You may not care about geopolitics, but geopolitics cares about you.
This hit me hard during my conversation with Larsen Jensen – former Navy SEAL, 2X Olympic medalist, and now Founding GP at Harpoon Ventures.
Here's what's happening RIGHT NOW that most are missing:
💡 The Great Awakening: Silicon Valley is returning to its roots. We started with ARPANET, the space race, and Cold War tech. Then we moved on to SaaS and social media. Now we're back to building the hard stuff.
🎯 The Perfect Storm: Three forces are converging:– Founders leaving top tech companies to build hard tech– Government budgets finally prioritizing resilience– Private capital is also filling the void
⚡ Ukraine Changed Everything: This isn't just another conflict - it's "Drone War One." The rules of warfare have been rewritten faster than doctrine can adapt.
🔮 The Generational Opportunity: Larsen believes this AI-driven era will be 10-100x more impactful than the dot-com boom. We're not just building software anymore - we're building the "freedom stack."The companies winning aren't just creating shareholder value - they're ensuring Western superiority for generations.
🎯 What we unpacked:
🔹 Why Harpoon exists: Larsen built Harpoon as a venture fund focused exclusively on technologies that uphold Western resilience — from AI and cyber to space, energy, and autonomous defense. It’s venture capital with a national security thesis.
🔹 The “Freedom Stack” Thesis: AI. Rare earths. Cybersecurity. Energy. Space. Autonomy. This isn’t sci-fi. It’s a new category of venture opportunities that will define global power over the next 25 years. Harpoon calls it the “Freedom Stack” — and they’re investing early.
🔹 From Zero to $1B in Government Contracts: Harpoon doesn’t just provide capital. They go into the trenches with their startups, helping them win massive government contracts. Their portfolio has secured $1B+ in revenue — before IPO or exit.
🔹 The “Black Flag” Program: YC for defense tech? Pretty much. Black Flag is Harpoon’s custom-built accelerator for startups solving “impossible” problems in defense, national security, and critical infrastructure. It’s already showing serious traction.
🔹 The New Venture Equation: You might not care about geopolitics. But geopolitics cares about you. Founders are waking up to this. Capital is following.
Governments are modernizing.
And VCs? The smart ones are moving fast.
The question isn't whether you should care about defense tech, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure.
The question is: Which side of history do you want to be on?