4 AUSTIN BUSINESS JOURNAL COVER STORY WHURLEY’S ‘STRANGEST’ STARTUP YET WILLIAM HURLEY’S NEW ew people have the cojones to found a compa based VC rm. e round closed on Jan. 31. ny o ering services that don’t yet exist based on While quantum computers for the masses might nev VENTURE AIMS TO RIDE technology that might never exist. er materialize, many are wagering they will. Companies THE WAVE OF THE MUCH- But, as Texas A&M University’s Helmut Katzgra such as Google, IBM, Intel and Microsoft have teams of ber put it, “At the end of the day, it’s Whurley” researchers toiling to improve their existing machines or BALLEYHOOED QUANTUM as though it’s self evident that the nickname for build their rst one. And investors have poured hundreds COMPUTING REVOLUTION Austin serial entrepreneur William Hurley is synony of m illions of dollars into startups springing up around mous with preposterous. the nascent technology, which relies on the phenomena THAT COULD DISRUPT Whurley concedes as much when describing his lat of quantum mechanics to operate. MULTIPLE INDUSTRIES Fest venture, Strangeworks Inc., which will build quan Quantum mechanics describes the behavior and tum computing software consisting of developer tools properties of atomic and subatomic particles and waves. AROUND THE GLOBE. and a systems management platform. e expected value of the worldwide quantum com SURE, THERE ARE “Not crazy, clearly,” said Whurley, 46, both of his index puting market last year was $2.7 billion, according to ngers pointed at himself. a July report by New York based Persistence Market PLENTY OF DOUBTERS e venture capitalists at Lightspeed Venture Partners Research Pvt. Ltd. By the close of 2025, global revenue — BUT HE ALREADY HAS in Menlo Park, California, are betting Whurley is wily generated by the quantum computing sector will exceed rather than wacky. $23 billion, the report said. $4 MILLION IN SEED ey led an oversubscribed $4 m illion seed round in Yet some physicists, like Katzgraber, are skeptical of FUNDING IN THE BANK. Strangeworks that also included BoxGroup, a New York such projections. e tenured professor doubts quan MARCH 9, 20 18 5 “Here’s the bet: By creating a quantum-computing ecosystem around new development tools, we’ll be able to eliminate some of the complexity for developers and data scientists at large,” he said. “ ey’ll be able to do things on GEEK ALERT: QUANTUM quantum computers that will change the world.” Whurley plans to formally launch Strangeworks COMPUTERS EXPLAINED during his SXSW keynote speech set for 2 p.m., March Pretend you have a cat, a container o poison, a 13, in Ballroom D at the Austin Convention Center. radioactive substance, a Geiger counter and a “We’re humanizing the quantum computer; we’re hammer. removing the barriers from quantum computing,” he You put all those things in a steel box. Be ore you close it, you arrange them so the Geiger counter said. detects the decay o the radioactive substance He and his four colleagues intend and tells the hammer to break open the poison to move Strangeworks on June 1 container, killing the cat. from the downtown Austin WeWork Why are you doing this to your cat? “Instead of the co-working space on Congress Ave- Because physics Nobel Prize winner Erwin Schrödinger said just that in 1935 to describe company trying nue to new digs at 2922 E. Cesar quantum mechanics. Chavez St. — the current home of Radioactive decay is impossible to predict. So to directly cha nge FloSports Inc. At 7,750 square feet, you don’t know when the cat will die. The only way the world, we’re what’s special about that location “is to know i the cat is alive or dead is to open the box. that we will be able to host quantum Schrödinger explained that, be ore you open going to make the box, “the cat is in a state that physicists call a meetups right in the space,” Whur- superposition, with both an ‘alive’ component and tools for world- ley said. “ is is cool because people a ‘dead’ component,” said Scott Aaronson, David J. can host a meetup, and then host a Bruton Centennial Pro essor o Computer Science at changers like happy hour after at Lustre Pearl East The University o Texas at Austin and director o its [next door].” Quantum In ormation Center. developers, “In just the same way, an electron orbiting an data scientists, Whurley said he plans to hire atom’s nucleus is in a superposition over all possible for “multiple positions” during the locations, until some interaction with the outside university next 12 months to expand the phys- world — such as a scientist making a measurement ics, data-science and development — orces it into a definite state,” Aaronson said. students, team s. OK. But why did you have to kill your cat? Know that the eline willingly aced her own geneticists, demise, proclaiming, “Give me quantum mechanics Disrupting industries or give me