Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - The Warrior Ethos & America's Mission, Interview with Harpoon Ventures Founder Larsen Jensen | Triggered Ep275

00:06:19.000 Today is gonna be actually a really important one.

00:06:22.000 We'll be joined by the founder of Harpoon Ventures, Larson Jensen.

00:06:26.000 Larson is a two-time Olympic medalist swimmer.

00:06:29.000 Uh he's a former Navy SEAL.

00:06:32.000 Uh, he's now at the intersection of defense technology and venture capital.

00:06:37.000 All the things that could perhaps help us prevent uh A, the forever wars, but B, uh those attention from ever happening.

00:06:45.000 Uh this is about the future of war fighting.

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00:08:23.000 So guys, joining me now, founder of Harpoon Ventures, Navy SEAL veteran, two-time Olympic medalist, Larson Jensen.

00:08:31.000 How's it going, man?

00:08:32.000 Welcome to the show.

00:08:33.000 It's great to be here, Don.

00:08:34.000 Thanks for having me.

00:08:35.000 Well, I mean, you have quite a resume, uh, and really obviously a story.

00:08:39.000 Uh, a couple of Olympic medals uh in swimming.

00:08:42.000 Uh you served as a Navy SEAL, and now you somehow got into the world of venture capital.

00:08:47.000 Uh can you just introduce yourself to the audience and sort of set the stage for us?

00:08:51.000 I mean, that's a pretty uh that's that's a pretty uh eclectic uh resume there.

00:08:56.000 I I really appreciate that.

00:08:57.000 And I think the common thread here is serving the United States of America in any capacity that I can.

00:09:02.000 I started by doing that in the swimming pool by swimming against and with my contemporaries at the time, people like Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

00:09:09.000 I was part of that generation.

00:09:10.000 So went to my first Olympics in 2004 where I earned a silver medal.

00:09:13.000 That was at the birthplace place of the modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

00:09:18.000 Subsequently went over to China to the 08 Olympic Games where I earned a bronze medal for the United States, and then thereafter signed up to serve my country and do so as a Navy SEAL, which was a tremendous honor and one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

00:09:31.000 After serving in the Navy SEAL teams, made my way into finance more specifically into venture capital into the hotbed of the technology ecosystem into Silicon Valley, where we started our own firm called Harpoon Ventures to invest in early stage technology companies that ultimately could serve the national interest of the United States and our allies, very akin to the investment strategy that you have at your firm.

00:09:52.000 Yeah, we're a little bit later.

00:09:56.000 So, you know, if you have stuff that's looking good, send it my way.

00:09:59.000 We'll have to check it out, invest a little bit later.

00:10:02.000 But uh I'll I'll let you guys do the diligence in the VC world.

00:10:05.000 That sounds great.

00:10:06.000 Yeah, we're at the early stage, you know, backing founders right when they're getting started, when they have a concept and an idea and an all-star team and have a desire to serve in a new unique way, which is in the world of business and the world of high technology.

00:10:17.000 And so that's what our bread and butter is now, and we're loving it.

00:10:20.000 It's like my third and final act in life.

00:10:22.000 I love our country more than you could imagine.

00:10:24.000 I've had the opportunity to serve it in multiple dimensions, and I feel like I'm serving here and now in a venture capital capacity.

00:10:29.000 So which one of those was harder?

00:10:31.000 Going from uh, you know, uh, you know, athlete to Olympian, Olympian to you know, SEAL, SEAL to venture capitalist.

00:10:40.000 They're all hard in their own way.

00:10:42.000 Uh obviously being an athlete.

00:10:43.000 I mean, you could, you know, read all the literature out there, and I think, especially as a swimmer, a young swimmer at that, where you're waking up at 4 30 every morning to hit the pool when it's cold outside in the Central Valley of California.

00:10:52.000 It's not an easy task.

00:10:54.000 And ultimately doing that year after year, I think prepared me well for a future career in the SEAL teams.

00:10:59.000 Going through any career transition is really, really challenging.

00:11:02.000 I think people underestimate how much of their own personal identity is wrapped up in what they do.

00:11:06.000 And so I think that's something that I understood as I made that career transition into the SEAL teams and had this natural opportunity to start over from scratch because nobody joins the military and becomes a Navy SEAL immediately.

00:11:18.000 You need to go through the training, you need to be, you know, start from the bottom and work your way up.

00:11:21.000 And so I had that opportunity, that unique reset.

00:11:24.000 I honestly think that it made it a little bit easier subsequently for my next career transition because I'd already been through one before.

00:11:30.000 I understood the raw ingredients.

00:11:31.000 I understood that no longer was I a medalist in a new domain where I had to move over and and I wasn't, you know, I didn't have the same acclaim.

00:11:39.000 So I had to work from the bottom and figure out a new way to carve out a unique path.

00:11:42.000 Yeah, I mean, I think you know, sort of went through a similar thing for me when you know, all of a sudden we got into the like the world of politics.

00:11:48.000 I was 39 and it was just like, oh, everything changed.

00:11:51.000 I mean, literally, like even sort of the career side of all of that for me was very different.

00:11:56.000 So yeah, it's always interesting when you're sort of set in your ways for me, you know, worked, you know, 15 plus years uh sort of in in business in real estate, but it was just, you know, then politics sort of took over and it was just such such a different world.

00:12:08.000 And not a lot of people get that chance to make themselves up once they're, you know, after they basically commit to their, you know, first, maybe second sort of uh, you know, venture.

00:12:16.000 It's uh it's always an interesting time.

00:12:18.000 But I we see that also with the founders that were backing too.

00:12:18.000 I totally agree.

00:12:21.000 And many of the founders that we back are repeat entrepreneurs and are sort of like take, you know, standing on their own shoulders of the great lessons they've learned on a prior business they started.

00:12:28.000 But ultimately, it's oftentimes in the same sort of industry or same domain.

00:12:31.000 The real special ones are the ones who can transcend industries, transcend technologies, and make new things happen regardless of what they're doing.

00:12:38.000 And there's a handful of them out there.

00:12:40.000 Yeah, listen, I I was you know, sort of joked that you know, my father is sort of that guy, right?

00:12:44.000 I mean, he sort of hit the pinnacle that he needed to in real estate and business, and then he was like, why don't I try this little thing called like TV?

00:12:50.000 And that you know, became the number one show on TV and entertainment's a very different world.

00:12:54.000 Then he was like, you know what?

00:12:54.000 I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring in politics.

00:12:56.000 Let's see.

00:12:57.000 We're not just gonna start, you know, running for some, you know, town council.

00:13:00.000 We're just gonna go right to the presidency.

00:13:03.000 Just go big or go home, right?

00:13:04.000 It's uh it's funny.

00:13:06.000 So, you know, I guess you know, after you stood on that podium, you didn't, again, you didn't go the typical route of just doing the you know sponsorship and speaking tours, and you know, that's a pretty good living for you know someone else, but you chose to serve, you know, what was that fire that made you want to do that?

00:13:21.000 I you know, now if you're going into the SEALs, given the amount of swimming that they have to do, I imagine you were at a pretty serious advantage uh initially.

