[Venture Capital Series] The Dual-Use Investing Edge With Alexander Harstrick and Jonathan Bronson

Alexander Harstrick is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of J2 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in advanced computing, biomedical engineering, cybersecurity, and infrastructure. He previously served as a US Army intelligence officer and worked with the Defense Innovation Unit and AFWERX, helping deploy nearly $2 billion in defense funding to US startups. Alexander holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.

Jonathan Bronson is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of J2 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in advanced computing, biomedical engineering, cybersecurity, and infrastructure. He previously worked at Boston Consulting Group, served as COO of Backpack Health, and worked at D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments. Jonathan holds a PhD from Columbia University, where he developed AI tools to analyze biochemistry experiments.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [4:53] Alexander Harstrick shares how his friendship with Jonathan led to the founding of J2 Ventures
• [7:15] Jonathan Bronson explains J2’s dual-use investment thesis and the opportunity in government markets
• [9:04] Why startups should build for commercial markets rather than government alone
• [14:58] The value of combining venture capital with hands-on government procurement expertise
• [18:52] Lessons from raising venture funds and learning from experienced investors
• [27:05] How Tasso’s needle-free blood draws align with J2’s dual-use investment strategy
• [30:30] Lumia Health’s consumer wearable technology and its military applications
• [37:13] What missing a major investment taught J2 about founder relationships and venture diligence

In this episode…

Dual-use investing becomes compelling when a technology can succeed in the commercial market while also solving meaningful government or national security needs. But that broader potential only matters if the business has strong product-market fit and a viable path to scale. What separates a compelling dual-use company from one that simply has a defense application?

Alexander Harstrick, a former Army intelligence officer and seasoned venture investor, argues that the strongest dual-use companies are built around genuine commercial demand rather than government contracts alone. He emphasizes that military relevance should expand a company’s opportunity, not substitute for product-market fit. Jonathan Bronson, a PhD-trained scientist with experience across consulting, startups, and investing, adds that helping founders navigate government procurement can create a meaningful advantage when the underlying business is already strong. Their perspective shows why strong business fundamentals, repeatable demand, and commercial product-market fit are essential to making dual-use investing work.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Alexander Harstrick and Jonathan Bronson, Co-founders and Managing Partners at J2 Ventures, to discuss the dual-use investing edge. They explore commercial product-market fit, military procurement, and technologies that serve both consumer and government markets. They also share lessons from fundraising, portfolio companies, and missed investments.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Alexander Harstrick on LinkedIn
• Jonathan Bronson on LinkedIn
• J2 Ventures
• A War on Two Fronts: J2 Ventures Opportunity to Diversify Beyond Venture
• Tasso, Inc.
• Safi Biotherapeutics
• Lumia
• Aether Biomedical
• Saronic Technologies
• The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption by Sebastian Mallaby
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters

Special mentions:

• Mois Navon on LinkedIn
• Henry Kravis on LinkedIn
• Dino Mavrookas on LinkedIn

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• “Lands’ End: How to Grow Companies Online, Triple Renewal Rates, Add $8million in a quarter -with Michael Smith [Top Wisconsin Entrepreneur Series]” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “How to Lead Companies like Mattel, Sega, Leapfrog to Success -with Tom Kalinske [Top Wisconsin Entrepreneur Series]” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Israel Leader Series] Engineering the Autonomous Revolution with Rabbi Mois Navon of Mobileye” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Automation Solutions with Wade Foster Founder of Zapier” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Swim & eCommerce Series] The Strategy Behind Consumer Tech Growth With Bruce Borenstein” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “The goal should not be to create a company for the government.”
• “Military sales are not replicable sales. You are valued on your ability to influence 1 or 2 people consistently.”
• “Don’t ask for permission from anyone who can’t say yes; that would be the ultimate fundraising advice.”
• “Our job is to make money for the people who give us money at the end of the day.”
• “Your network actually is what you are investing in.”

