This profile has not been claimed and data may not be accurate.
66th percentile
67th percentile
Founder Matrix
Most Complimentary
Credibility
Domain Expertise · 91th percentile
- Tom Knight has a Wikidata entity (Q7816496), confirming his notability as a public figure in science and technology.
Founder score
- 99%Probability of being accurate (99%)Tom Knight has a Wikidata entity (Q7816496), confirming his notability as a public figure in science and technology.
- 95%Probability of being accurate (95%)Current co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks, where he continues to support R&D as a Ginkgo Fellow.
- 92%Probability of being accurate (92%)Ginkgo Bioworks was co-founded with multiple co-founders alongside Tom Knight.
- 88%Probability of being accurate (88%)Ginkgo Bioworks went public via a SPAC merger in 2021, representing a founder exit.
- 85%Probability of being accurate (85%)Ginkgo Bioworks raised $796M in total venture capital across its funding history.
Investor score
- 82%Probability of being accurate (82%)Publicly identified as an angel investor with a portfolio focused on HealthTech and Life Sciences.
- 78%Probability of being accurate (78%)Has made at least 2 known angel investments, including Biobot Analytics and B-Secur.
- 72%Probability of being accurate (72%)Has been active as an investor since at least 2008, representing approximately 15 or more years of investing experience.
What you likely need
Tom Knight is a legendary figure in synthetic biology — co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks and widely considered the father of the field — whose public profile is dominated by his scientific and entrepreneurial legacy rather than active fundraising or deal-making today. His primary opportunity lies in leveraging his extraordinary credibility to expand his angel portfolio and amplify the impact of his research. Formalizing his investor identity and deepening his public technical presence could unlock significant additional influence.
Are these your current priorities?
We will tune and customize your Founder Festival experience to make sure you get invited to the events that would be most valuable to you.
- introsFormalize your angel investing activity by joining a recognized syndicate or micro-VC platform (e.g., AngelList) to increase deal flow beyond your current 2-company portfolio.
- positioningPublish a public essay or Substack on the current state of synthetic biology to reinforce your position as the field's founding voice and attract inbound from founders and investors.
- positioningDevelop a clear public narrative around your post-IPO role at Ginkgo Bioworks to help founders and LPs understand how you're still actively engaged in the ecosystem.
- tacticalIncrease your research publication footprint — your current h-index of 8 is modest relative to your stature, and more indexed works would strengthen your academic credibility signal.
- tacticalEstablish or publicize a GitHub presence to showcase any open-source synthetic biology tooling or computational biology work, which would resonate strongly with the technical founder community.
- introsGiven your investments in Biobot Analytics and B-Secur, consider joining a HealthTech-focused LP network or advisory board to deepen deal sourcing in your stated focus areas.
- tacticalClarify your relationship with ExplORer Surgical Corp. (where you appear on a Form D filing) to ensure your public investor profile accurately reflects all active or past investment roles.