America Builds 029: Global Resilience with Paul Kwan, Managing Director at General Catalyst
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Jan 6, 2024 Paul Kwan, Managing Director at General Catalyst, leading the Global Resilience team, discusses modernizing critical societal systems like defense, intelligence, industrial, and energy. Topics include admiration for individuals choosing difficult paths, global resiliency as an approach, radical collaboration in entrepreneurship, responsible innovation in defense technology, and potential innovation centers and distributed operations.
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A Personal Influence From A Fallen Marine
- Paul Kwan describes Mike Weston, a Harvard-educated Marine who later died on deployment and profoundly shaped his view of service and sacrifice.
- That story motivated Kwan's commitment to mission-driven work connecting tech, venture, and defense.
Global Resilience As Theme And Approach
- Global resilience is both a thematic focus and an investment approach to modernize defense, industrial, and energy systems.
- Success requires more capital, longer timeframes, radical collaboration, and creative deal structures.
Assemble Complementary Founding Teams
- Build founding teams with complementary skills: deep tech, DoD go-to-market savvy, and organizational scaling ability.
- Add mission experts (e.g., retired generals, senior public-sector leaders) to earn trust and navigate procurement culture.