Action steps:

1. Avoid building solely for government demand: Dual-use companies need a scalable business model and product-market fit beyond military sales.
2. Treat government procurement as an additional growth channel: Access to military and government buyers can expand a startup’s opportunity, but it should complement rather than replace a scalable business model.
3. Stay disciplined when evaluating meaningful technologies: A product can benefit society or the warfighter and still be a poor venture investment if the underlying business case is weak.
4. Learn from investor rejection instead of chasing every opportunity: Focus your fundraising efforts on people who can actually make a decision, and use thoughtful feedback to improve your approach.
5. Give trusted founder relationships appropriate weight: Strong networks and years of firsthand experience with a founder can provide insights that traditional diligence may not capture.

Episode Transcript:

Intro: 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today is no different. I have Jon Bronson and Alex Harstrick of J2. You can check them out at J2VP.com.

And before I formally introduce both of you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. I just have to say, if you check out J2VP, okay, and you check out companies they have worked with and worked with some amazing companies, some of which I am the owner of, Oura Ring, for instance, I wear my ring religiously and they’ll go into what their company does, but it can detect and it has. And both of you guys will appreciate this. You know, it can, like three days before I get sick. It’s like telling me I’m getting, I’m probably gonna get sick. And so I start to do things because of it. And that’s part of, you know, them bringing, helping bring Oura Ring into government defense and things like that, which they’ll talk a little bit more about. But I love my Oura Ring. Can’t live without it. First thing I check in the morning. We’ll talk about the different companies too.

But some of the episodes to check out, we were talking about Tasso, which is a company from J2 which is a needleless blood draw and their badgers as I am. So I did a Wisconsin Entrepreneur series. I had one of the president of nNordstrom.com. I had the CEO of Sega and Mattel on the podcast, had the head of the entrepreneurship school of, you know, on the podcast. So those are some interesting ones. I was trying to think what bridges, commercial use, and military government. And one interesting one, I don’t know if this is actually a use case, but I thought of it.

I had one of the founding engineers at Mobileye. If people don’t know Mobileye is, it basically helps fuel the autonomous vehicle. And they were. I was corrected by the interview, the guest when I said they were acquired by Intel for 13.1 billion and it was actually, he said 13.2 billion, Jeremy. I’m like, oh, okay. At that point, one actually makes a difference. But that was an interesting interview actually. If you guys, if and when you guys start a podcast, that person would be an amazing guest on the podcast. So big shout out to Moiz Navon of Mobileye. And you know, there’s others like at the, the founder of Zapier on the podcast, and some other cool ones. So check those out on Inspired Insider.

This episode is brought to you by Rise25 and The Podcast Consultant. We help businesses connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We help companies launch and run a podcast. We’re an easy button to do that. We do the strategy, accountability, and the full execution production. So you can run your company and show up and talk. Okay. Also separately, we have a direct mail gifting business where I send, you give me a list of your best clients, partners, and I will send some a sweet treat in the mail every 3 to 4 months for five years with a piece of content with it. So check it out. And that’s the number one thing. And I was telling Jon and Alex, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I always look at ways to give to my relationships. I found no better way to profile the people I admire and feature on the podcast, and send them sweet treats in the mail so you can email [email protected].

I am super excited to introduce, as I’ve mentioned, Alex and Jon Bronson. They’re co-founders and managing partners of J2 Ventures. J2 Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm investing in advanced computing, biomedical engineering, cybersecurity and infrastructure. Alex is a former army intelligence officer who helped direct nearly you know, I don’t know if these numbers are correct, Alex, but over 2 billion, nearly 2 billion in defense funding to American startups. Well, Jon earned his PhD at Columbia developing AI tools for biochemical research. He brings experience with Boston Consulting Group, Backpack Health, D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments. And. Well, I want to thank you both for being here.

