During the 24 -hour rocking via Copenhagen last month, Eric Slesinger met with engineers who produced maritime drones, software developers for war planning and NATO consultant. He recently visited London for dinner with the head of the British intelligence clerk and soon headed to the Arctic to learn about technologies that would handle extreme climate.
A wrapped schedule would seem more common for Mr. Slesinger in his former job as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency. Now, however, a 35 -year -old man was very demanded when he threw his credentials for espionage agency because the risky capitalist focused on the sudden relevant area of the defense and technology of national security in Europe.
“All this happens at the speed of the warp,” said Mr. Slesinger, who supported eight start-ups and negotiated with several others.
When President Trump provokes the future of a transatlantic relationship, government throughout Europe outlined plans to potentially spend hundreds of billions of euros on weapons, missile defense programs, satellite systems and other technologies to rebuild their armies. Technologists, entrepreneurs and investors are competing to take advantage of expenditures by creating new start -ups.
Few people paid attention four years ago when Mr. Slesinger moved to Madrid with the idea that Europe would have to drastically increase defense spending because US military protection could not be taken for granted. Now his predictions look foreshadowing. After the inauguration of Mr. Trump, who followed his defeat Vice President Kamala Harris in the November elections, members of his administration called Europe as “poor” and military moochs of the United States.
“Whether Trump won or Harris or anyone else, the fact would remain that there would be technological catching up in Europe,” Mr. Slesinger said last month when walking between meetings in Copenhagen. “Maybe it’s accelerated in certain ways, but that has been a long time.”
Mr. Slesinger is now in an unusual position of a former US intelligence officer who is trying to benefit from the European planned military transformation. His company’s risk capital for one person, 201 Ventures, is completing $ 22 million to invest in young start -ups at the intersection of technical and national security.
The initial investment of Mr. Slesinger is the company of maritime drones in Sweden, the manufacturer of production technologies in Britain, an artificial intelligence company in Greece and the launch of a hypersonic vehicle in Germany.
The United States has a long tradition of investing in defense-Silicon Valley has been partially launched with the Pentagon financing-and the rise of several military start-ups, such as Palantir and Anduril, has seen the rise of several military start-ups. Europe has less success, partly because defense -related businesses were considered so unethical that many investors refused to give money for them.
“This awakening has occurred and will result in a dramatic increase in expenditure in defense, security and resistance technology,” said Chris O’Connor, NATO’s Innovation Fund, 1 billion Euro of the Technical Fund that started with money from 24 North Atlantic Organization members.
The NATO fund is the biggest financial supporter of Mr. Slesinger. Mr. O’Connor said that Mr. Slesinger’s national security experience made him ideal for identifying companies with technology that could obtain government contracts.
“He will eventually play a critical role,” said Mr. O’Connor.
Mr. Slesinger grew up just before Washington, DC and visited Stanford. There was Standout in the Mechanical Engineering program, said Craig Milroy, co -founder of Stanford’s Product Implementation Lab, where students can workshop hardware ideas.
While many classmates Mr. Slesinger explored work with Apple or Google, he looked elsewhere. “One day he came to my office and said,” I ask for connection to the CIA, “Mr. Milroy said.” That has never happened before or since. “
Mr. Slesinger is Cagey about his five and a half years of work on the CIA, but with his engineering background he said that he worked among other characters from James Bond films, Geeks, who worked in the background to solve technical problems for intelligence officers in the field.
“Imagine that you are a student, a kind of nerd engineer, and then get to this place where you have a similar ability as Santa’s workshop,” he said. “Problems with intelligence are really hard, they are rough and you feel real responsibility to do something to solve the problem.””
In 2019, Mr. Slesinger retreated from the agency to visit Harvard Business School. He also spent the summer work for the CIA risk capital, in-Q-TEL.
Around this time, the idea that Europe must rebuild its militants for a generation of low investment. In 2024, the United States spent about $ 880 billion in defense, which is more than double what other NATO countries have spent together.
With the United States focused on China, Mr. Slesinger was convinced that he would see the end of the so -called peace dividends that allowed European countries to spend more on social services and pensions since World War II, a place on tanks and fighter aircraft.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 further crystallized his work. He then founded a network of European defense investors, which now includes about 125 investors, entrepreneurs and politicians. Last year 201 Ventures began.
At first he tried to raise funds because many investors refused to support military technologies. In the end, however, he received money from NATO and found an advisor, including Eileen Tanghal, who supervised the London office in-Tel; David Utlevitch, General Partner at Silicon Valley Venture Firm Andreessen Horowitz; and author Sebastian Mallaby.
Over the past 12 months, Mr. Slesinger, who also has an Italian passport from the roots of his family, has traveled to 15 countries. On a recent journey to Arctic, a snowmobile went to a distant area that is considered to test new energy sources and communication technology. In Switzerland, he visited the strongest particle accelerator in the world.
In February, Mr. Slesinger was in Germany at the Munich Security Conference, when Vice President JD Vance presented a blistering speech criticizing Europe. Within a few weeks, Germany, France, Britain and other European countries have pledged to significantly increase military expenses, concerned that they can no longer count on the United States as a reliable ally.
“It seemed like a change in the sea,” said Mr. Slesinger, who watched the speech of Mr. Vance from a laptop in a nearby hotel. “You felt it when he spoke.”
How much of the new expenditure reaches novice businesses is unclear. Missiles, ammunition and fighter aircraft are likely to be higher priorities than technologies from small, untested companies.
Mr. Slesinger said that measuring success will take years, but expects to spend $ 22 million in the next two years and have already begun to think about an increase in the larger amount. In the last few months, peppered playgrounds of European entrepreneurs who were suddenly interested in military technology.
For almost anyone he meets in Europe, is there one annoying question: does it really work for the CIA?
“I’m really out!” said.