00:13:28.000 Now, you're probably not used to not slick, you know, swimming without sleep.

00:13:32.000 Uh, but I but I imagine in your boat crew, uh that that must have been uh, you know, that that probab probably wasn't the most challenging aspect.

00:13:39.000 It certainly wasn't.

00:13:40.000 Uh, I mean, needless to say, yeah, I I think that most people who swim at a high school level can make it through the the buds and Navy SEAL swimming curriculum portion of the training, you know, I don't want to say easily, but on a more straightforward basis.

00:13:52.000 The hardest part for me was definitely are the the, you know, the load of carrying heavy boats, heavy rucks, so on and so forth from going so many years and essentially a zero gravity training environment, which is the pool.

00:14:03.000 I mean, astronauts train in swimming pools before they go to space.

00:14:06.000 And so I was sort of in a similar dynamic.

00:14:08.000 So going from low impact to extremely high impact was tremendously challenging.

00:14:13.000 Um, but ultimately the decision came, you know, back to what we started this conversation with.

00:14:17.000 I was very fortunate to have the opportunity and very privileged to have the opportunity to represent our country on the metal podium at the Olympic Games.

00:14:24.000 And I felt like if I had the opportunity to give back and serve in a unique way, if I had the mental, physical, and emotional uh capability of serving with the best in the world, that that's what I should do.

00:14:34.000 And it's something I'd encourage, you know, the youth of our generation, especially now with your dad in office.

00:14:39.000 I think that we have a unique opportunity to serve our country and to enable our Department of War to uh protect our citizens from your potential adversaries around the world.

00:14:48.000 And so I think we have a really unique opportunity.

00:14:50.000 It's really the the situation that took me from a boy to a man was my service in the Navy SEAL teams, and I wouldn't replace it for the world.

00:14:57.000 I love that you called it the Department of War already, because that's what it always was historically.

00:15:01.000 And then we got, you know, who knows, you know, everyone started getting PC and they changed it up to defense.

00:15:06.000 But you know, I ideally, I guess, you know, I the way I look at it is uh the best, you know, the best defense is a strong offense.

00:15:13.000 And so I think going back to Department of War is probably a pretty good space.

00:15:16.000 What do you think?

00:15:17.000 I'm glad that we're doing it.

00:15:17.000 I I agree.

00:15:18.000 I think that it clarifies our mission.

00:15:20.000 And I think this is something that, you know, through my time in grad school and at another places and even in the military, I think a lot of uh groups in the military lose sight of what our focus should be.

00:15:30.000 It's to conju conduct war against our adversaries.

00:15:33.000 That is the only thing that you know the former Department of Defense or the Department of War should be charged with.

00:15:39.000 And I think that it might seem like a small um, you know, uh uh change with the name, but I think that that you know clarifies everything.

00:15:47.000 If you're joining a serve, you are joining to serve to potentially go into harm's way.

00:15:51.000 And that's one of the noblest qu callings to protect your brothers and sisters in in arms and to protect your country.

00:15:57.000 And I think that that name change is actually telling of what people signing up should expect.

00:16:02.000 Yeah, and it doesn't mean we're looking to, you know, get into wars.

00:16:04.000 I mean, frankly, I think, you know, my father certainly looking to get everyone out of these non nonsense wars.

00:16:09.000 I agree more.

00:16:10.000 I mean, I've got to be able to do that.

00:16:10.000 But if and when you get into the war, you actually gotta like, I don't know, fight to win like you would in anything else.

00:16:15.000 And exactly.

00:16:15.000 I I'd love your take on that though, because it does feel like, you know, for the for the last, you know, quite some time probably, it it feels like uh the Department of War, Department of Defense was focused on so many things other than actually winning wars, right?

00:16:30.000 I mean, you know, you saw the DEI initiatives and the trans nonsense and you know, the sort of the PC taking over. 0.99

00:16:36.000 It's like every and again, that's not with the door kickers.

00:16:39.000 I mean, I understand there's a difference, you know, just like there's a difference between the door kickers at the FBI and the bureaucrats that were running things.

00:16:46.000 Uh but it does feel like so many of the, you know, the generals and admirals, you know, in the Navy and Army just got it's like they're running for a board seat at Disney, not not to actually I don't know, do their job uh, you know, at the time.

00:16:59.000 I'd argue even the board at Disney at this point hasn't done a great job with how far off the rail rails they've gone on the woke side of things.

00:17:05.000 So I think it may be a good thing.

00:17:06.000 Yeah, but they're not conducting wars.

00:17:07.000 When the guys conducting wars are are taking those positions, it's like what is what is going on here?

00:17:12.000 Now, you know, you know, who am I to judge?

00:17:14.000 I haven't been in there, but it it does feel like there's a great there was and has been, you know, a great frustration.

00:17:19.000 I think a lot of that's changing now.

00:17:20.000 But the guys I knew in the teams and you know, whatever it may be throughout the years, uh you know, they literally would tell me, like, hey man, we spend more time doing like diversity training than we did shooting.

00:17:30.000 And these are elite soldiers.

00:17:31.000 Like imagine what, you know, they you know, the the regular guys are you know, they're just not getting that training that wasn't the focus.

00:17:38.000 Uh and that's sort of scary because when you're going into harm's way, you want to be as trained as possible.

00:17:42.000 A hundred percent.

00:17:42.000 I think we took our eye off the ball for a long period of time.

00:17:45.000 And I think, you know, in particular over the last administration, we significantly took our eye off the ball.

00:17:49.000 Like, and I think that's why re renaming it back to what it was, the Department of War is inherently clarifying, because your job is to man, train and equip our military to project power and project force and ultimately Go to war if and when called upon by the president of the United States.

00:18:03.000 And so I think that this is inherently clarifying.

00:18:05.000 And I think that we need to focus the entirety of our military apparatus on one thing and one thing only.

00:18:10.000 And I think Secretary Heggseth is doing a fantastic job creating that commander's intent, commanding, creating that leadership from the top, replacing people that are not on board with those types of initiatives, which are the entire uh you know principle of this organization.

00:18:24.000 And so I'm really happy that we actually have that you know organizational clarity in one of the most important organizations in the entirety of our country.

00:18:31.000 And uh I I couldn't be happier for that.

00:18:33.000 And I think you're starting to see that in the recruiting statistics.

00:18:35.000 You're starting to see that in the morale of the folks who are you know serving in uniform, that they actually have this clarity of purpose, which is one of the prerequisites of winning a conflict, supposing that you get into one.

00:18:46.000 Yeah, I think I mean one of the things I love seeing is just like you know, a secretary of defense slash war that I don't know, can actually do some pull-ups.

00:18:54.000 Uh can actually, you know, you know, it's one thing to be like some pull-ups.

00:18:58.000 It's another one you can do it yourself, right?

00:18:59.000 I mean, it's it's sort of nice.

00:19:00.000 And I don't I don't think a lot of the guys I'd seen before that, uh, you know, let's just say it doesn't look like they could have passed the physical standards uh for uh quite some time, probably a few decades.

