raising much of that capital through my own network.
ATAI and Compass invested that capital in gold-standard clinical trials that have fundamentally changed the conversation around psychedelics - silencing many critics and giving the psychedelic renaissance the scientific credibility and intellectual foundation it deserved and desperately needed.
I believe that psychedelic medicines will soon bring healing to hundreds of millions of people suffering from mental health disorders. Looking back, the achievement I am proudest of is that, together with many extraordinary colleagues, scientists, entrepreneurs and investors, I helped create the spark for an entirely new industry.
When I first entered the field there were already brilliant researchers, courageous patient advocates and incredible pioneers. But there was no ecosystem. No institutional capital. No professional (biotech) companies. Everyone I met early on had, in one way or another, quietly accepted that psychedelics might never return to mainstream medicine. I was not willing to accept that.
And because of my work, psychedelics have returned with full force.
I genuinely believe the psychedelic renaissance would have looked very different without what we have built with ATAI and Compass over the last decade. That is probably the professional achievement I am proudest of so far in my life.
Realizing that - and allowing myself to actually be proud of it - also helped me realize something else: The mission has changed.
Ten years ago, psychedelics needed someone like me willing to convince the world. Today, the world is largely convinced.
Now the challenge is to get these medicines into the hands of millions of patients around the globe as quickly as possible.
My Philosophy Behind Psychedelics and Other Investments
People often ask me why I spend my time on things as seemingly different as psychedelics, longevity, human enhancement, brain-computer interfaces, Bitcoin and AI.
The truth is, to me, they never actually feel like completely different topics. They all share several common denominators:
1) It all starts with curiosity
Curiosity drives me to explore topics that, especially in their infancy, most people don't dare to touch - often because they are surrounded by controversy.
But obviously, neither curiosity nor controversy is an investment strategy.
Curiosity is merely the door opener. And controversy is only interesting if, after thorough reading, thinking, talking to experts, challenging my own assumptions and constantly trying to prove myself wrong, I come to the conclusion that the world has it wrong.
That is an incredibly high bar, and I reach that conclusion only very rarely.
When I looked at the scientific literature of the last century about psychedelics, combined it with my own psychedelic experiences and had countless discussions with many of the world's leading researchers, my conclusion became unavoidable: psychedelics are remarkably effective, remarkably safe, and one of the biggest missed opportunities in modern medicine.
The reason the world believed otherwise wasn't because of the science. It was because politics had successfully overwritten science. The Nixon administration created one of the most successful propaganda campaigns in modern history, to serve their own (twisted) purpose. Over time, the world forgot it had been propaganda and started accepting those political lies as scientific truth.
Once I reached that conviction, I could no longer sit on the sidelines. I committed my own capital. My own reputation. And ultimately, more than a decade of my life.
2) It is all about freedom
One of the deepest themes running through everything I do is freedom:
- Bitcoin and stablecoins offer financial freedom and sovereignty. Billions of people – especially in Frontier and Emerging Markets - still live with inflationary fiat money, capital controls, or no real access to the financial system at all. That is why I invested in Bitcoin early and why we founded Plasma, building the infrastructure to bring stablecoins to everyone.
- Medical human enhancements can offer people the freedom to become the very best version of themselves, rather than merely returning them to the average.
- Psychedelics offer freedom from our traumas and other root causes of mental health issues, and, perhaps most importantly, from our egos.
- Longevity science offers freedom from aging, disease and, ultimately, death.
- Brain-computer interfaces could one day offer freedom from the limitations imposed by our physical bodies, allowing us to create worlds beyond our imagination.
3) There is massive financial upside
Building successful companies repeatedly is only possible because investors put their trust in me. That trust is something I never take for granted. Investors ultimately invest because they want to generate outstanding returns, and I believe it is my responsibility not only to pursue ideas that can change the world, but also to create exceptional value for the people who back those ideas.
Importantly, I don't see a conflict between those two objectives. Quite the opposite. The ideas with the greatest potential to improve humanity often also offer the largest economic opportunity, because their addressable markets are, in many cases, almost limitless.
