Michael Burns spent nine years as a Navy SEAL officer before moving into venture capital, and that background shapes how he thinks about AI companies working with banks—he pushes startups to put engineers on-site to learn real workflows instead of relying on demos, and he uses military ideas like the OODA Loop and Quick Reaction Force to describe how implementation teams should support banks in production. His view of fintech was also influenced by seeing Palantir's forward-deployed model firsthand in Iraq, which shaped his belief that even sophisticated bank customers often can't fully describe what they need, so founders have to learn the environment directly rather than just asking about pain points.