00:19:10.000 And it the best leaders lead from the front.

00:19:10.000 I I agree.

00:19:12.000 They show they show up, they actually show the standard, they you know, embody the standard, and I think that's what Secretary Heggseth is doing here, embodying the standard in terms of not only his mission that he's you know, his commander's intent that he's putting down to the force, but actually embodying it with physical conditioning and physical, you know, uh, you know, uh, you know, challenges and standards that everybody needs to uphold.

00:19:31.000 And I think that he's leading from the top in that regard.

00:19:33.000 So I I guess speaking of that, you know, are are we also leading on sort of you know, in on the investment uh into defense tech?

00:19:40.000 I mean, we're seeing obviously a massive influx of private capital into defense tech.

00:19:44.000 I mean, even, you know, we're we're in Andrew, we're in you know, firehawk, uh, you know, at 1789, you know, uh, my fund, uh, because I think it's you know so important.

00:19:52.000 But from your perspective, you know, is the Pentagon adapting quickly enough to absorb this innovation?

00:19:59.000 Uh, you know, what does the rebranding, you know?

00:20:02.000 We discussed that a little bit, but would you know, are we also working on the rebrand of the equipment, taking advantage of this technology?

00:20:07.000 I think one of the interesting stories I tell is, you know, during transition, you know, you're going through, you're interviewing some of these guys, who's gonna be, you know, secretary of the Air Force or whatever.

00:20:15.000 This one was particularly germane because it was like, you know, everyone was like, you know, old F-15 pilot, and that's incredible.

00:20:22.000 But, you know, they sort of want to go with what they know, which is we're fighter pilots, but you know, are they better served with a drone that costs you know a tiny fraction of that of a plane can probably handle G forces that a pilot can't handle?

00:20:34.000 You know, is the military are they adapting these new technologies fast enough to make a difference because our competitors probably are?

00:20:41.000 Our competitors certainly are.

00:20:42.000 I mean, look no further than what China's been doing over the past decade, and we've been asleep at the wheel. 0.89

00:20:46.000 And so I think that we now have an impetus to actually modernize the force top to down.

00:20:50.000 I I think that literally every program across every department and agency has the opportunity for being disrupted and re-redone from the bottoms up.

00:20:57.000 And that's really exciting to me as a technologist now and in backing these technologies, but also exciting to me as a former warfighter that we have the opportunity to equip our force with the technology they deserve.

00:21:07.000 The old adage in the former Department of Defense was that we'd give our soldiers yesterday's technology tomorrow, and that's sad and unacceptable.

00:21:15.000 And I think now we're actually moving in the right direction.

00:21:18.000 To your question, are we going fast enough?

00:21:19.000 I would say we're not.

00:21:20.000 We're not going fast enough.

00:21:21.000 But I think we have a unique point in time right now that's akin to the reason why Silicon Valley started in the first place.

00:21:27.000 Silicon Valley was originally built to support the Uncle Sam in many ways.

00:21:31.000 There was sort of a pseudo-private uh public partnership here to ensure that we won the technology race against the Soviets.

00:21:37.000 That's how we got the semiconductor revolution, that's how we got the space revolution of yesteryear.

00:21:42.000 And now we're sort of seeing the same thing with the modern day AI race where the hot the hotbed of those technologies is coming out of Silicon Valley unsurprisingly.

00:21:51.000 So the question that I have to the people in government is like, are we really gonna harness and capture that best in breed commercial uh technology evolution that's going on now to support not only our war fighters, but to support our government writ large?

00:22:03.000 Because I think that we really are at this tremendously important time in our history that's akin to the space race, that's akin to the Manhattan Project, but now it it's you know AI that's cutting across all industries to include physical ones.

00:22:14.000 And so I think it's a paramount uh importance that we actually get there first and we win that race against potential adversaries around the world.

00:22:22.000 Yeah, no, a hundred percent.

00:22:23.000 How do you how do you see that?

00:22:24.000 I mean, at Harpoon, uh, you know, when you're investing, I mean, a big thesis of what we did when we started 1780, hey, we're gonna invest in American uh businesses, uh, American-owned ventures, we're gonna take minority interests in these things, but help a lot of those businesses that couldn't otherwise have gotten funding in the prior administration.

00:22:41.000 You know, I mean, if you were, you know, even you know, to A adjacent, you probably couldn't get credit card processing, let alone uh, you know, a bank account.

00:22:48.000 Uh, a lot of these great technologies probably face a lot of those same things when they're going out raising raising capital or trying to get regular debt uh eventually when they have a product and they have to start manufacturing.

00:22:58.000 You know, what do you see out there?

00:23:00.000 Has some of you know the wokeness in what people choose to fund from you know the big bank standpoint or even from the investment standpoint, has that started changing a little bit, or do you still see those same obstacles out there just because ooh, you're doing defense tech, it must be bad.

00:23:13.000 That's that's terrible.

00:23:14.000 From an early stage ecosystem standpoint, it's day and night.

00:23:17.000 You know, back when we started our firm, I think that more people laughed at us than supported us uh for sure.

00:23:22.000 And we still got it done.

00:23:23.000 We still raised the great fund and had a similar mission to what you described.

00:23:26.000 We want to invest in the best and help them trailblaze a path into supporting Uncle Sam in whatever capacity they can, very similar to my prior support personally of the things that I've done.

00:23:35.000 And we thought there was a unique opportunity there, and it wasn't dissimilar from how Silicon Valley started.

00:23:40.000 But we went away from that for a lot of reasons.

00:23:42.000 Frankly, I think there's easier ways to make money during the dot-com era, during cloud, mobile, so on and so forth.

00:23:47.000 And I think we lost sight of really tackling the big, hairy, audacious problems.

00:23:51.000 And there was a cultural hesitance uh at a minimum, uh, if not an aversion to actually supporting these technologies where they could impact our government in any dimension.

00:23:59.000 It almost became a four-letter word, which was really sad to me.

00:24:02.000 But we started our firm anyways because we had that early conviction in it.

00:24:05.000 We started it back in 2018.

00:24:07.000 And at the time, there was many companies that we invested in that frankly were supporting Uncle Sam sort of like with an internal skunk works style project where they didn't let the entirety of the company know because they were worried that many of their top engineers would walk out and just depart the company, which is akin to the company. 0.64

00:24:22.000 Really, even at like a company that also does defense, that that that was an issue.

00:24:27.000 A hundred percent.

00:24:28.000 But they're so you work like in secret, in secret, inside of their own organization.

00:24:34.000 They had an internal Skunkworks team that was doing it, but not telling the rest of the organization.

00:24:38.000 And it was at a point in time where Google, uh, when they were working on Project Maven at the time, where they had a significant amount of their engineers walk out of Google in protest uh of supporting Uncle Sam, the Department of Defense with AI.

00:24:50.000 And so we had some companies that were really concerned about that.

00:24:52.000 Even if the CEO and the board and so on and so forth wanted to do it, they didn't want the the rest of the company to even know about it.

00:24:58.000 Now those exact same companies are some of the the companies that are most forward-leaning towards that.

