A number of accelerator programs are conducted each year with the aim of identifying and developing founders in the early stages of company formation. Only a small percentage of people look for founders who are clearly aligned with some values, let alone classic conservative values such as family, patriotism, and faith.
Discipulus Ventures, which launched its first group of 10 people yesterday, is a unique exception. Mentorship programs for young founders, at least in the field of technology, are geared toward a rather unique type of talent: Platonic idealism, Aristotelian rationalism, and a strong desire to revive Norman Rockwellian Americana. We are interested in attracting talented people.
And instead of building B2B SaaS companies, the group will all work on problems related to hard technology, defense, or industry, or what is widely referred to as “American dynamism.”
The program's website calls for student founders who have a “rigorous dedication to truth and goodness” and whose vision for the future combines “entrepreneurship, personal virtue, and duty to our country.” This is clearly stated. The emphasis on values stems from the beliefs held by the program's three founders. Young people are not working to solve some of the toughest problems facing this country, like rebuilding manufacturing and adding abundant clean energy to the power grid. It took even longer to move them toward mission-driven companies.
In a recent interview, Jacob Diepenbrock, one of the founders of Discipulus, said that a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal and the nonpartisan research organization NORC showed that since the late 1990s, Americans have He pointed out that values such as patriotism, religion, and having children are in sharp decline. . But while these priorities declined, revenues increased.
He and his two co-founders, Isaac Yee, Discipulus' chief operating officer, and William Pang, entrepreneur-in-residence, believe these values are the foundation of the nation's top university campuses. Some say they have witnessed students flocking to entrepreneurship as essentially a means to social growth. End: To make a quick buck or to fit in with the crowd. (Diepenbrock himself said he just graduated from high school in 2022, according to his LinkedIn.)
“A lot of people were starting companies. We realized it wasn't a good cause,” he said. “It's kind of a popular thing to do these days. You go to school and start a social media company or an 'Uber for X' type company because it's a popular thing and everyone else is doing it.” Because it means being there. ”
He says the problem is exacerbated by more general restrictions on the types of thinking and speech that occur on college campuses. In essence, students are becoming increasingly afraid to say what they think, let alone voice what is deeply important to them.
“You can't say what's important, you can't say what you think is true, and that's obviously not a good thing if you want to solve these problems,” he said. “If we can’t even talk about it, we can’t solve it.”
As a result, Disciples was born a year ago. His average day in the cohort from March 25th to 29th combines community building with opportunities for discussion and collaboration with mentors. Each day starts bright and early with a 6 a.m. gym workout, followed by time with a mentor. Mentors also include Katherine Boyle of a16z. Josh Manchester, Champion Hill GP. Michael Gibson, 1517 Fund General Practitioner. And Augustus Dorico, founder of terraforming company Rainmaker, has plenty of time to work. The week concludes with a demo day in front of a group of investors.
“Average or median [age] You're probably 21, 22 years old, but you don't really have a network and you know something about raising money and going to market – very astute, but certainly not something you've done before. , there's so much we can do, not only from our helpful advisors, who have so much to offer, but also from each other,” Manchester said in a recent interview. “They can gain a network, gain deeper insight into their project, and learn more about whether they should continue pursuing it or pivot to something else.”
The program is based in El Segundo, California, a city just southwest of Los Angeles that is home to major aerospace companies such as Boeing and Northrop Grumman. The city's reputation has grown in recent months as a hotbed for a new breed of hard tech founders, much like the type Discipulus is trying to attract. Much of the “Gundo” scene came to light (at least on the internet) in February, when 20-year-old Rasmus Dei Meyer organized a defense technology hackathon there. For a time at least, social media site X has been given a reprieve from “e/acc” (an abbreviation for the movement to accelerate technological advances in artificial intelligence), and “🇺🇸/acc” has replaced it.
Discipulus was born long before the Gundo scene took off online, and this program seems to tap into the energy there. Rather, they seem to be aiming to cultivate it.
In some ways, Discipulus looks like any other hard tech event. For example, it's very masculine, and to clear up any confusion about what country you're in, there's a larger-than-life American flag hanging from the ceiling. But look a little closer and you'll see a noticeable difference. What's impressive are leaders like Galvanick co-founder Joshua Steinman who brings young children to his talks (his Valar Atomics founder Isaiah Taylor, Discipulus' mentor, does the same). Did) He took his daughter to a hackathon in February.).
It may be a small thing, but it means that we are walking down the path of pro-natalism. And I'm not apologizing for that.