Safi is a physicist, biotech founder, former public-company CEO, author of Loonshots, and the manager of Folkman Ventures, which invests in biomedical, digital health, and technology companies.
Safi’s research has focused on applying the science of phase change to companies and markets. Applied to the spread of ideas in companies, the principles help leaders design more innovative organizations. Applied to market dynamics, they help investors understand bubbles and crashes.
Loonshots describes how this research helps explain the rise and fall of companies and nations, and offers practical rules for innovating in turbulent times. The book combines physics, business, and world history through stories: how the Allies won WWII, the rise and fall of Pan Am, Steve Jobs, James Bond, and why the world speaks English.
An instant WSJ bestseller, Loonshots has been translated into 23 languages; was recognized as a top nonfiction book by Bloomberg, The Financial Times, Forbes, Inc., Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post; and was the #1 most recommended book of the year in Bloomberg’s annual survey of CEOs and entrepreneurs.
Prior to writing Loonshots, Safi founded a biotechnology company focused on novel therapies for serious diseases. As its CEO for 13 years, he led the company’s growth from startup through public offering and evolution into a fully integrated drug discovery and development organization. The company, now known as Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: MDGL) and valued at over $10 billion, achieved the first FDA approval for a treatment for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH, also known as fatty liver disease).
Before that, Safi was a consultant at McKinsey, advising organizations on strategy and operations, and worked with President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on the future of national research.
Safi received an A.B. degree in physics from Harvard University summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University, where he studied particle physics under Lenny Susskind and many-body physics under Nobel Prize winner Robert Laughlin. He was a Miller Research Fellow in physics at UC Berkeley, where I studied properties of high-temperature superconductors.
Safi lives with his wife and 3 children in Washington, DC, and splits his time between Folkman Ventures, working closely with a handful of hypergrowth companies, and research for his next book.