00:25:02.000 So I think there has been a cultural you know, shift, a significant cultural shift that is that now it is like the thing to do.

00:25:09.000 If you're gonna do anything in early stage technology right now, it's either AI or national security technology.

00:25:14.000 Whereas when we started our firm, that was the vast anomaly.

00:25:18.000 And so I'm really proud that this ecosystem has woken up that there's really hard problems that we need to solve that will cement our place as the global leader from a technology standpoint and national security standpoint.

00:25:28.000 And young kids are opting in in droves to build for these types of things.

00:25:32.000 And it's a really exciting time for us, I think, as an investment firm, but also a really exciting time for our country that the best and brightest are now opting into this space.

00:25:40.000 I think that's a big deal.

00:25:41.000 And it's it's it's good to see that change because that was pretty scary for a while.

00:25:44.000 I mean, imagine being like, you know, a manufacturer of defense tech and you can't really build a better, more lethal weapon because you're worried you know, the inmates are running BSL.

00:25:54.000 No, nobody's gonna invest in you, at least from the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

00:25:57.000 You'd have to go to other forms of capital throughout the country or even the world.

00:26:00.000 That's why we started our fund.

00:26:02.000 It was like there was a lack of people willing to support these things that are great American businesses that serve a vital national security importance, or even just to be able to exercise, you know, we're more general than yours, right?

00:26:13.000 But you know, even free speech, second amendment.

00:26:15.000 I mean, these are basic tenants of America.

00:26:17.000 And like the people were like, we can't get funding anywhere.

00:26:19.000 Like, we'll do that, we'll we'll fund that.

00:26:21.000 We just took a contrarian approach, it's worked out pretty well.

00:26:24.000 Absolutely.

00:26:25.000 And I think it will continue to work out this way.

00:26:27.000 I mean, I think the next deck decade is gonna be really telling for us in many, many ways.

00:26:30.000 And I think for as much as we need to win the AI race, I think there's a second order effect that we need to be cognizant of.

00:26:35.000 I mean, a big reason why, you know, Trump won this most recent, you know, election is because jobs were sort of you know exported to other countries, primarily China, and now we're bringing those jobs back to the United States.

00:26:45.000 I think we need to win the AI race, but we also need to be cognizant that there is gonna be some industries, particularly knowledge workers, that are gonna have, you know, workplace displacement, in my opinion, especially in the new graduates that are coming out of undergrad.

00:26:56.000 You know, previously, if you were a software engineer, you were almost guaranteed to have one of the highest playing jobs out there.

00:27:01.000 And now if you're a software engineer and studying CS in college, that is up for grabs because AI is essentially you know, replacing those entry-level positions.

00:27:09.000 So I think this is a complicated topic that we need to grapple with as a country and understand that this is a little bit of a catch 22, in my opinion, where we need we definitely need to win, but we also need to make sure that we're not doing to ourselves what China did to us over the past 10 or 20 years.

00:27:23.000 And so I think we're in this really precarious position that we we need to really focus on.

00:27:27.000 Yeah, I always say our only export for the last 50 years has been your American dream.

00:27:32.000 And that's basically true.

00:27:32.000 Yep.

00:27:33.000 I mean, you know, big corporate sold us out, everyone did so, yeah.

00:27:36.000 Even I mean, when you think about what I saw from what was it last week from you know the DOD basically being, oh, yeah, yeah, we've we've outsourced a bunch of our like tech stuff to China.

00:27:44.000 I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, let me let me get this straight.

00:27:47.000 Yeah, wait, you're gonna have Chinese people in the mainframes of the DOD.

00:27:52.000 Like, what could possibly go wrong, folks?

00:27:54.000 It it's it's wild.

00:27:55.000 I mean, it's like so our number one threat, you're just gonna let them into our computer systems?

00:28:00.000 It's uh it's that it's it's crazy to me.

00:28:03.000 But hopefully, again, hopefully we're making uh a strong shift away from that.

00:28:07.000 I I guess I'd ask, you know, right now, obviously with the Trump administration, you know, people are sort of going by that.

00:28:12.000 But do you think if the administration ever flips back to Democrat, though, that a lot of these people are just kind of feeling which way the wind blows, uh, and and they'll go right back to their sort of ways, you know, they're gonna shun energy, they'll shun anything, second amendment, anything that's not, you know, uh, you know, super subsidized green nonsense, whatever it may be.

00:28:28.000 Uh, do you think they go back to those ways, or do you think people actually finally got that you know shot in the arm to be like, okay, we went we went a little bit overboard.

00:28:35.000 We're never going, you know, we're never going back to full retard. 1.00

00:28:39.000 The uh the optist is the optimist in me would say that we're we're not going back.

00:28:43.000 However, I think the realist in me suggests that that we will.

00:28:46.000 And if you just look at the herd mentality uh of the broader investment commit uh community, but also of Silicon Valley more specifically, it's very herd-oriented.

00:28:54.000 It goes where everybody else is going.

00:28:56.000 And now, since everybody's building for national security, most of the ecosystem, I think is is quite supportive of the Trump administration, including myself.

00:29:02.000 Uh, I I really am concerned that well, we have the opportunity to go back and sort of like retrograde to a position that we don't want to be in once the you know political wins shift, or if they do.

00:29:11.000 So I think that the next you know handful of years are extremely important.

00:29:14.000 Hopefully you get four more with JD or or somebody else from the administration coming in there and and carrying the baton uh for another another four thereafter.

00:29:22.000 But I think it's really, really important.

00:29:24.000 Uh and I don't think we we have the opportunity to go back.

00:29:26.000 And I think that if we do, I think that's where China, you know, clearly you know surpasses us more than perhaps they already have from a technology standpoint.

00:29:34.000 Yeah, I I guess I mean so many of the security threats that we deal with today don't come necessarily from uniformed soldiers, they come from cartels, criminal organizations, cyber hackers, and others.

00:29:46.000 You know, how how can we use technology, perhaps some of the stuff that you're actually investing into to really go after them uh in a way that you know boots on the ground can't.

00:29:56.000 Because I think if there's one thing we can all probably agree on as Americans, we're sick of sort of boots on the ground wars, especially with no real end in sight or no understanding of what you know victory looks like or what it even really has in terms of American interests.

00:30:10.000 Uh what do you think about those things?

00:30:12.000 Don, I totally agree with you on that.

00:30:14.000 I mean, most of my contemporaries, you know, fought those boots on the ground wars for the greater part of 20, 25 years with little to nothing to show for it.

00:30:21.000 And you know, that that's quite frustrating for those of us that that served in those conflicts.

00:30:25.000 I can imagine.

00:30:26.000 That said, we're very proud to be warriors and to be a part of that community.

00:30:29.000 But I think that you should be careful when you unsheathe the sword and use it with discipline.

00:30:33.000 And I don't think we used it with discipline for a long period of time.

00:30:36.000 But to your point, from a technology standpoint, we're now getting at the point in time with technology and the revolution in commercial electronics, the cost curve coming down, AI coming online, that I don't think we need as many of the big exquisite weapons systems that we used to have.

