Uncapped #35 | Trae Stephens from Founders Fund
Uncapped with Jack Altman
2025/12/03
Uncapped #35 | Trae Stephens from Founders Fund
Uncapped #35 | Trae Stephens from Founders Fund
Uncapped with Jack Altman
2025/12/03
In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and advanced technology, the conversation around innovation, ethics, and national defense has never been more critical. This discussion dives into the complex interplay between cutting-edge tech development and the moral responsibilities that come with it, particularly in high-stakes domains like defense and autonomy.
The podcast explores the challenges and ethical dimensions of building transformative hard tech, particularly through Anduril’s work in autonomous defense systems. Trae Stephens emphasizes the importance of pursuing 'good quests'—ventures that are substantively beneficial even if they feel controversial—contrasting them with superficial AI applications that exploit emotion or loneliness. He discusses the difficulty of scaling advanced manufacturing, likening Anduril’s journey to SpaceX and Tesla, where success depends as much on production mastery as on innovation. At Founders Fund, the investment philosophy centers on extreme concentration in outlier founders, backing visionary individuals before markets validate their ideas. The firm avoids king-making and resists hype, seeking alpha in early, unproven bets. Regulatory engagement is framed as essential, especially in defense, where technological leadership must align with ethical frameworks like just war theory. Ultimately, the conversation underscores the need for deep conviction, long-term thinking, and moral clarity in both entrepreneurship and investing.
00:35
00:35
Many young aspiring founders are doing 'whiteboard founding' with LLM APIs, creating highly competitive consensus categories
07:35
07:35
Anduril is in the 'feels bad but is good' quadrant because it serves critical national defense functions.
14:03
14:03
Google withdrew from Project Maven due to internal employee backlash over military collaboration.
16:54
16:54
Building a 5-million-square-foot manufacturing campus in Ohio
21:07
21:07
In defense tech, the product might only account for 30%, unlike 70% in software.
22:30
22:30
The era of using large, expensive assets like aircraft carriers for force projection is over due to cost and risk.
27:07
27:07
Elon Musk has deep in-depth knowledge of metallurgical materials for SpaceX rockets
33:52
33:52
The fund only invests in founder-CEOs and makes pure bets on their vision, even without a working product.
37:34
37:34
Kamikaze rounds, where a fund invests heavily at a high valuation, can harm a company's long-term health.
42:51
42:51
Fight for pro-rata when a company asks you not to invest.
43:55
43:55
The best investments happen before a category exists.
49:57
49:57
The just war tradition offers a moral compass for defense innovation.
