Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:00:01 · Alexa von Tobel
[00:00:01] S0: Welcome to Inspired. I'm Alexa von Tobel. Have you ever imagined what it would be like to see a woolly mammoth roaming the tundra? The idea of bringing back extinct species sounds like pure fantasy, the stuff of movies like Jurassic Park. But what if I told you that not only is it possible, it's actually happening right now. Just think about that for a moment. Creatures that disappeared from our planet thousands of years ago, animals our ancestors might have seen could once again be part of our world. And today, I'm thrilled to be sitting down with the visionary entrepreneur who's turning this science fiction into reality. Ben is a co founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences, the company working to bring extinct species back to life. From the woolly mammoth to the dodo to their latest achievement, the successful de extinction of the dire wolf after 10,000 of absence from our planet. But the journey to de extinction isn't Ben's first venture. He's a serial entrepreneur who's built and sold five companies across AI, gaming, and ed tech. From Hypergiant's work on critical defense infrastructure to Chaotic Moon's creative technology revolution, eventually acquired by Accenture, Ben has consistently pushed beyond conventional thinking. I'm fascinated by minds like Ben's that operate at the critical edge of what's possible. What makes someone look at the extinct species and think we can fix that? How do you build a company culture where the impossible becomes just another Tuesday? And perhaps the most intriguing, what happens when we unleash unbridled ambition to tackle the thorniest problems on our planet? Today's conversation will take us on the journey through Ben's entrepreneurial mindset, how he cultivates gravity defying ambitions, assembles teams of brilliant outliers and manages the high stakes emotional roller coaster of pioneering new territory. If you're running a startup, we know things like managing equity and communicating with investors are always top of mind. Carta has built a connected suite of tools that over 40,000 companies use to do just that. Their platform of software and services helps you lay the groundwork so you can focus on building. To learn more or get started, visit carta.com.
00:02:10 · Alexa von Tobel, Ben Lamm
[00:02:10] S1: And with that, let's welcome Ben. Ben, first of all, I'm so excited to have you on here, and I have to confess that as I, was walking in here to get set up for today, many, many, many people, here at Inspired stopped me and were like, he is so cool. Like, the woolly mammoth, what is he doing? This is incredible. So I'm jazzed to have this conversation. So first, just welcome. I wanna start from the beginning, Ben. You grew up in Texas. You, if I have it right, were born forty four years ago in Texas. [00:02:42] S2: Sorry. I'm 43, so I still have a little bit more time before I get to 44. And I'm epi... And I'm epigenetically 35, So I... So so, yes, I was technically born forty four years ago, you know, based on rotations around the sun, but, but but, you know, I... I've been on a big health kick. And so I wanna say that I'm probably closer to 35, 36. [00:03:05] S1: I'm gonna go with that from now on, by the way. I'm gonna start sharing my function health. [00:03:08] S2: You you do, like, the function health test and be like, wait. [00:03:11] S1: Wait. Well, I think we Okay. So then I... I'm not gonna take the time to pull it up. So I'm 23.9, which has to be a mistake. [00:03:19] S2: That's incredible.
00:03:19 · Ben Lamm, Alexa von Tobel
[00:03:19] S2: That's incredible. [00:03:21] S1: I think it has to be a mistake, and so I feel like I should get more data. But if we're starting there, first of all, congrats to both of us, for being healthy. I love that, Ben. Ben, let's go back to your childhood. So you were raised throughout Texas, Fort Smith... In Fort Smith, Arkansas. You were just such a prolific entrepreneur doing some really ambitious things. And I just wanna go back to your childhood and and ask the question of what stands out to you? If you think about your childhood and and and things that you think help weave you into this.
00:03:58 · Ben Lamm
[00:03:58] S2: Yeah. I, you know, I I would say I had a weird but, like, non... In in... A traditional childhood. So I was raised by... My parents got divorced at a very young age, and, you know, my dad lived predominantly overseas. And so at an early age, I actually traveled a lot with my father internationally. So I got a lot of interesting exposure to kind of international cultures. I think that kind of gave me kind of a a global kind of viewpoint and kind of realizing that, you know, there's lots of different ideas out there. There's lots of different cultures out there. Lots of people live very, very different all over the world. So I kinda got that flavor, but then I was, you know, predominantly, you know, most of my time was raised by my grandparents, my mom, and so mostly a single mom. Right? So I spent a little bit of time with my father, but the most part, spent a lot of time with my mom in in in Texas. Right? And so... And she was a Spanish teacher, and my grandparents were just kind of like your normal kind of middle American, you know, grandparents. Right? They were super involved, I had a lot of love and support, which is great. Even though she was a Spanish teacher, I still don't speak Spanish, so I don't know what that says about me. Probably a lot, and it probably says nothing and a lot at the at at the same time. But we moved around a little bit, but mostly in Texas. We did have... To your point, we had a small stint in in Arkansas, in Fort Smith, Arkansas with... Because my mom got remarried and she was teaching Spanish there. Then that didn't totally work out, we ended up coming back here to Texas. And then I went to high school in Texas, went to college in in Texas, started my first companies in Texas, moved to San Francisco, moved back, moved to New York, moved back. And so I I think that Texas is is pretty deep in my roots.
00:05:36 · Alexa von Tobel
[00:05:36] S1: When you think about something, that you can credit some of your grit and resiliency from your childhood? Is there something that just stands out or a formative story or anything that you would wanna share?
00:05:48 · Ben Lamm
[00:05:48] S2: So two things. In in high school, like going into high school, you know, my family think did a really good job at the early stages just in instilling work ethics. So I always like mowed lawns, I always did kinda little chores, ins and outs to try to make money. I also once got caught for outsourcing, mowing like my own lawn to my neighbor because I was getting paid an allowance. I just split it with him and then I just played video games and let him do that. So I kinda found like you could kind of arbitrage your time and do what you want if you just... If if you can make... Bring in enough cat... Cash to then pace one to do the actual work. So I kinda learned that, but then in high school, I I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I kinda just got fired from everything I tried. I was like, I think I wanna go learn about cars. And so I, like, went and, like, applied with one of my buddies to be... To work at, like, a Jiffy Lube, and I lasted like... I was like, because it's important to know like mechanics. You know, I'm in Texas. You know, it was the nineties. It's a very manly thing. Like, you should know about cars. And so... I know nothing about cars. I don't even like like cars now. But I did... So so I, like, lasted a day and, like, I I got fired. And then I was like, I love animals, so I'll go work at a pet store. I think I lasted a week at the pet store. And then I love movies, so I thought I'd work at a movie theater. And I was like, oh, you can watch movies. Right? And so I showed up, and they're like, well, you're not wearing the outfit that... Or uniform, I think they called it. I think it's an outfit. And I was like, well, that that outfit is ridiculous. I'm not gonna wear that, but I'll work really hard. And they're like, if you don't wear the uniform, you can't work here. And so that was my shortest job because, like, they had, like, ridiculous... Like, they had the most ridiculous outfit. And I was like, I'm not gonna wear that. But I'll work... I'll I'll I'll work extra hours, but I just... I'm not gonna wear that because that's just stupid.