Two weeks ago I sat on a panel on "Defense & commercial revenues of tech startups, how to balance?" -- Dual-Use and Defense startups. The other panelists were Jake Chapman @ Marquee VC, Matt Kaplan @ Shield Capital, Chris Moran @ Lockheed Martin Ventures, and Kris Vulgan @ Ferocity Capital. It was a marathon panel … Continue reading National Resilience Demands Capacity, Not Contract Chasing
Yesterday, I published a self-audit of a blog post I wrote 3 years ago ("War in Ukraine: The Long-Term Impact", August 16, 2022). What emerges in hindsight: I systematically undervalued adaptive capacity of political and market systems when existential stakes are present. Cynicism about inertia was a bias — understandable given decades of EU under-delivery! — but wrong … Continue reading Where We Go From Here: Seven Investor Lessons From Ukraine
In a blog post from August 16, 2022, War in Ukraine: The Long-Term Impact, I made an economic and investment forecast. It was not a prediction, but it a directional framing of consequences under tension based on my observations on market drivers. Capital allocation is national security. Venture’s edge isn’t alpha—it’s foresight operationalized under uncertainty.Thinkstorm … Continue reading Markets, Politics, and the Speed of Shock: Lessons from Ukraine
Two weeks ago I posted a short provocation on LinkedIn: what if AI decided the safest way to protect humanity was to remove us from the system? It struck a nerve — not because people thought it was likely, but because they saw how easy it is to design ourselves into that corner without noticing. … Continue reading The ZOO Scenario – a Stress Test for AI Design.
The best early-stage venture capital (VC) investors in defense and resilience over the next decade will outperform by doing what current mainstream VC still structurally avoids: investing with operational patience, systems-level clarity, and moral clarity — under radical uncertainty. Here's what they’ll get right, and the key success factors that enable >5x+ returns, true alpha, … Continue reading Generating 5x+ Alpha in Defense/Resilience VC
Quantum computing can close the SME credit gap in Germany by resolving systemic data asymmetries that legacy financial institutions and classical machine learning models cannot overcome. In doing so, it could realign ESG-linked capital with high-quality, underfunded industrial firms at the heart of Germany’s economic resilience.[Thinkstorm Thesis] Context: Why SME Lending Is Broken — Especially … Continue reading Quantum Computing: Fixing SME Lending in Germany
Last week I met with Brendan Baker to exchange notes on venture capital observations -- and catch up with him on joining Rackhouse as Partner. Brendan asked me why I think most GPs fail - quite an open-ended question, and I took it as "why do most GPs fail to raise more than 1 fund." … Continue reading Trust in Venture Capital: Why GPs Fail
Banks could treat quantum compute capacity as a deterrent in global financial conflict, like nuclear early-warning systems, but for real-time risk asymmetry. I recently caught up with the Bundesverband Deutscher Banken on the future of quantum computing for banking in Germany. For context, German banks play an outsized role in economic orchestration, not just capital … Continue reading Quantum Finance as Game-Theoretic Deterrence
[Club Edition: Welcome to the Weekend] I'm not the only VC interested in music. Three “swim lanes” influenced my house and D&B forays in the early days. And I’ve been interested in many of these samples that I’m hearing everywhere now … Afrobeat We used a lot of Clyde Stubblefield samples from 95 and 98: … Continue reading Tech x Art: From Afrobeat to Deep House
Undergrounds are clandestine, resilient systems that enable sustained resistance, asymmetric warfare, or covert statecraft. Historically embedded in insurgency, resistance, and revolutionary doctrine, they now re-emerge as critical enablers in grey-zone and high-tech conflict.
