Jakob Diepenbrock started in venture unusually early through Steve Ballmer's family office while in college, then relocated to El Segundo to build Discipulus Ventures around the region's dense hardware and defense ecosystem rather than operating as a remote capital provider. He runs an immersive cohort program combining 6 a.m. workouts, daily mentorship, and live-in residency for technical founders in their early 20s who have hands-on industry experience and are motivated by service to the country.

• Focusing heavily on El Segundo as the absolute best place in the world for hardware startups. Refers to the area as Gundo and views it as the epicenter of modern physical tech innovation. A prime example is pointing out how Elon Musk started in an El Segundo warehouse back in 2002, using that as proof that Americans can still build impossible things and to inspire a whole new generation of founders moving to the area.
• Prioritizing American manufacturing, patriotism, and the broader reindustrialization movement. Loves seeing physical goods made in America, whether that means domestically manufactured apparel or actual nuclear reactors. Ties the current wave of hardware startups to the original spirit of the country and actively cheers on founders who are bringing industrial capabilities back home.
• Recruiting early stage founders through the Discipulus fund and its associated cohorts. Just closed a 30 million dollar oversubscribed fund geared specifically toward getting global founders to relocate and build physical tech. Constantly pushes out application links for new cohorts and gets genuinely excited about the wild and ambitious startup ideas people submit to the firm.