#95 - Maximilian Schwarz - Nucleus - "It needs to feel uncomfortable sitting with them"

#95 - Maximilian Schwarz - Nucleus - "It needs to feel uncomfortable sitting with them"

Author: Hugo Rauch June 2, 2026 Duration: 52:13
New Wave.
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🌊 Building Conviction Before the World Sees It

What it takes to back scientific founders before there’s a product, revenue, or proof that the science will work.

We’re joined by Max, Founder & Managing Partner at Nucleus, a pre-seed venture fund backing scientific and technical founders across food, biotech, and industrial innovation.

In this episode, we dive into what it really takes to become the first institutional believer in a company, often before there’s an MVP, customers, or even certainty that the underlying technology can scale.

Max shares the lessons from building Nucleus from scratch, how he learned to evaluate breakthrough science without being a scientist himself, and why the best founders combine technical brilliance with the ability to tell a compelling story.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why founder-market fit matters more than market analysis at pre-seed

→ How Nucleus evaluates scientific risk and separates companies from science projects

→ What Max learned from building a fund as a first-time manager

→ Why early investors need to make mistakes to develop conviction

→ The role of advisors, operators, and domain experts in deep-tech diligence

→ What “great” looks like in a scientific founder

→ Why storytelling is an underrated superpower for technical teams

→ The differences between European and American deep-tech founders

→ How Nucleus supports founders beyond capital

→ Why Europe may have a unique advantage in science and industrial innovation

✨ Leave a review and share the episode if this conversation challenged the way you think about growth, innovation, and sustainability.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

Hugo Rauch hosts New Wave, a podcast that lives at the intersection of business ambition and scientific reality. This isn't about distant predictions or abstract science; it's a grounded exploration of the technologies and companies being built right now to address our environmental future. Each episode focuses on the practical journey, dissecting the models, the breakthroughs, and the hard decisions that define the climate tech landscape. You'll hear from founders, researchers, and investors who are actively shaping this space, getting into the specifics of what works, what doesn't, and why. The conversations move beyond hype to examine the tangible mechanics of creating viable solutions, from energy storage and sustainable materials to carbon removal and regenerative agriculture. It’s for anyone who thinks about the climate challenge not just as a crisis, but as a complex and urgent field of innovation. By tuning into this podcast, you gain a clearer understanding of the economic forces and scientific principles driving the next generation of environmental solutions. New Wave connects the dots between the lab, the boardroom, and the impact we need to see in the world, offering a sober yet optimistic look at where substantive progress is truly being made.
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