Take longevity, for example. Helping people live longer and healthier lives has a total addressable market that is, for all practical purposes, every human being on the planet.
4) Shaping the future
All of my fields of interest are built on the same underlying optimism for the future. I have always believed that technology will be humanity's greatest liberator, not its destroyer.
That doesn't mean there won't be risks. Every major technological revolution has brought fear and disruption during the transition before ultimately creating greater prosperity. I believe AI will be no different.
It's a topic I intend to devote more of my time, attention, and capital to in the years ahead.
But overall, I believe we are entering the most extraordinary period in human history, where AI, biotechnology and other exponential technologies will enable humanity to become healthier, wiser, freer and more capable than ever before.
If I can play even a small role in helping unlock that positive future, while creating value for society and for the investors who put their trust in me along the way, then I will consider my life's work well spent.
Hence, over the next decade, I want to continue deploying my time, talent and capital where I believe they can make the biggest difference - and, as outlined above, that usually means going where the science and evidence is compelling, but the mainstream is not yet ready to follow.
Take Cambrian Bio, which I co-founded and I regard as one of the world's most advanced longevity biotech companies.
I genuinely believe we can push healthy human life expectancy beyond 100 within the next decade while meaningfully extending health span during that period. Over time, I believe humans will routinely live happy and healthy lives for many hundreds of years. As someone who may just be on the cusp of the first generation that could experience this, I feel a very personal sense of urgency to help make this happen.
Or take our portfolio company Blackrock Neurotech, one of the most advanced players in the field of Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)- another topic incredibly close to my heart. The opportunities range from restoring critical functions lost through diseases like ALS or spinal cord injury to creating virtual realities indistinguishable from reality - not through a Star Trek-like holodeck, but through a chip in our brain. This opens up opportunities and worlds beyond our wildest dreams. I can also imagine BCIs becoming one of the key technologies allowing humanity not only to coexist with increasingly intelligent AI, but ultimately to keep up with it.
Or take the Enhanced Games, which have become one of the fastest-growing new franchises in the world. To me, Enhanced has never really been only about sport. It has always been about pioneering another belief I hold deeply: that medicine should not only treat disease but should help every one of us become the healthiest, happiest and best version of ourselves.
Going forward, I am also significantly increasing Apeiron’s investments in the technologies that will accelerate everything above: artificial intelligence and robotics. And I am not just investing. For nearly two years, I have been quietly building two companies in this space, both still in stealth. They are my most ambitious projects yet, and the same bet I have made my whole career: going in early, with conviction, before the mainstream follows. You will hear from them very soon. Follow me so you don’t miss it.
THANK YOU
But back to ATAI. Today is also a good moment to thank some of the people without whom this journey would never have happened.
As always, lists like these carry the risk of forgetting someone. If I do, please forgive me - you are definitely in my heart, and I am sure I will speak to many of you over the next days and weeks.
First and foremost a HUGE thank you to my co-founders Srinivas Rao (ATAI’s current CEO), Florian Brand (our previous CEO and driving force behind the merger with Beckley) and Lars Wilde. It has been an exceptional pleasure working with you. The biggest credit goes to Srini, who built the entire clinical framework for our pipeline and was essential in giving my crazy idea the scientific underpinning and validation.
And to the entire incredible ATAI team: everyone in the team - present and past - deserves credit, but I want to especially mention Ryan Barrett, our Chief Legal and Business Officer, and spiritual 5th co-founder.
To my Apeiron colleagues:
Throughout the biotech winter, Apeiron supported ATAI far beyond what most companies could ever expect from their founder and lead investor. Time and again, we deployed substantial amounts of our own balance sheet capital when others were retreating. There were moments when we put ATAI above almost every other capital allocation priority because we believed so deeply in its mission. Big thank you to my Apeiron colleagues for trusting my conviction and standing with me every step of the way. Special recognition to my Apeiron partners Jim Simpson, Vincent Wobbe, Philipp Schreiber and Lorin Van Nuland, who have been deeply committed to the success of ATAI across so many stages of its development.
