The role of a venture capitalist is to seek out trailblazers, visionaries, and pioneers who will shape our world tomorrow, and back them today. Mavericks and bold thinkers are not just accepted—they are celebrated.

So why does it feel increasingly hard to find history-makers? Great explorers like Magellan, Earhart, or Armstrong?

Is it because we have already explored everything there is to be explored? Unlikely.

Is it because new exploration costs too much for anyone who’s not a billionaire? Maybe.

Or is it because there actually are just as many explorers as there has always been, but we just don’t talk about them the way we once did? Larsen Jensen believes our culture has, in certain ways, lost its admiration of people who do great things, and that especially in America, we choose to tear down the radical thinkers because we’d prefer for them to be “more like us.”

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Where are all the explorers? Full Larsen Jensen episode out NOW!! Link in bio and comments. #tech #vc #defense #founder #startup

Larsen Jensen, a two-time Olympic medalist and former Navy SEAL, is now the founder and general partner at Harpoon Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on seed investments. Jensen's mission with Harpoon is to ensure U.S. technological dominance for future generations. His career journey includes winning a silver medal in the 1500m freestyle in Athens in 2004 and a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle in Beijing in 2008, joining the SEALs from 2009-2015, then working at Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners before starting Harpoon in 2018.

Throughout our 45-minute conversation with Larsen, he gave us story after story of what it was like to be Michael Phelps’ Olympic teammate, to make it through SEAL training, and now to lead his own team at Harpoon. My favorite story he shared was how he received “extra attention” from BUD/S instructors when he first showed up for SEAL training. Within thirty minutes of arriving on the beach for first days training, an instructor shouted to the group, “Olympian, raise your hand.” There were 200 men on the beach preparing for a four-mile timed run and, unfortunately for Larsen, only one of them was a former Olympian. Larsen looked around and saw no one else raising his hand, so he reluctantly put up his. The instructors then announced, “Check, we got eyes on.” And the so-called “extra attention” began.

If you want to know what that extra attention looked like, we highly recommend watching the episode below 👇️ 

Watch the full Larsen Jensen episode on:

ICYMI:

Some of our favorite clips from recent podcast episodes.

WHO GOT PAID?:

- KKR, a New York-based private equity firm, raised $4.6B for a fund focused on middle market investments in the financial services, health care, industrials, media, software and tech-enabled services sectors.

- Twelve, a Berkeley-based, carbon transformation company, raised $200 million in Series C funding led by TPG Rise Climate.

- UJET, a San Francisco- based AI-powered cloud contact center solutions provider, raised $76 million in Series D funding led by Sapphire Ventures. GV, Kleiner Perkins, Citi Ventures, and others also joined the round.

- Torq, a New York City-based cybersecurity automation platform, raised $70 million in Series C funding led by Evolution Equity Partners. Bessemer Venture Partners also joined the round.

- Mercor, a San Francisco-based job application and hiring platform, raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark. Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, and others also joined the round.

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