Alexander Harstrick: 04:36

Yeah, thank you for having us on, Jeremy.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:38

Let’s start off and I’m going to pull up the site. It’s really interesting what you’ve created with J2, and you both have had just interesting paths to get there. But start off with J2 and what you do.

Alexander Harstrick: 04:53

Yeah. So I think the story of J2 is very much the story of how Jon and I became friends, and that goes all the way back to when I was an undergrad at Columbia and Jon was a PhD student, and he and I were actually both EMTs together in Harlem and Morningside Heights. Columbia operated its own ambulance service that, in addition to servicing the Columbia area, also did New York writ large. So 911, for example, when every ambulance was called down to Ground Zero, Columbia operated in that entire area and basically covered down for FDNY. And so I joke I wanted to be a doctor. And Jon was so good at becoming a doctor of chemistry that he had extra time on his hands. And I just kind of wanted to play doctor for 40 hours a week.

And it was in the course of that one summer when there’s a lot fewer people around to kind of service this, because most of them are undergrads that Jon and I became really close friends, and for many, many reasons, I would spend more time going to Jon’s house in Philadelphia than going all the way back to my family house in California. And, you know, friendship was born. And that would include he and I working together as chemistry TA’s. Then Jon went on to work at the Boston Consulting Group. Jon taught me business. He came back. And the way you interview for consulting firms is through the case method. Jon taught me the case method. Jon went after the BCG to go work in startups. I went to work at the venture aspect of Blue Cross Blue Shield, kind of on the opposite side of this. And when I enlisted in the Army, the first thing I did was go visit Jon, and he and I went out to Wolfgang Steakhouse and had a steak to celebrate the occasion.

So I’d say on top of calling my wife when I was overseas, I think Jon was the person I called nearly, but probably just as much in sharing all those occasions. And so it was a natural development over the course of almost ten years at the time of knowing each other, that we eventually launched the fund because our congruent skill sets eventually just came into the perfect intersection and the time was right to start J2.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:04

What was the conversation like? Because you both had different career paths and trajectories. What was that conversation like that? Hey, let’s, let’s start this.

Jonathan Bronson: 07:15

Yeah, I think it arose organically over time because the other piece for me and for Alex is putting J2 in the historical context, right? If you were to go to a senior partner at any established venture fund, now someone who’s in their 50s, early 60s and say, hey, what do you think about working with the government as a strategy for a venture? They would say, that’s incredibly weird. Nobody ever did that in my day. Right. But if you went to their mentors, you know, one generation removed and said, what do you think they’d say? Of course, everybody works with the government. Everybody works with the military. Every great startup they’ve ever backed is some kind of dual use technology. And that all just kind of disappeared, right?

We had this weird period where, you know, Peter Thiel’s words, we wanted flying cars and we got 140 characters instead. And you can really trace the funding of lack of military dollars to, you know, because those are the guys who pay for flying cars. And I actually remember Alex calling me from overseas, from, I assume, some military base and saying, hey, there’s this thing called the Defense Innovation Unit. And they’re spending billions of dollars a year in non-dilutive capital to help startups create the goods and services that we actually need as a nation. And I remember thinking that sounds like something that maybe there’s an investible thesis behind. And then, I mean, Alex can speak to this, but, you know, when we were getting started, almost no venture funds thought it was a good idea to work with the government or the military. And we just saw this opportunity to get back to basics.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:40

You know, Alex, I’ve heard you say this. I can’t remember if you said it on CNBC or somewhere else, but you said, don’t create a company for the government. Right. And talk a little bit about that because like some people think, oh, I need to. And they’re thinking kind of one sided as opposed to two uses. And that’s kind of what your investment thesis is. So talk a little bit about that statement.

