We Need Inventors. And Inventors Need Us. Pablos Holman on Finding and Backing Zero to One Builders

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Apr 14, 2026

Pablos Holman, inventor and investor who backs bold deep-tech builders, argues we must pick one big problem and go all in. He spotlights invisible garage inventors, why AI optimizes but struggles to create, and how software skills can unlock solutions in energy, water, and manufacturing. Practical, urgent, and provocative takes on backing zero-to-one invention.

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Doomscrolling Erodes Your Capacity To Solve One Big Problem

Newsfeeds amplify every worst problem instantly, creating a skewed sense that the world is irredeemably broken.
Pablos Holman says this constant crisis signal erodes your ability to focus and make a meaningful impact on a single problem.

Pick One Problem And Cut The Noise

Pick one problem to solve and cut the noise so you can meaningfully affect it.
Use the sticky-note prioritization exercise Pablos describes to force trade-offs and focus your time.

Inventors Are The Invisible Creative Class

Inventors are the core creative class who expand human potential but remain largely invisible and unsupported.
Pablos notes 'inventor' rarely appears as a career and inventing often requires lifetimes and high personal risk.

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We live in a world where every crisis lands in your pocket the moment it happens. The result? We're more informed than ever — and somehow less capable of doing anything about it.

Inventor and investor Pablos Holman has a diagnosis: we're spreading ourselves across every problem, which means we're solving none of them. His prescription is uncomfortable — pick one thing, go all in, and cut the noise.

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Pablos is the co-founder of Deep Futures, where he hunts for inventors tackling world-scale problems: energy, water, food, waste, transportation. Not apps. Atoms. And thanks to advances in AI and software, these "impossible" problems are more solvable than ever — if the right people show up to back them.

In this conversation, recorded at the fabulous PopTech conference, he makes the case that inventors are the most important creative class on earth — and the most invisible. They're undersupported, uncelebrated, and working alone in garages. Some of them are probably going to blow themselves up. Those are exactly the people he's looking for.

We get into:

Why doomscrolling is literally eroding your ability to make a difference
The difference between craft (optimization) and creation (zero-to-one) — and why AI is great at one and struggling with the other
Why you can name 100 musicians but fewer than two living inventors
How solving energy unlocks clean water, sanitation, and climate — essentially for free
Why software people are uniquely positioned to work on the hardest problems in the world right now

Chapters:

(01:15) - Why the world isn't as broken as your newsfeed makes it seem
(03:00) - The sticky note exercise: how to pick the one problem worth your time
(04:30) - Inventors are the most important creative class nobody talks about
(07:00) - Living inventors you should actually know
(09:00) - What AI is good at — and what it still can't do
(12:30) - Why software people are the right ones to tackle deep tech problems
(22:56) - Energy is the root problem — solve it and you solve a lot else
(25:56) - Climate change needs a thousand solutions, not one big fix
(28:26) - The fashion industry's dirty secret and what robots can do about it

Links & Resources

Pablos Holman on LinkedIn
Deep Future: VC firm, book, and podcast

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Pablos's first appearance on the show covers his work at Blue Origin and Intellectual Ventures. Scroll in your podcast app to July 2025 to find that fun conversation. (Can listen before or after this one; not a prerequisite.)