00:30:50.000 I mean, right now, I mean, you saw the the the strike against the narco-terrorists uh, you know, a few days ago.

00:30:55.000 Like uh that was probably a pretty expensive strike, you know, all things considered with the with the resources that we have.

00:30:59.000 I think we could really bring down that cost curve to make it more uh more affordable, um, yet equally as capable for the taxpayers to fund our capabilities to defend our homeland against things like uh a fentanyl invasion.

00:31:11.000 Yeah.

00:31:12.000 And so I think that those things, as they come online, and we've seen this from the executive orders for American drone dominance, so on and so forth, and the Secretary of War pushing down more of this guidance into the force.

00:31:23.000 I think we're gonna start to see more of this attritable warfare at scale where we have the opportunity to project power on a more affordable basis on a potentially a wider basis without you know reliance on these strategic assets that cost billions of dollars for each individual asset.

00:31:37.000 Maybe we don't need to send, you know, 10 F 35s down to South America. 1.00

00:31:41.000 We can project power more affordably with similar effects.

00:31:44.000 And I think that's the direction that we're going.

00:31:46.000 I think I think that's a big deal.

00:31:47.000 I mean, I I it was sort of funny watching sort of uh some of the reaction of the left and a few people who've seemed to even on the right who've lost their way about the drone strike on those cartels.

00:31:57.000 I mean, to me, I was like, okay, neat, clean, next, you know, they're cartel members smuggling drugs.

00:32:04.000 Like we're supposed to somehow, I don't know, we didn't give them a chance to pedal their wares and maybe change their ways once they got to the United States.

00:32:11.000 How dare we take them out?

00:32:13.000 I mean, I can't think of, and again, you would know much better than me, right?

00:32:16.000 But I I can't think of as an American a more clear and present danger than the cartels, uh, than the fentanyl trafficking that's going on.

00:32:26.000 Because I mean, if we if we run it by the numbers, it's like a hundred thousand deaths a year due to fentanyl.

00:32:31.000 100,000.

00:32:32.000 I mean, that's two Vietnams a year.

00:32:35.000 And it was like, well, we can't do anything about it.

00:32:37.000 It's like, no, we actually can't.

00:32:38.000 We're trying to do anything about it in our city streets either.

00:32:40.000 Unfortunately, I I live in San Diego, California, and it's rampant.

00:32:43.000 You know, I went to a ball game a few a few weeks ago with my kids, and there was a junkie on the street, you know, literally with a needle, doing whatever he's doing with drugs, and my kids are young.

00:32:51.000 And they're like, Daddy, is that guy doing drugs?

00:32:53.000 That shouldn't be the state of affairs here in the United States of America.

00:32:56.000 And so whatever we need to do top to down, whether it be through the cities or intervening with these with these narco terrorists in South America, I think is something that we need to take the bull by the horns and actually do something about. 0.99

00:33:06.000 But for so many years, we've turned the blind eye at that and not even and not even thought about punishing these criminals or these narco terrorists for the activities that they're doing. 0.92

00:33:14.000 And so I think now through some of these messages that we're putting out there, hopefully at a minimum, it provides some deterrent capability.

00:33:20.000 Like these people will think twice about you know bringing their you know narco-terrorist activities in the United States.

00:33:26.000 But it's not only the drugs, it's a criminal activity that's come across our border in droves over the past uh especially you know, five years prior prior to President Trump coming into office.

00:33:34.000 So this is something that we need to stop.

00:33:36.000 And I think that we are stopping it.

00:33:37.000 But it's been remarkable to me to see the lack of American will of people who you know see these things like I do.

00:33:42.000 I'm not the only person who's gonna be able to do that. 1.00

00:33:43.000 Let these people come and kill you. 1.00

00:33:45.000 Maybe they'll change their ways. 1.00

00:33:46.000 And it's it's tremendously dangerous dangerous.

00:33:48.000 Like so we we've created an environment in some of the best cities, like it doesn't even matter, best worst city.

00:33:52.000 We shouldn't have a worse city in the United States of America.

00:33:54.000 Every city should be the best city.

00:33:56.000 And I think that we've created this environment where everyone just not only tolerates it, but seems to appreciate it, especially on the left.

00:34:03.000 I think it's ludicrous to me.

00:34:04.000 We need to stop it, and I'm really grateful that the president has the has the fortitude to actually go out there and do something about it.

00:34:11.000 You know, obviously I think that's that's a very effective way when you have narco-terrorists coming from a terrorist regime smuggling drugs, and you know it, you take them out, and that seems like a no-brainer. 0.94

00:34:19.000 But uh, you know, as a SEAL, uh, what are the other things you could do?

00:34:23.000 Again, I think we're we're clear no one wants you know boots on the ground, you know, whatever it may be, but with special forces with some of the elite units, it feels like you could actually do uh you know quite a bit of damage to the infrastructure of the cartels around the world, and you know, mostly from Latin America.

00:34:37.000 Uh, you could probably stop a lot of that stuff going before it goes to Latin America coming from China.

00:34:42.000 Uh how would you go about doing it?

00:34:43.000 What are the things that perhaps they're not doing or that we're not aware that they're doing?

00:34:46.000 Hopefully they are doing it, we just don't know about it, uh, to prevent these things from happening.

00:34:50.000 What would you enact?

00:34:51.000 I mean, there's a lot of things that I think are are occurring in special operations broadly.

00:34:55.000 And I'm really curious to see the state of special operations if we fast forward you know 10, 20 years.

00:35:00.000 Um, because what we're used to doing is all the door kicking and going in with people with advanced robotics drones, not only on the ground, subsea, surface, air, you know, across multiple form factors.

00:35:10.000 I think we have a unique opportunity to create significant standoff from our potential adversary by uh using these these new solutions in a special operations doctrinal type of way where we don't need to send people into harm's way, American soldiers who are going to get hurt doing these very dangerous missions.

00:35:25.000 We have the bravest people in the world.

00:35:27.000 They will go when called upon.

00:35:29.000 But I think we have a unique opportunity to be, you know, uh multiple kilometers, tens of kilometers, if not hundreds of kilometers away to project this power and to project this um, you know, military capability with only sending people into harm's way in the most important of circumstances, such as a hostage rescue where you can't trust a robot to do so.

00:35:46.000 But for things like the narco-terrorists, I think we have an opportunity to actually project force, deter it, and eliminate the threat by using modern technology to mitigate the the need for American boots on the ground. 0.97

00:35:58.000 Yeah, I mean, I so I obviously I think that's a that's a big part of it.

00:36:01.000 It's why, again, why we're investing in drone companies and these sorts of things because you know, uh the game has changed.

00:36:07.000 I mean, I think we've watched watched it play out even on TV and on YouTube or you know, and Rumble uh for the last few years, really watching Russia and Ukraine.

00:36:16.000 And I mean, you know, the face of warfare is just different, even than Afghanistan, only you know, a a year or two uh earlier than that.

00:36:23.000 You know, what what would it be like now for you?

00:36:26.000 You know, if you were back in the SEAL teams and you're you're out there and you know, everyone has a three hundred dollar drone with a you know a hand grenade on a servo.

