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max hodak

T2 · manager / operator

Max Hodak is the founder of Science, a brain-computer interface company developing the Prima retinal prosthesis (restoring form vision in clinical trials), bio-hybrid neural interfaces, and portable perfusion technology. He co-founded Neuralink in 2016 after an email from Sam Altman connected him with Elon Musk. Previously founded Transcriptic, a robotic cloud laboratory. Holds a biomedical engineering degree and has worked on primate BCI research since 2008.

9 calls·7 names·89% bull·last heard 4 days ago·Y Combinator+1
track record

no scored calls yet — needs a stated position or a categorical verdict, with a matured window vs SPY

top calls

highest conviction · one per company
1sthigh conviction
$SCIENCEScienceposition

Science CEO details retinal prosthesis clinical success and internal OS

Science's retinal implant has completed major clinical trials with patients achieving functional vision like reading novels, powered by proprietary internal software Helix that integrates procurement, manufacturing, and quality systems.

Y Combinator2026-08→
2ndmedium conviction
$SCIENCE-CORPORATIONScience Corporationposition

Science Corp's retinal implant gets EU approval, FDA pathway underway for blindness cure

Science Corporation's Prima retinal prosthesis received CE mark for 30 European countries with first patient implants in 6 weeks, plus FDA humanitarian use designation enabling expedited US review, commercializing a 1-hour outpatient procedure that restores functional vision to AMD patients.

TBPN2026-07→
3rdmedium conviction
$METAMeta Platforms

Meta's heavy internal tools investment yields significant efficiency gains

Meta's famous investment in custom internal software has created substantial operational efficiency, serving as a model for deep tech companies building their own infrastructure.

Y Combinator2026-08→

most discussed · click a bar to filter

recurring themes

9 total
$SCIENCE
Science
HIGHmax hodak·Y Combinator·4 days ago· position
Science CEO details retinal prosthesis clinical success and internal OS
Science's retinal implant has completed major clinical trials with patients achieving functional vision like reading novels, powered by proprietary internal software Helix that integrates procurement, manufacturing, and quality systems.
"At our company science our main product is a retinal prostthesis. It's a chip that's implanted under the retina in the back of the eye to restore vision to patients that have gone…"
0:45
$META
···
Meta Platforms
MEDmax hodak·Y Combinator·4 days ago
Meta's heavy internal tools investment yields significant efficiency gains
Meta's famous investment in custom internal software has created substantial operational efficiency, serving as a model for deep tech companies building their own infrastructure.
"Facebook also very famously invested heavily in internal tools and now has um like I think gets a lot of efficiency from that."
38:13
$Y-COMBINATOR
Y Combinator
MEDmax hodak·Y Combinator·4 days ago
Y Combinator's internal software is core to its operational effectiveness
Y Combinator's custom-built internal software platform is a key enabler of its accelerator operations, demonstrating the value of bespoke tools for organizational workflows.
"YC famously has a lot of internal software that I think really makes YC work."
38:09
$GREENHOUSE
Greenhouse Software
MEDmax hodak·Y Combinator·4 days ago
Greenhouse ATS replaced due to bottlenecking hiring funnel at Science
Greenhouse's applicant tracking system forced a small team bottleneck at the top of the hiring funnel, prompting Science to build custom voting-based hiring software that distributes review across the company.
"we previously had used a we used greenhouse. Um greenhouse required us to have a small number of people as a bottleneck at that at that first funnel stage. Um replacing that with…"
39:01
$SPCX
···
SpaceX
MEDmax hodak·Y Combinator·4 days ago
SpaceX's Warp Speed internal software exemplifies custom infrastructure advantage
SpaceX's custom manufacturing and R&D software Warp Speed demonstrates how companies growing up around bespoke internal tools gain powerful operational efficiency that off-the-shelf software cannot provide.
"SpaceX and Tesla internally have a pretty giant piece of software called Warp Speed that runs a lot of their manufacturing and R&D processes. And so when one company grows up arou…"
38:20
$SCIENCE
Science
HIGHmax hodak·Y Combinator·5 months ago· position
Science's Prima retinal prosthesis restores form vision in clinical trial, submitting for approval
Science's subretinal implant stimulates bipolar cells (not compressed ganglion cells), enabling coherent form vision — first ever in a clinical trial — with 40+ patients treated and NEJM publication; path to near-normal 20/20 vision in 10 years.
"So it's a little chip, a tiny little 2 mm by 2 mm silicon chip that's implanted in the back of the eye under the retina that is a tiny little array of essentially solar panels...…"
0:51
$SCIENCE
Science
HIGHmax hodak·Y Combinator·5 months ago· position
Science pursues neural engineering over drug discovery, targeting blindness, bio-hybrid interfaces, and perfusion
Neural engineering approach bypasses molecular complexity of drug discovery — one device treats multiple blindness etiologies (AMD, retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt's) because it replaces photoreceptor function regardless of cause; pipeline includes Prima retinal implant, bio-hybrid neural interfaces with hypoimmunogenic stem-cell neurons, and portable perfusion (Vessel) for organ support.
"Humanity just isn't very good at drug discovery... with our retinal prosthesis, what we saw in the trial was we can take a patient who's been unable to see faces for a decade and…"
13:32
$SCIENCE-CORPORATION
Science Corporation
MEDmax hodak·TBPN·20 days ago· position
Science Corp's retinal implant gets EU approval, FDA pathway underway for blindness cure
Science Corporation's Prima retinal prosthesis received CE mark for 30 European countries with first patient implants in 6 weeks, plus FDA humanitarian use designation enabling expedited US review, commercializing a 1-hour outpatient procedure that restores functional vision to AMD patients.
"last week we got marketing approval in Europe. So, we've received the CE mark... the first patient is probably 6 weeks away or so"
142:08
$NEURALINK
Neuralink
MEDmax hodak·Y Combinator·5 months ago
Neuralink achieved first fully implantable, skin-closed BCI for motor decoding via smartphone-dividend electronics
Neuralink's breakthrough was miniaturizing electronics enough to fully implant and close the skin — eliminating infection risk from percutaneous connectors — enabled by smartphone-supply-chain advances; motor decoding from primary motor cortex works but yields only ~10 bits/sec, far below keyboard/mouse for able-bodied users.
"I think the thing that made this possible is what we call the smartphone dividend. Like basically I couldn't have done this on its own, but Apple and Samsung and others have poure…"
38:16