The Reindustrialization Of America | Jakob Diepenbrock
About this episode
Jakob Diepenbrock is running a hard-tech fund from El Segundo, backing young engineers building defense, manufacturing, robotics, energy, and other critical industries. He joins Lukas and Saila to explain how he skipped the credential ladder, built Discipulus Ventures, raised a fund by treating the process like a startup launch, and why Anduril’s breakout made defense tech the allocation everyone suddenly wanted.
They also discuss cost-plus military contracts, drones versus soldiers, DJI’s domination of creator hardware, automated American textile factories, why humanoid robots are TikTok bait, insectoid factory machines, American-made peptides, ethanol and farm lobbies, machine financing at 30%, the tacit knowledge trapped in aging machinists, lowballing retiring boomers for obscure industrial monopolies, founder bench-press requirements, a Vegas magician who broke reality, CIA remote viewing, UFOs as Space Force marketing, medical isotope enrichment, Russian shell companies, and Germany’s reverse house-flipping bureaucracy.
Chapters
- Intro and Sponsors
- The Substack Payment Processor Is Finally Fixed
- Turning the Podcast Into a Call to Action
- Meet Jakob / Long-Distance Running Is Adult Self-Harm
- El Segundo, Chamath, and the Defense-Tech Wave
- Why Hard Tech Belongs in El Segundo
- Starting a Fund Without Credentials
- Venture Capital Is Crappy Beta
- Raising a Fund Like a Startup
- The 22-Year-Old Fund Manager Problem
- Why Defense Tech Suddenly Became Cool
- Elon, DOGE, and the $20 Million Missile
- How Cost-Plus Contracting Broke Defense
- The Defense Industry Is Smaller Than You Think
- Political Risk for Government Contractors
- Robotics Is the Next Bubble
- Reindustrialization and the American-Made Premium
- DJI, Drones, and the Captured Creator Economy
- “Reindustrialized” Sweaters Made in China
- Automated American Textiles
- Humanoid Robots Are Boomer Bait
- Insect Robots, Chemicals, and Ethanol
- RFK’s Fitness Camps and American-Made Peptides
- Bioreactors and Cheaper Drug Manufacturing
- Lowballing Boomers for Strategic Companies
- America Runs on Three Old Guys and a Notebook
- Grants, Tariffs, and Supply-Chain Sovereignty
- Wire Harnesses and 30% Machine Financing
- El Segundo Culture and the Founder Bench Test
- The Vegas Magician Who Broke Reality
- CIA Remote Viewing, UFOs, and Space Force
- Medical Isotopes and Russian Shell Companies
- Germany’s Reverse House-Flipping Program
- Mandatory Call to Action