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What Max Hodak thinks about startups

@max-hodak · 40 positions · 0 changes of mind

Co-founder and chief executive of Science, a neurotechnology company whose retinal implant restores sight to blind patients; before founding it he spent five years at Neuralink.

Max Hodak did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

5 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Max Hodak has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingRestoring vision to the blind is a good business, and a company doing it should aim to be profitable rather than permanently funded.

    Their wordsYeah, well I mean becoming profitable or at least have like having the ability to do this forever is a super high priority. Restoring vision to the blind is pretty good business if you can actually do that.

    ↗From Restoring Sight to Reimagining the Brain, with Max Hodakyoutube.com 12th of 18 in this recording

    Interesting
  2. 13 days earlier

  3. Our readingThe best companies come out of scenes: a moment and a community that nucleate the founding team, and once that moment passes it is hard to get back.

    Their wordsI think the best companies in my experience come from what might be characterized as scenes. There's like a moment that enables a new company to be born and there's a bunch that comes together that really creates this like unique nucleation for the new company.

    ↗Max Hodak: Average Is Not Good Enoughyoutube.com 4th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our readingA startup's speed is set by boring internal infrastructure — purchasing, recruiting, spending — and that matters as much as understanding the technology itself.

    Their wordsAnd so speed determines success and failure and speed is determined by infrastructure. This is driven by really boring sounding things like how well do your purchasing and recruiting and spending processes work. This is as important as how well do you understand understand the object level technical content of the thing that you're building.

    ↗Max Hodak: Average Is Not Good Enoughyoutube.com 10th of 22 in this recording

    infrastructure

    Interesting

  7. Our readingA founder cannot delegate judgment: the chief executive has to make the decision that makes sense to them, however much momentum the alternative has.

    Their wordsAnd one of the harder lessons as a startup founder, one of the harder things I think to to really deal with is the fact that you cannot delegate your judgment. As as the CEO, you must always make decisions that make sense to you, no matter how much momentum or inertia alternatives seem to have.

    ↗Max Hodak: Average Is Not Good Enoughyoutube.com 12th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  9. Our readingEven a long-horizon deep tech company should chase revenue sooner than it thinks, so that it is valued on its roadmap rather than on its probability of dying.

    Their wordsyou do need to think about how do you get to revenue so that not just you can do it forever, but then you'll be valued on your long-term road map, not not valued on your probability of dying.

    ↗Max Hodak: Average Is Not Good Enoughyoutube.com 20th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting