Ben Lamm

Lamm earned a BBA from Baylor University in 2004. While studying, he developed a class project into Simply Interactive, offering interactive marketing and e-learning services. A university alumni profile reported a six-figure contract with its first client.⁠[2]

In 2010, Lamm co-founded Austin-based Chaotic Moon and served as CEO. The studio worked on digital-product design, prototypes and user experiences, combining software development with experimental products.⁠[3]

On July 22, 2015, Accenture announced its acquisition of Chaotic Moon to expand digital design and innovation capabilities. The announcement identified Lamm as co-founder and CEO; financial terms were not disclosed.⁠[3]

Lamm and Andrew Busey co-founded game company Team Chaos. Baylor’s alumni publication records its acquisition by Zynga in 2016.⁠[4]

Lamm founded Hypergiant in 2018, extending his work in artificial intelligence. The company later focused on decision-support and situational-awareness software for defense, space and critical infrastructure.⁠[5]

On October 1, 2018, LivePerson announced its acquisition of Conversable, co-founded by Lamm and Andrew Busey. Lamm was CEO. Conversable helped businesses automate conversations across messaging and voice channels, and its team joined LivePerson.⁠[6]

According to the Wyss Institute’s project account, Lamm visited George Church’s laboratory in 2019. Their contact led toward the collaboration behind Colossal, combining Church’s genomics research with Lamm’s experience building companies.⁠[7]

On September 13, 2021, Colossal launched with $15 million in seed funding, Lamm as CEO and Church among its co-founders. It established sponsored-research and licensing arrangements with HarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry. An initial objective was a cold-adapted animal with mammoth traits developed through Asian-elephant research, a research goal rather than an accomplished mammoth revival.⁠[8]

On September 27, 2022, Colossal announced the spinout of Form Bio and its $30 million Series A. Lamm was a co-founder, while Andrew Busey and Kent Wakeford were co-CEOs. The business commercialized tools for computational-biology data processing, analysis and workflows.⁠[9]

An August 22, 2023 announcement disclosed Trive Capital’s acquisition of Hypergiant to support its AI software business. Mike Betzer was the company’s CEO at that point; Lamm commented as its founder.⁠[5]

Breaking, launched in 2024, grew from technology developed through the Wyss Institute and Colossal. Lamm is among its founders. It develops microbial approaches to plastic pollution, extending biotechnology commercialization into environmental remediation.⁠[10][11]

On March 4, 2025, Colossal announced woolly mice produced through eight edits involving seven genes, altering coat-related traits. It presented the work as a model for multiplex editing and mammoth-associated characteristics. The animals remained mice; the experiment did not establish mammoth revival.⁠[12]

On April 7, 2025, Colossal announced three pups named Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi, calling them revived dire wolves. Its account described 20 edits across 14 genes in gray-wolf cells, followed by cloning and domestic-dog surrogacy. Specialist criticism challenged the species designation and conservation implications.⁠[13][14]

On April 18, 2025, the IUCN SSC Canid Specialist Group characterized the animals as genetically modified gray wolves, not dire wolves or established conservation proxies. It acknowledged potential technical uses but argued that appearance alone did not demonstrate ecological function or conservation benefit, emphasizing living species and their habitats.⁠[14]

In September 2025, Colossal announced $120 million in additional funding, bringing the round to $320 million and cumulative funding above $555 million, at a disclosed $10.32 billion valuation. Dodo-project updates included pigeon primordial-germ-cell culture and potential surrogate chickens. These were experimental-platform advances, not the birth of living dodos.⁠[15]

In November 2025, Colossal announced its acquisition of Viagen Pets and Equine, a provider of animal genetic preservation and cloning services. Viagen became a wholly owned subsidiary with its existing leadership, supporting Colossal’s intended expansion in endangered-species cloning.⁠[16]

On June 25, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a collaboration framework with Colossal involving the Fish and Wildlife Service, biobanking and conservation genomics. The memorandum did not itself obligate federal funds; specific projects required separate arrangements.⁠[17]

Lamm joined a Moonshots Live discussion recorded on September 25, 2026 and published on September 30. The official episode page and video description list AI, biology, gene editing and species conservation among its subjects, alongside Peter DiamandisPeter DiamandisPeter Diamandis is a co-founder and partner of Link-XPV, a co-founder and partner of BOLD Capital Partners, and the founder and executive chairman of XPRIZE. This entry draws on Link Ventures, primary materials from related institutions and regulators, and high-quality corroborating sources, and distinguishes between main funds, affiliated vehicles, current titles, past positions, investment attribution and personal finances.Open the full entry, Salim IsmailSalim IsmailSalim Ismail is a business strategist, author and investor, lead author of Exponential Organizations and co-founder and chairman of the organizational transformation platform OpenExO. He previously ran Yahoo’s internal incubator Brickhouse and from 2008 served as founding executive director of Singularity University; he is a board member of the XPRIZE Foundation, a regular on the Moonshots podcast hosted by Peter Diamandis, and a partner at the venture firm Exponential Venture Capital.Open the full entry, Dave Blundin and Alex Wissner-GrossAlex Wissner-GrossAlex Wissner-Gross (Alexander D. Wissner-Gross) is an American physicist, computer scientist, entrepreneur and investor with three bachelor’s degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard, who proposed the “causal entropic forces” theory defining intelligence as “a force to maximize future freedom of action.” He founded the government intelligent-systems company Gemedy and the investment firm Reified, co-founded the AI physics laboratory Physical Superintelligence (PSI) in 2026 and serves as its chief scientist, and is a co-host of the Moonshots podcast hosted by Peter Diamandis and author of the daily newsletter The Innermost Loop.Open the full entry.⁠[18][19]

Astromech names Lamm and George Church among its founding members. It proposes a Large Life Model integrating biological data across species to investigate genotype–phenotype relationships. The website describes a development program, rather than demonstrated general predictive mastery of biology.⁠[20]

In its document addressing IUCN guidance, Colossal describes dire-wolf proxies and acknowledges genetic, phenotypic and possible behavioral differences from the extinct species. It states there is no current plan for wild release and argues that the work can support genetic rescue and reproductive technology for living canids. This is the company’s assessment, not IUCN endorsement.⁠[21]

The Colossal Foundation is Colossal’s nonprofit arm, applying genetic engineering, biobanking and AI monitoring to wildlife conservation. Linked to the company’s technology development, its work emphasizes collaboration with conservationists and local communities to move research into field projects.⁠[22]

As checked in October 2026, The Planetary Society lists Lamm on its Advisory Council, The Explorers Club lists him as a trustee, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation lists him as a director. These are distinct roles confirmed by the respective organizations.⁠[23][24][25]

The official MoonshotsMoonshotsMoonshots, formally Moonshots with Peter Diamandis, is a technology podcast founded by Peter Diamandis. It discusses artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship and technological change, and launched its Moonshots LIVE gathering in Los Angeles in 2026.Open the full entry video description links Lamm’s X account, @BenLamm, and LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry profile, benlamm. Colossal’s website provides his company role and team biography.⁠[18][1]