Creative studio, Spacecadet Studio, has been launched by marketing-focused venture capital firm, Spacecadet Ventures. Its focus is companies in sectors like AI, robotics, gene therapy and space and ex-Johannes Leonardo chief marketing officer, John McCarthy, is at the helm.
The studio is designed to work exclusively with emerging technology businesses across sectors including gene therapy, robotics, native AI and space infrastructure and is an expansion of Spacecadet Ventures’ activity beyond investment into creative and brand-building services. It intends to offer a new operating model for brand building, built specifically for companies developing new technologies at pace.
Spacecadet Ventures has invested in more than 100 frontier technology companies and is backed by founders from companies including a16z, Reddit, Slack and YouTube.
McCarthy was Johannes Leonardo’s first-ever CMO, joining one-and-a-half years ago from DDB West, where he was president and Y Media Labs, where he was SVP of strategy. It was Mccarthy’s second stint at Johannes Leonardo. He spent six-and-a-half years there until 2016.
Joining him at Spacecadet Studio are creative leaders who have held senior positions at agencies including R/GA and Anomaly, bringing together traditional agency experience with a venture-backed, AI-first mandate.
Spacecadet Studio’s inaugural clients include Autograph, an AI-powered biographer designed to preserve personal stories in an individual’s own voice; Cytronic, a robotics fulfilment company automating warehouse workflows; K2 Space, a space infrastructure business focused on space infrastructure; and Lir Therapeutics, which is developing AI-driven gene therapies.
The Studio says it treats artificial intelligence as a creative canvas rather than a cost-cutting tool – an approach it refers to internally as ‘Bias AI for everything’ – using AI to explore new forms of expression for synthetic beings, AI companions and, synthetic brand systems and personalised storytelling.
According to the company, Spacecadet Studio combines senior creative leadership with access to Spacecadet Ventures’ investment activity and network of frontier technology companies.
