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▶ 4:50 · Defense Tech · Defense tech investing creates personal contradiction for pacifist-leaning investor building weapons
episode briefing
Generating Alpha Podcast

Episode 31: Kevin Hartz - General Partner at A* Capital

2025-08-14 · 5 company · 3 thematic
sentiment
4 bull0 bear1 neu
speakers
kevin hartz

Co-founded Eventbrite (ticketing platform) and Zoom (digital remittances, acquired by PayPal); former partner at Founders Fund; now GP at A* Capital focusing on talent-driven, category-agnostic early-stage investing. Mentored by Pierre Lamond, Peter Thiel, and Roelof Botha.

now playing · Defense Tech
Defense Techmixedscore 6/10kevin hartz
Defense tech investing creates personal contradiction for pacifist-leaning investor building weapons
Hartz acknowledges a deep tension between his pacifist mentality and investing in defense technology ('we're building weapons... pretty heavy burden'), illustrating the moral complexity of…
Advanced Manufacturingtailwindscore 7/10kevin hartz
Contrarian industrial biotech bet backed on founder quality and timing after first-generation failures
Hartz explains that General Biological was funded not for sector momentum — industrial biotech is 'incredibly out of favor' after most first-gen companies failed — but because the founder's…
Nuclear Energytailwindscore 8/10kevin hartz
Fusion energy seen as critical humanity-scale breakthrough with active early-stage investment
Hartz identifies fusion as the most impactful potential technology for the next decade, calling it 'almost critical for humanity,' and has invested in Fuse to capture the upside of inexpens…