Alexander Harstrick: 09:04

Yeah. The concept there in being dual use and this now, Jeremy, now that investing in defense is cool, people have very strong opinions over this. Whereas before, the only opinion they had was you should never touch the government even in a secondary capacity. And so to your previous question, how did J2 arise was exactly to your point. I was overseas as an intelligence officer. Jon was working at D. E. Shaw, originally in risk, which meant that he saw every single aspect of D. E. Shaw’s strategy. And if you are going to talk about the perfect firm to learn how to invest from. I won’t talk about D. E. Shaw’s performance, but know that it’s very, very good. And it’s very good in the sense that they have a strategy that they are ruthlessly focused on, and that’s all that they do.

I’d say my observation on that is D. E. Shaw is the only place where you can get demoted for dressing too well. And so everyone you walk in there just looks like I think they’d be proud to hear this. Like some nerd. How you dress absolutely does not matter. And I think that’s why they’re so good, because they’re in this Endor’s game version of investing, where they happen to do very well, and they make money, which means they won the game. But making money doesn’t make a difference in how you live your day to day life. And so that had a robustness that I think was really helpful. And I called Jon and said, not necessarily about the Defense Innovation Unit, but more of everyone thinks the war is against, you know, Taliban, Al Qaeda, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The real war is actually against near-peer adversaries, Russia, China.

Now, right now, you look at the news, this is nothing new. in 2018, that was extraordinary. This was in the days of the Iran nuclear conflict. This was in the days of if you want to build something, outsource it to China. And this was in the days of Russia was a really big deal during Rocky 5, but not really anymore. It’s kind of passé. And so when you bring those together and you say, look like the sleeping giants of the East are coming back, they’re going to come. And this is what America is really focused on. That was, you know, revolutionary at the time. And so in order to compete with them, you needed to go into things like autonomy, space, cyber security.

Again, saying it now in 2026, you’re like, of course. But in 2018, this could not have been more anathema in the venture community. And so it was my observation and Jon, seeing basically that no one was indexing this, that led it to be the goal should not be. I eventually gotten into Harvard Business School, by the way. I’m contractually obligated to tell you into Harvard Business School, they’ll take away the degree if I don’t. And the plan then was don’t interview for a job at HBS. Pitch a job because when you’re coming out of a place like that, everyone feels like you’ve seen this oracular version of the future. And then that’s going to be really exciting.

And so that’s what I did. I ended up working at a private equity firm called KKR. Jon was right down the street at D. E. Shaw. I largely would do my homework at night, going to visit Jon at a coffee shop, and he would help me edit the deck that I take back to KKR. And eventually that got to the, I would argue, the highest level of finance, Henry Kravis. And Henry Kravis was really excited about it. And the nice thing about that is the thing Henry Kravis is excited about. A lot of people are excited about. And a very, very large, very robust and sophisticated family office came along and said, look, I think you guys should start doing this. And the first three investments we did had absolutely nothing to do with the military. One was a facial recognition software back when facial rec was evil. Now it’s how you open up your cell phone and or go through a passport line and or whatever. And the third was a dinky finish wearable that had a really successful kickstarter that we felt would solve a military readiness problem. And that company was Oura Ring. And that was a very, very small subset of, you know, a bunch of other investments.

And ironically, the more on the nose they were, Jeremy, the more military focused, the worse the outcome. Because at the end of the day, the real issue is military sales are not replicable sales. You are valued on your ability to influence 1 or 2 people consistently. But that’s not really product market fit. If I were to say, what does Lockheed Martin sell? What would you say? Just curious. I mean, I or actually, if you’re in Wisconsin, Jeremy, like the, some of the largest shipbuilding facilities are there, like Wisconsin actually is a very large military state. But I mean, what is Lockheed Martin sell? I don’t know, you would say F-35, you’d maybe say something else that, you know, if you really knew.

The answer is they sell whatever the hell they can sell to the US military to be able to justify the stock price. And that’s because they know what everybody else knows, which is your job is purely getting a sale of any kind, whereas traditional product market fit in the businesses that are venture backed would be virality in trying to get you to buy reputably the same thing over and over again infinitum, until the point where you become this giant that needs to be regulated by the US government.

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