Schmidt Futures bets early on exceptional people making the world better. Founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, we apply modern tools from science and technology to knit talent into networks, deploy interdisciplinary teams to take on the most important public problems, and advance platforms to scale the highest-risk, highest-return ideas for public benefit. To realize this vision, we use a broad set of tools—including gifts, grants, investments, and startup activity—for charitable, educational, and commercial efforts with a public purpose. We seek to be a funder of first opportunity rather than a lender of last resort.