00:36:33.000 I mean, it it does seem to change the game very drastically if you're and that's something that I don't think that we fully adopted as a country, and we need to figure out.

00:36:40.000 I mean, we the old saying in the technology industry is that the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed.

00:36:45.000 I think we've seen what's gonna go down as drone war one with the war between Russia and Ukraine.

00:36:50.000 Certainly there's other weapons systems and conventional aspects to it as well.

00:36:53.000 But in terms of the reshaping of the battlefield affordably, you know, at scale, it's really been remarkable what's occurred over there.

00:36:59.000 And when you think about you know how that applies to doctrine for the infantry, for for armor, for mobility, for special operations, I think it has a significant impact because no longer are you just worried about stepping in on an IED, you have a precision flying or driving or sub-sea IED effectively that can you know interfere with any mission that you're thinking about you know taking on, whether that be from you know infill to extract or actions on the objective, it really doesn't matter.

00:37:25.000 Uh and our SOPs, you know, thankfully, as an American, is if we have a down man, we're gonna get them out. 0.62

00:37:30.000 We're gonna Kazovac them out of there and we're gonna stabilize them and hopefully save their lives.

00:37:33.000 Now I don't know what commander is gonna send in, you know, uh uh, you know, a 47 or SH 60 or even a ground package to get our guys out with the threat of these things in the in the area of operations.

00:37:44.000 So I think that this is something that we not only need to equip ourselves for as a country, but we need to train ourselves for.

00:37:50.000 I think we've been doing a lot with the equipped side of the house, but I don't know think we've been doing as much from what I've heard from my friends that we're actually doing the training.

00:37:57.000 How do we make sure that we are getting ready to go into that type of environment?

00:38:01.000 And how do we maneuver in an environment that's contested by unmanned systems of every shape, form, and fashion that you could imagine?

00:38:08.000 We're not training to that.

00:38:09.000 I could say that with with very high authority, and I think that's something that we need to start maneuvering to um in our training and in our doctrine.

00:38:17.000 Yeah, it's pretty scary.

00:38:18.000 I was talking to a buddy who's, you know, an F-35 pilot, and basically, you know they'd be scared about going into the airspace uh, you know, and you know, so I think one of the quotes I heard was, yeah, yeah, if they wanted to, we'd last about 15 seconds.

00:38:31.000 Meaning, even if we got in and delivered a payload, we may not even get out.

00:38:33.000 That's how good the drone technology is these days.

00:38:35.000 And you know, you have a couple hundred million dollar plane that can be taken out with a much, much, much cheaper drone.

00:38:41.000 Uh that that's pretty asymmetric warfare, especially when when cost does matter, because we're not dealing with infinite sums even with our DOD.

00:38:49.000 Absolutely.

00:38:49.000 You know, the asymmetric warfare, irregular warfare, these are the you know, some of the core tenets of the special operations community.

00:38:55.000 And so I'd expect them to be on the forefront of actually adopting these capabilities and training to it, but it doesn't just stop there.

00:39:01.000 It literally goes across, you know, every military, you know, uh, you know, function that we have.

00:39:06.000 It's air, it's ground, it's sea, it's subsea.

00:39:09.000 It's all being rewritten right now.

00:39:10.000 And I think that in many ways is really exciting for us if we do it right as a country, but really terrifying as well, because if we don't get it right, essentially, you know, any non-state actor or you know, state actor can, you know, uh acquire these take these capabilities because of their price performance, uh, you know, how cheap they are to get and how effective they are.

00:39:28.000 Uh that's something that we need to make sure that we're on the bleeding edge of, and not only adopting those solutions ourselves, but making sure that our units are prepared to train to defend uh against an adversary with them.

00:39:39.000 So you know, we're obviously talking a lot about tech, but the military still really fundamentally is made up of people.

00:39:46.000 Are you worried that as we rely more on technology, we're gonna lose sort of that human grit aspect of it, courage, leadership, all those things that sort of define uh the special operations community, or does the technology only enhance their mission readiness and ability to do their job?

00:40:04.000 I'm not as worried about it if we maintain our standards.

00:40:06.000 So I think that with the standard degradation that we saw during the last administration under Biden, I I I was actually quite worried where no matter what you got a gold star, no matter what, you were you know eligible to go hard in hard.

00:40:16.000 I thought it was awesome.

00:40:17.000 I was gonna go try out for the SEAL teams because then maybe I could be a SEAL.

00:40:19.000 I figured you can't.

00:40:20.000 Can I do it in sneakers?

00:40:22.000 I only have a long weekend.

00:40:23.000 I just want to get in.

00:40:24.000 So you know, I I I can bang out, you know, 15 pull-ups, it'll be fine.

00:40:27.000 Let me let me I'll be good.

00:40:29.000 You that was your one chance, Doc.

00:40:31.000 That was my shot, man.

00:40:31.000 I really had it.

00:40:32.000 I was you know, I missed it.

00:40:33.000 Um so I I think as long as we uphold the standard and we have, you know, we have selection criteria as arduous as buds and things of that nature, and we uphold that standard.

00:40:41.000 I I I I'm not worried about it because it becomes a force multiplication um you know opportunity for for us as long as our selection with our inputs are strong.

00:40:50.000 I think America has the bravest men and women in the entire world, the most courageous men and women in the entire world.

00:40:56.000 And as long as we're successfully recruiting those people and training them effectively and then equipping them effectively at you know at the outcome of their selection process, I think that we're gonna be in good shape.

00:41:06.000 You know, your your firm's mission is to uh ensure American technological dominance.

00:41:11.000 Uh in simple terms, when you're looking at a startup or any company, you know, that you're looking to invest in, what's the first thing you see, you know, that stands out and makes you want to hear more or makes you want to pull the trigger on an investment?

00:41:24.000 The quality of the team, first and foremost.

00:41:26.000 I think team is where it all starts and where it all ends.

00:41:28.000 Ultimately, there's a three-legged stool for the things that we invest in.

00:41:31.000 We want to see a great team, a great technology, and a great market opportunity.

00:41:35.000 But ultimately, the best teams come with the other two sort of like, you know, by virtue of who they are.

00:41:40.000 They're brilliant technologists, they understand the market opportunity, they understand how they have our position to win in that market opportunity.

00:41:47.000 So really looking for those best in the in in the world from a team aspect as it relates to what they're building and who they're building it for.

00:41:53.000 It really starts and stops with them.

00:41:55.000 What are what are some of the ones you're most excited about right now that you're invested in?

00:41:59.000 If you're allowed to talk about them.

00:42:00.000 It rages across the spectrum.

00:42:01.000 So we're invested in you know, drone companies like like Firestorm.

00:42:05.000 Uh, we're invested in hypersonics companies like Ursa Major.

00:42:08.000 We're invested in companies that are bringing nuclear back to the United States with ALO.

00:42:12.000 Uh, they just closed a new financing round.

00:42:14.000 We're actually onshoring uh lithium production to the United States uh with a company called Electroflow.

00:42:20.000 Sort of the list goes on and on.