death!” be ore she went into the box. mathematicians, During a lengthy conversation And know that she got both, at the same time, pharmaceutical one recent February morning at because that’s how the world o atomic and WeWork, Whurley didn’t sit down. subatomic particles and waves — aka, quantum researchers — mechanics — works. He paced back and forth, detailing In theory, a unctional and power ul quantum you name it.” his vision while repeatedly lament- computer would “exploit quantum mechanics to ing that he reserved a conference solve certain problems aster” than even today’s WILLIAM HURLEY, supercomputers — such as the Stampede2 ounder, Strangeworks room without a whiteboard. Others possessing a 6-foot-2- supercomputer at UT, Aaronson said. Those building a quantum computer propose inch, 200-pound frame might be “to harness nature to do computations in a intimidating. But Whurley is quint- undamentally di erent way,” Aaronson said. essentially Austin: approachable, What hampers typical computers like the a able, eccentric, humble. With a beard that connects Stampede2 is that their binary digits, or bits, may to his sideburns and no mustache, Whurley resembles have only two values: zero or one. Quantum bits, or qubits, are a superposition o zero and one values, what an Amish farmer might look like if he embraced Aaronson said. technology. Scientists use “amplitudes” to determine which “I want Strangeworks to be a catalyst for world-chang- is more likely: The qubit being a zero or the qubit ers,” he said. “Instead of the company trying to direct- being a one. ly change the world, we’re going to make tools for “While they’re closely related to probabilities, amplitudes are not themselves probabilities — or world-changers like developers, data scientist, univer- one thing, because they’re complex numbers,” sity students, geneticists, mathematicians, pharmaceu- which can be negative, Aaronson said. tical researchers — you name it.” “More amplitude on the zero state, or example, Whurley said the approach is a departure from what means a higher likelihood o finding the result zero. he did at his previous startup, Honest Dollar Inc. The way amplitudes behave di erently rom ordinary ARNOLD WELLS / STAFF probabilities is the whole secret sauce that makes “I founded Honest Dollar to address the savings crisis quantum mechanics interesting.” in America — it was, and remains, a big societal problem,” A quantum computer’s qubits remain in tum computers ever will become a com modity. “I don’t he said. “We used technology to address that problem in superposition as long as they are isolated rom the think that will happen in my lifetime,” Katzgraber said. a new creative way.” outside world. But any interaction with the external Mathematician Gil Kalai goes further, while acknowl- e company helped the self-employed and small environment that identifies the location o an electron orbiting an atom’s nucleus, or example, edging he is in the minority: Genuine quantum comput- business owners save for retirement. New York-based would collapse that superposition. ers are impossible. Full stop. Goldman Sachs acquired Honest Dollar in 2016, a year Quantum computer researchers describe that to the day after its launch, for an undisclosed amount. phenomenon as “decoherence.” To prevent qubit Mitigating risk “After that experience, I realized there might be a bet- exposure to the external environment, researchers Whurley, who is a keynote speaker at this year’s South by ter way” [to help change the world], Whurley said. have built room-sized reezers to house the qubits at temperatures close to absolute zero, or minus Southwest conference, knows the obstacles he faces. He SXSW Chief Programming O cer Hugh Forrest called 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. remains unfazed, stating that being a successful entre- Whurley “a huge part of” the startup and tech scene in Wrong answers occur when quantum computers preneur is all about mitigating risk. the Texas Capital. lose their coherence. Decoherence is the most “In the early days of computing, you’d have to be an “Honest Dollar was another big feather in his cap — challenging practical obstacle con ronting those electrical engineer to program a computer because you and it was so cool that Honest Dollar gained so much building quantum computers, Aaronson said. “The goal is to use quantum error correction to had to understand the voltage at the gate level,” Whur- traction at SXSW 2016,” Forrest said. Whurley’s “keynote build qubits that maintain their coherence or a long ley said. “Now, most developers can’t name the gates. will align with one of the best traditions of SXSW, which time.” Today, you have to be a physicist, or have a strong phys- is focusing on the next big thing long before it becomes - Mike Cronin ics background, to program a quantum computer.