Principals: Larsen Jensen
An interview with an Olympic medalist, former Navy SEAL, and founder and Managing General Partner of Harpoon Ventures
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Arena Magazine promotes its longform interview series, Principals, featuring a conversation with Larsen Jensen, an Olympic medalist and former Navy SEAL. The interview discusses Jensen's experiences in the defense tech ecosystem, military service, and overcoming challenges. Jensen shares insights from his swimming career and its impact on his life.
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Telling the Great American Story, in Print!
From the Olympic Pool to the Battlefield
This is Principals, our longform written interview series with a focus on finance, technology, and geopolitics. This weekend, Arena's Carson Becker speaks with Larsen Jensen, Olympic medalist, former Navy SEAL, and founder and Managing General Partner of Harpoon Ventures. To read more Principals interviews, head to the Arena site.
Larsen Jensen is a venture capitalist, Olympic medalist, and former Navy SEAL. He is the founder and Managing General Partner of Harpoon Ventures, a San Diego-based early-stage firm with approximately $450 million under management. Since 2018, Harpoon has had numerous successful exits, including Airplane, Bluesky, and Truera. Its portfolio currently includes numerous defense and space technology companies like Astranis, Aalo Atomics, and Starcloud.
I sat down with Jensen to discuss the defense tech ecosystem, his military service, and how to deal with challenges. What follows is a transcript of our conversation.
CB: Would you say that swimming was the formative experience in your life?
LJ: It for sure was. The obvious reason is that it was the first time in my life that I saw the direct correlation between hard work in and high performance out. Learning that at an early age is extremely important. I try to instill it in my kids. Small things compound over time. It's hard to find that lesson anywhere in life, and to experience it as concretely as you do in swimming.
Swimming is a time-based sport. Your time is your time. You know if you're good or not based on what your time is. It's not like gymnastics scoring or diving scoring, or team-based sports, where you could have a great pass but maybe someone doesn't catch it.
CB: At what point did you decide to take it to a higher level, where you were training for and entering the Olympic team?
LJ: It's a good question, because I'm not so sure if it was a decision or circumstance. I think it's actually a combination of both.
I started swimming relatively young compared to my peers — compared to the Phelpses and people like that, who ended up being my peers at the tail end of my career. But I didn't start doing year-round swimming until I was in high school.
It was probably junior year that I really came onto the scene. I think it was between my sophomore and junior year that I made my first nationals. I was fortunate that I earned rookie of the meet at that event by finaling in a couple of events, which is sort of rare for a first-time person who goes to nationals.
And then I believe it was my second nationals where I made my first international team representing Team USA, which was traveling to Japan. I still remember my mom, in her wisdom, getting me a passport. I'd never been out of the country. I grew up in a rural area in Central California — my parents were almond farmers. Fortunately she did, or else I wouldn't have been able to go to Japan for my first international competition. And that's when I was 16 years old.
So around that time is when it became evident that swimming was something I was pretty good at and had worked hard at. And just for context: if you make the national team for any of these international competitions, it's the equivalent of making the Olympic team in terms of the tryout process. But the pressure at the Olympic trials is a whole other level.
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