2025 Year-End Letter
At Emerson Collective, we have the good fortune of working with visionary builders. What they are creating is changing how we live and work and how we relate to each other. They blow us away with their imagination, creativity, and courage.
In this season of reflection, we are grateful for this community and for all the builders who remind us that light is not the absence of darkness. It’s the act of shining right through it.
It’s a pleasure to share some highlights with you.
Engineering Better Medicines with AI
The future of drug discovery depends on approaches that can navigate biological complexity with speed and accuracy. Today, scientists face an overwhelming number of possible drug designs, making the process slow and often ineffective for the toughest diseases. Progress increasingly relies on tools that can learn directly from data and guide scientists toward the most promising ideas.
Chai Discovery is making that shift possible by turning biology from a scientific discipline into an engineering practice. The company develops frontier AI models that design proteins and antibodies with a level of precision that was out of reach just a few years ago. Chai’s open-source model, Chai 1, set a new benchmark for structural prediction, and its successor, Chai 2, is already producing de novo antibody candidates with unusually high hit rates. This year, the company raised a Series B to extend its platform and deepen partnerships with pharmaceutical teams. The momentum reflects a broader belief that AI-driven design can open paths to medicines that were once inaccessible.
A New Tool for Women’s Health
Each year in the United States, 4,000 women die from cervical cancer, a disease that is almost entirely preventable. Nearly one-third of women in this country remain behind on their screenings, often because of cost or limited access.
Teal Health, led by Kara Egan, is working to change that. Their FDA-approved Teal Wand allows women to complete cervical cancer screenings privately, safely, and accurately at home. In early December, the American Cancer Society updated its guidelines to include at-home self-testing, a major shift that opens the door to wider use and greater adoption. Teal’s work reminds us that progress in healthcare begins with listening, with understanding the barriers people face, and with designing solutions that meet them where they are.
Storing Energy, Powering Industry
As demand for energy soars and energy systems become more distributed, we need solutions that are both scalable and smart.
That is where Antora comes in. Their carbon-based thermal batteries store excess renewable electricity as heat, offering a reliable source of clean energy that can be used when and where it is needed most. The design is straightforward and modular, built from abundant materials. As CEO Andrew Ponec shared at Demo Day, these batteries are already in use and changing the way manufacturers think about energy. Blocks of carbon, not unlike pencil graphite, hold the power to support entire industries. This practical innovation is focused on meeting needs in a part of the energy system that is too often overlooked.
Reading is Fundamental
By third grade, a child’s reading ability becomes one of the strongest predictors of future success in school, in work, and in health. According to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress report, nearly 70 percent of fourth graders in the United States are not reading at the proficient level. This is an alarming statistic that should concern all of us. It tells us how many children are being left without one of the most essential tools for learning and for life.
Once near the bottom in reading proficiency, the state of Mississippi made a choice. It trained teachers in the science of reading and intensely focused on early learning. Within a decade, literacy test scores improved dramatically, and the state rose into the top tier nationally.
Now, Maryland is stepping up with bold reforms and partnerships. In Prince George’s County, working with Maryland READS, they are bringing trained literacy coaches into classrooms to support teachers in high-quality reading instruction, grounded in evidence. When children learn to read, they gain more than comprehension—they gain an essential tool for life.
Lighthouses for Literacy
The love of reading often begins with wonder, with finding a story that captures the imagination. Often, that spark is lit in quiet spaces where curiosity grows.
That’s why we’re also partnering with independent bookstores like Baldwin & Co. in New Orleans and Plenty Downtown Bookshop in Cookeville, Tennessee. These are places where children gather for storytime, where families join in community, and where festivals turn city blocks into celebrations of language and learning. Behind each of these spaces is a story—a life shaped by books, a spark nurtured into something lasting.
As a child struggling with speech, DJ Johnson’s mother filled his home with books and made sure he read every day. DJ told the audience at Demo Day that those books “gave me language, they gave me confidence, and they eventually gave me purpose,” adding that he founded Baldwin & Co. “to create a space where books could heal others the same way that they had once healed me.”