00:42:21.000 We're actually have another company that's in stealth mode that's helping to provide machine learning to help our our drug industry and our pharmaceutical industry get drugs through clinical trials more effectively because that's just cost-ridden.

00:42:32.000 And many of the pharmaceuticals industry is actually based out of China, you know, read read COVID and all these other things that we need to actually do things in the American Western aligned way.

00:42:41.000 And so it though those are all the types of things that we've done.

00:42:44.000 You know, we break down the things that we invest in into what we call the freedom stack, which is AI and compute, energy and materials, robotics and manufacturing, cybersecurity, you know, so on and so forth.

00:42:55.000 All of these things we think are critical to uh our own national security sovereignty and prosperity over time, but not just for the United States, for our partners and allies around the world uh as well.

00:43:05.000 So we think that it's really important for the United States to lead from the front, but there's tremendous other companies that are coming from Western aligned countries around the world.

00:43:13.000 And you know, I think that we're seeing a lot more of that with their investment in the United States as well.

00:43:17.000 You know, politically, those countries out there under the Trump administration investing in America and creating an opportunity where where the West can win.

00:43:24.000 On the subject of AI, since you you kind of mentioned it now, you know, what does that arms race look like to you?

00:43:30.000 Is it about building you know the Einstein of AI or more about deploying today's AI into highly specialized applications such as you know uh some sort of autonomous combat system?

00:43:42.000 Is it about you know systemically dominating as many sectors as we can, or is it more about just utilizing what we have best?

00:43:50.000 Uh I think it's both.

00:43:51.000 I think we need to dominate what in in every in every dimension that we possibly can as a country, because the alternative is that China does, and I don't think anybody around the world is gonna be happy when that happens. 0.98

00:44:00.000 So there it is an arms race in many ways, applied to AI.

00:44:03.000 And so I think it nobody's gonna be happy if we let China win win that and we just throw our hat in the ring and just call it a day. 0.93

00:44:09.000 Um, but ultimately there's a lot of debate about there out there about AGI, when that's gonna come online, if it comes online, but ultimately I think from a more near-term standpoint, we're starting to see AI deploy across every industry and every sector.

00:44:20.000 It's a real horizontal technology, which is very unique and different from other technology ways.

00:44:25.000 This touches everything at once, whether it be accounting firms, law firms, you know, business development firms, sales teams, robotics.

00:44:33.000 It really touches everything and it needs the power in the form of nuclear energy and other forms of energy to actually, you know, uh, you know, to actually power these data centers of the future.

00:44:42.000 So everything is happening at once.

00:44:43.000 And so not only do we win need to win, I think we need to retrain much of our our workforce to understand the implications of AI.

00:44:50.000 I think that's something that we're not talking enough about.

00:44:52.000 Is like the people that are going to law school right now and expecting to get a job at a you know pre-eminent law firm, like what what happens now when you have AI that understands all jurisprudence across all history instantaneously?

00:45:04.000 Do we need those entry-level you know lawyers anymore?

00:45:07.000 Maybe, maybe not.

00:45:08.000 And so I think these are the things that we need to start considering is how do we become you know AI enabled as a workforce and not just dismiss this technology as being something that's temporary because I think I think it's going to be something that's gonna drastically rechange, especially especially entry-level workers.

00:45:22.000 And we look at how much student debt we're loaded up with as a country.

00:45:26.000 I think you you if if you take it one step further, you start to see all these people that go to college have been sold this bill of goods of the American dream, go to college, you have social mobility, you can get a great job.

00:45:35.000 Ultimately, what happens if you go to college and you can't get a great job?

00:45:38.000 Yeah, and because AI has actually made us that much more productive as as as a society, but ultimately it has an impact to those college um workers that are entering the workforce.

00:45:47.000 I think that's something that we're starting to see a little bit of about right now.

00:45:49.000 I mean, I graduated my undergrad during the great financial crisis, like during the 08 time frame.

00:45:54.000 Many of my peers had a hard time getting an entry-level job.

00:45:57.000 Now, if you start seeing some of my cousins and other people in their generation getting an entry-level job is actually somewhat difficult because AI is making it very, very, you know, um, you know, disadvantageous to the new worker into the workforce.

00:46:08.000 The great irony of all of that was the people who said learn to code, uh, you know, at like some steam fitter or a guy that was a welder, uh, you know, they're the ones that are actually getting displaced by AI.

00:46:19.000 And the problem is, even at this point, learning to code isn't gonna help all that much because AI is gonna do that for you too.

00:46:25.000 Totally.

00:46:26.000 So I think the trades are in a very solid position.

00:46:28.000 I think the trades are in a great position, but I think that the elite, you know, knowledge workers that you know go to the top the top universities and have been told learn to code, go be a lawyer, do all these things.

00:46:39.000 Ultimately, I think that a lot of this is gonna change in the next handful of years.

00:46:42.000 And so I think we need to retrain our workforce and our education system to understand the implications of what AI is gonna do, so that we can actually march more favorably into the future.

00:46:50.000 So, you know, where does your story of venture capital start for you?

00:46:53.000 I mean, uh, you know, obviously, you know, getting out of the teams and going into finance.

00:46:56.000 I know a bunch of guys that did that, but you know, VC is sort of a unique animal uh in its own right.

00:47:00.000 How do you even get started there?

00:47:02.000 I I was lucky to have some mentors that took a chance on me.

00:47:05.000 So suffice to say, um, you know, when you're going through a career transition, you talk to a lot of people and you find people that see something in you that maybe you don't see in yourself.

00:47:12.000 So I had that for me.

00:47:13.000 But I came for my time at my second deployment in the SEAL teams was sort of like a high-tech deployment on the intelligence side of the house.

00:47:19.000 And it's where I got the opportunity to utilize Palantir for the first time ever.

00:47:23.000 We were told that we're one of the first adopters, early adopters of of Palantir's capability, and ultimately it blew the socks out of everything that we had, except for a few things on the on the TS side of the house.

00:47:33.000 And that was such an eye-opener experience to me to see how there was a glimmer of hope from technology to reduce manpower and increase effectiveness by 10x in terms of our own missions, that I got the technology bug and moved to Silicon Valley to figure out what the best in the business were investing in, not just as it relates to national security technology or government technology, but any technology under the sun that could actually lead our country into uh a form of greater prosperity in the future.

00:47:58.000 So I had the opportunity to work at Indries and Horowitz and then over at Lightspeed Venture Partners, where I was mentored by some of the best in the business to help me learn the craft of venture and how to build a firm.

00:48:08.000 And ultimately that that you know, that public service, that mission orientation that I had during my swimming years, my Navy SEAL years really came to the forefront, yet again in the world of venture capital, where I saw so many of these technologies that we're investing in and helping to build and foster as part of our portfolio that definitively had a use case inside of Uncle Sam somewhere, had had a use case, whether it be Department of Energy, Homeland Security, so on and so it really anywhere.

00:48:33.000 Um I saw an opportunity for these companies to make a difference and to generate business by working inside of those organizations because many of the technologies that we worked with and I had firsthand experience with were so legacy.

