\n<\/p>\n
Harpoon Ventures isn\u2019t for \u201cnerds.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is one of the many selling points investor Clint Brown gives for the San Diego\u2013based defense-tech venture capital<\/a> firm, which recently closed a $155 million fundraising round. Another selling point? Half of the fund\u2019s 10 employees are former Navy SEALs<\/a>, including founder and former Olympic<\/a> swimmer Larsen Jensen.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s Andrew Couillard,\u201d Brown says, listing another investor. \u201cHe was EOD.\u201d<\/p>\n When I ask what that means, Brown hesitates.<\/p>\n \u201cHe knows how to defuse nukes,\u201d he finally says, laughing. \u201cMy head is like, You\u2019re not supposed to tell people that.\u201d Then, as if to make the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 even more improbable: \u201cHe\u2019s fluent in Mandarin, and he\u2019s just the whitest guy you\u2019ve ever met.\u201d<\/p>\n Another partner, Jake Windle, served with the famed SEAL Task Unit Bruiser during the Iraq War\u2019s Battle of Ramadi in 2006, alongside commander Jocko Willink and sniper Chris Kyle<\/a>, whose memoir later became the film American Sniper<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Today, Brown insists, their lives are considerably less cinematic, filled with surfing, working out, and time spent with their kids. \u201cWe don\u2019t do the ridiculous Silicon Valley lifestyle,\u201d he says, \u201cWe\u2019re going to be cool and crush it.\u201d<\/p>\n