Andreesen Horowitz, Lux Capital and Point 72 ventures support a new generation of El Segundo startups and leaned against Silicon Valley’s Magafide, Christianity, and almost male-led vision.
David Jeans, Forbes staff
Last April, El Segundo warehouses – a loosely adjacent area that became the center of Silicon Valley’s defense technology movement – Jacob Dipemrock, a student of 20 years old at the time, hosted the future of the American Industrial Park. Over the week, a cohort of college-aged entrepreneurs, like him, brainstormed ideas for startups, pumped iron, concentrated from a fridge filled with monster energy drinks and 50 pounds of ground beef, and fed them. . “Fuel of Legends,” he proudly told the Forbes Reporter, who attended an event held by Discipulus Ventures.
Almost a year later, the founder of El Segundo, or self-identified “Gand Brothers,” draws attention to the biggest venture capital outfits. Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Point72 Ventures are those supporting more than six founders from the first cohort of Discipulus alone. They are pouring money into Durin, a seed-stage company that develops autonomous drilling rigs for the mining industry. Rune Technologies builds software for military units to manage supply chains. Vanguard Defense is building data products for electronic warfare.
Currently, Discipulus has launched its own fund to support a second cohort of entrepreneurs who are expected to take part in week-long events in the coming months, including Eventbrite founder Kevin Hartz, North Carolina-based champion It plans to raise $6 million from investors such as Hill Ventures and ventures. Capitalist Leopolobet. It’s a small fund, but with big Y-combinator-style ambitions that align with the Trump administration’s priorities. “He’s not building an ad network to make money,” Hertz told Forbes. “He believes in his core mission to restore industry and promote the US innovation edge.”
Champion Hill and the Polovets confirmed their involvement. Andreessen Horowitz and Point 72 declined to comment. Lux did not respond to a comment request.
Top investors support for Discipulus’ portfolio companies suggests they are seeing potentially enormous benefits for their chance to back out the next hot company from El Segundo. The surrounding area has created SpaceX and weapons maker Anduril (currently in discussions to raise funds at a $28 billion valuation). More recently, venture investors have been involved in missile manufacturer Castelion (which was recently shut down with a $100 million funding round), testing drugs in space (and raising $300 million), and precision manufacturing startup Hadrian (200 million) Capital was poured into local businesses such as dollar raising. ).
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to compete directly with (Y-combinator).”
Leo Polovet, Angel Investor
We hope that Discipulus will evolve into the famous Silicon Valley accelerator that has produced the next generation of Y-combinators, Airbnb, Stripe, Doordash and more. Recently, it has also started to focus on the defense and hardware sectors. Last August, he launched his first weapons company, ARES, and in December he joined a lobbying group focusing on military technology and manufacturing. But the earthly people of El Segundo consider it to be behind the party.
“If I had gone to Y Combinator, it would have been of little use to me,” said Peter Goldsborough, founder of Rune. “The people there have been no experience in any significant sense to me.” (The y-combinator did not respond to requests for comment.)
Supporters of Discipulus agree. Josh Manchester, who led Champion Hill’s support for Discipulus, said he had previously supported the founder of the Y Combinator, but hoped that Discipulus would one day rival that. “It’s a more obvious focus due to traditional American values,” he said. Investor Polovet said “I don’t think it’s a good idea to compete directly with YC,” but added that “it’s smart to offer alternative products.”
The El Segundo community line up behind the accelerators at Displeus, and the leaders of Barda and Hadrian hope to advise the next cohort of founders. Augustus Dolicco, a fellow at Tiel who started a cloud seed startup called Rainmaker, will soon host the group in his company’s warehouse. “There’s a lot of talk about defense, hardware and American dynamism,” Doricko said. “When the push comes, some of these people get huge success.”
Do you have a tip? Contact David Jeans at djeans@forbes.com or 347-559-5443.
For Doricko, one of several highly online Gundo Bros, this second Discipulus Cohort has been releasing American national security interests and military power from the age of investment in consumer apps and B2B solutions. It’s further evidence of a move towards something new that supports. It was what is called a “atmosphere shift,” and it influenced the vision of Silicon Valley’s Magazine Feed Pro Christianity, which is firmly aligned with Elon Musk and the Trump administration’s goals. For example, billionaire venture capitalist Mark Andreessen is supporting a venture company called New Founding, which is building an enclave of Christian real estate, and says, “News that can shape Western directions.” I hope that it will be part of the efforts to build models and institutions. Civilization.
Discipulus is leaning towards this message. “The ideals that once innovate and social growth – religion, patriotism, family – have lost their appeal, especially in academic institutions and top companies,” the website explains, adding “a call with founders. A transformative vision for the future by combining entrepreneurship, personal virtues and obligations to our nation.”
For example, Durin CEO Ted Feldmann told Forbes that he joined Discipulus’ Diepenbrock at Friday night’s Mass in his first cohort last year. He believes Disiplus helps him “grow in my faith” and “become a kind of better person and founder.” Diepenbrock agreed that it was a common thread among founders that religion wanted to attract. “The point here is that America is based on values that reflect the way that Judaism and Christian view things,” he said. “I think that’s what our founders are looking for.”
It is worth noting that at least at this point, their founders are primarily male. Last year, only one woman applied to Discipulus, Diepenbrock said, but she was not recognized because her pitch was focused on consumer apps. “To be honest, most founders who start hard tech companies are not women,” he said. “I think that’s the way culture and people come out,” Deepenbrock was asked if he expected women to apply for the second cohort.
Diepenbrock (who is planning a dropout) is currently a 21-year-old computer science and finance student, currently on leave as Northeastern University, a student in computer science and finance, and arrives at El Segundo after meeting Doricco at a meeting in El Salvador. I did. At the time, Doricco was working on the idea of a cloud seed startup and asked Deepenblock to be his finance director. Diepenbrock didn’t do the job, but he saw the opportunity at El Segundo to bring more founders together in his neighborhood and build a deep tech company. “Silicon Valley really couldn’t latch onto this, so I realized that there was a need here,” Diepenbrock said.
Feldmann says his mining startup now has an office in El Segundo since becoming pregnant with Durin at his first Discipulus Cohort, and hopes to announce a fundraising round in the coming months . “There’s no other place in America that has an early-stage hardware startup ecosystem like El Segundo,” Feldman said. “The atmosphere here is completely white.”