00:48:44.000 And so, how do we actually help those companies break into that market segment?

00:48:48.000 And that's why we started our firm and our franchises, not only to invest in them, but help them navigate the labyrinth of government acquisitions so that our warfighters and public servants of any dimension um can actually have the best technology first instead of the worst technology late.

00:49:03.000 So, what have been some of the biggest challenges uh in doing that?

00:49:06.000 And what have been some of your best successes?

00:49:09.000 The biggest challenge is I would say without a without uh without a doubt is that the incumbents are so well funded and they've uh effectively rigged the game for them to win in perpetuity.

00:49:19.000 Yeah, they ultimately have uh effectively sat with the program managers, they've lobbied for the capital from Congress.

00:49:25.000 So the capital is getting appropriated to the things that they've lobbied for.

00:49:28.000 Uh ultimately the program managers and the requirements uh process, the requirement is essentially written for the incumbent in question.

00:49:35.000 I don't care if it's a uh you know a Lockheed Martin or a Raytheon or what have you, it's written effectively for them.

00:49:40.000 Oh, look, only one person can possibly bid on this RLD.

00:49:44.000 It's amazing.

00:49:45.000 so that process is tremendously frustrating.

00:49:48.000 And I think in many ways, you know, um, you know, un-American in many ways, because you can't actually, if you're an upstart company, you have no credible way, even if your solution is 10x better, it wasn't budgeted for and the requirement isn't written for that, even if it's 10x better.

00:50:01.000 And so if you look at things that like what SpaceX has done and what Elon's done in many, many ways, it's demonstrated that if you actually have a leap ahead capability, you can actually bring it to bear in the market and actually win against incumbents, uh, you know, like just like he did against Boeing, where you know, in the early articles, there was there was not a chance in hell that anybody thought that that was even possible.

00:50:20.000 But it turns out that it is possible.

00:50:21.000 Yeah, he's done in a few years what NASA took like 75 years to do, and now he's doing it better.

00:50:25.000 It's like at a fraction of the capital.

00:50:27.000 You know, huge fraction of the capital.

00:50:29.000 So I think that that's one of the biggest frustrations, yet one of the biggest opportunities.

00:50:32.000 But I think one one of the uh the selling into government is not a best technology wins industry, unfortunately.

00:50:39.000 It is not a best capability wins.

00:50:40.000 It's whoever can play the game best wins.

00:50:43.000 And that's tremendously frustrating.

00:50:45.000 But that said, if you sort of fight fire with fire, you hire your own army of lobbyists, you're capitalized well enough to do so, and you can clearly understand the problems of whatever department and agency that you're you're addressing and help them understand how your capability is the best.

00:50:59.000 You can actually do it, and it's been done in many times, many cases.

00:51:02.000 And so one of our companies is a company called Astranis, uh, you know, a satellite company that operates from geostationary orbit, uh, provides a bunch of capabilities up there to include internet from space and many, many others.

00:51:12.000 And they've successfully you know achieved you know a significant amount of government deals and government business, which is on par or greater than their commercial business as well.

00:51:19.000 Um, but it's taken a long time.

00:51:21.000 They have a differentiated capability and ultimately have have had to become capitalized well enough to actually you know compete head to head with the incumbents of the industry.

00:51:29.000 So I'm sure you've got some incredible stories, uh, whether it was in the teams or you know, in the Olympics, uh, you know, is there a specific moment from like an Olympic final or a grueling practice mission training, whatever it was that taught you a lesson that you still think about today?

00:51:44.000 Yeah, absolutely.

00:51:45.000 I think one of those lessons that I'm really looking forward to, the uh the the 2028 Olympics here in Los Angeles, because I know that your father, President Trump, is gonna just you know bring out all the stops to make sure that American athletes feel special and recognize from that.

00:51:57.000 And that's something that I experienced in the Beijing Olympics where President Bush went there, spent a lot of time with the athletes, and I I think that's a very important thing for any leader of any country when your athletes and your people are competing on a world stage.

00:52:11.000 I don't care if it's in the military, athletics, and business, you're there and you're supporting them and showing that you have the support of the full country because you are the president after all.

00:52:19.000 And so I think actually, you know, having that experience was something that was something I'll I'll never forget.

00:52:24.000 Uh, and spending time with the president thereafter, after my competition, it's something I'll never forget.

00:52:29.000 And I'm really looking forward to 2028 because I know that not only is President Trump going to do it, he's gonna do it at a world class level.

00:52:34.000 Oh, yeah, listen, if if there's one person you want in charge of a production like that, it's Donald Trump.

00:52:38.000 I can I could promise you.

00:52:40.000 That one and the 250th anniversary.

00:52:42.000 I mean, that's the and by the way, the world cup probably too.

00:52:44.000 So yeah, we got it, we got like a big year of events coming up, uh, you know, with all of that.

00:52:49.000 So I'm sure that's gonna be pretty exciting.

00:52:51.000 You know, uh looking back on sort of the incredible life that you've lived, you know, from the pool to the battlefield now to the world of tech.

00:52:58.000 What's the one piece of advice you'd give to a young person who wants to find you know purpose?

00:53:03.000 You know, perhaps that purpose is changing every day with the advent of AI, as we spoke about, you know, and and to serve their country.

00:53:10.000 I I think you can find no better place than then signing up to sign the United States military and doing so in the special operations community.

00:53:16.000 It it made a huge difference for me.

00:53:18.000 But ultimately, I had this question, you know, as I was mentioning when I was, you know, I was fishing for some big rainbow trout, and one of the guides asked me a very similar question, like well, you know, well, how should I plan out my career?

00:53:27.000 How can I plan out my next steps?

00:53:28.000 And interestingly, you know, upon retrospect of my own life and my own career, not much of this is actually premeditated or thought through.

00:53:35.000 It's really boils down to working with the best people you could possibly surround yourself with.

00:53:40.000 Good things come from that.

00:53:41.000 That takes a whole different type of courage.

00:53:43.000 That takes a whole different type of uh self-confidence uh in in your own future in your own life because it could go in any numerable number of directions.

00:53:52.000 But I had the opportunity to swim with the best in my swimming pool in my swimming pool time in my career in swimming.

00:53:57.000 I had the opportunity to serve with the best in the SEAL teams, and now I have the opportunity to invest with the best and the top founders in the world.

00:54:03.000 And I think that's purely because I've created this archetype for myself professionally where I just want to be around the best.

00:54:09.000 And if you're around the best, you have the opportunity to rise to the occasion and to be a part of the best yourselves.

00:54:14.000 I love that, man.

00:54:15.000 Larson, thank you so much.

00:54:16.000 What an incredible story.

00:54:17.000 That was that was amazing.

00:54:19.000 Don, I appreciate it.

00:54:20.000 Thank you.

00:54:21.000 Thank you.

00:54:22.000 Guys, thanks so much for tuning in.

00:54:24.000 Remember to like, to share, to subscribe.

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Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - September 18, 2025

The Warrior Ethos & America's Mission, Interview with Harpoon Ventures Founder Larsen Jensen | Triggered Ep275

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