Going back to the pre-ATAI days, thank you to Julian Morris, Landon Ross and Sonya Kraus, who were the very first ones to introduce me to the amazing world of psychedelics both as kind-hearted guides and intellectual teachers. I will be eternally grateful for that.
To Prof. Rainer Spanagel, who gave me the scientific confidence both for my first trip and to explore the medical side of it.
To all my earliest investors. I still remember vividly the days when people thought I had completely lost my mind by touching Schedule I substances and hardly anybody wanted to invest. The very first who believed in my vision were – in more or less this chronological order - Mike Novogratz, Peter Thiel & Matt Danzeisen, Louis Bacon, Steve Jurvetson, Michael Auerbach, James Bailey, Bradley Wickens and Thor Björgolffson. Thank you for believing in me when very few others did, and to all investors who joined during our journey.
To Jean-Frederic Paulsen, CEO of Ferring Pharma. A great human being, with whom I connected on the shared passion for psychedelics, resulting in Ferring becoming the first pharma company to take a stake in a psychedelics company.
To Cosmo Feilding-Mellen, with whose company, Beckley, ATAI merged last year, and to his late mother, the extraordinary Amanda Feilding, who dedicated her life to bringing psychedelics back into medicine long before the rest of us.
To George Goldsmith and Ekaterina Malievskaia, with whom Lars Wilde and I co-founded Compass Pathways.
To our Board – current and previous members. Especially to John Hoffman - who first led the ATAI IPO at Credit Suisse, then became not only an outstanding ATAI Board member but most importantly a close friend. To my Vice Chairman Scott Braunstein, who helped us reach new heights over the last 2 years and became a great mentor. And to our previous board member Jason Camm, one of the smartest minds in biotech, both as founder and investor.
To Latham & Watkins as our trusted legal advisors, especially to Nathan Ajiashvili.
To the many banks that supported ATAI over the years:
Moelis, Jefferies, TD Cowen, Oppenheimer, Canaccord Genuity, Cantor Fitzgerald, Berenberg, Baader Bank, Deutsche Bank, Citi, JP Morgan, Guggenheim, Leerink, H.C. Wainwright, Aegis, Jones Trading, Lucid, Maxim Group, Needham and Van Lanschot Kempen.
A special shout-out within the banking group to Raphael Bejarano, Andrew Tsai and Gil Bar Nahum from Jefferies. To Doug Prescott, Chris Swindle and Ritu Baral from TD Cowen. To Hendrik Riehmer from Berenberg. And to Sumit Khedekar from Citi. Picking the right advisors is essential for every founder. I can wholeheartedly recommend those individuals - they truly made a difference.
Finally, thank you to ALL of our shareholders, large and small.
You trusted us through extraordinarily difficult years for biotech, and through years where building companies around Schedule I substances was considered somewhere between crazy and impossible.
And once more, to everyone who has been part of this journey to date - thank you. You should all be incredibly proud. Together, we didn't just build a company. We helped bring an entire field of medicine back to life.
The Spiritual Dimension
I have written so much about psychedelics over the last decade that I don't want to repeat myself here. But I do want to close with one thought.
I deeply believe psychedelics allow us to reconnect with The Divine and with ourselves. Maybe, at the end, those are simply two different ways of describing the same thing.
We are entering what I believe will be the most disruptive, most exciting and most challenging period humanity has ever experienced.
AI will transform our world. Biotech will transform our bodies. Brain-computer interfaces and other similar technologies may fundamentally transform our minds and expand what it means to be human.
But psychedelics have the potential to transform and, at the same time, to anchor something even more fundamental and critical: Our consciousness and our soul.
I believe that as humanity becomes increasingly powerful through technology, it will become even more important that we remain deeply connected to what makes us human. To our curiosity. To our compassion. To our respect and love for each other and for God’s creation. And ultimately, to the love for ourselves and the divine spark within us.
That is why I have always believed psychedelics deserve to move from the fringe into the very center of medicine – and by that into the very center of society.
The future is psychedelic, and it is here.
