Defense venture capitalists eager for proximity to power are hosting funding events and conferences at the winter White House. If they’re lucky, the president-elect himself will stop by.
By David Jeans, Forbes Staff
On a recent evening, Neil Keegan, a defense tech investor, held a pitch meeting, gathering limited partners to hear how his firm Marlinspike Partners planned to become a leading backer of startups building weapons to arm the U.S. military. The event — cocktails and a presentation — was a largely paint-by-numbers affair.
What was unusual was its location: President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. The property, once a destination for gaudy weddings and galas, and now a political hotbed, has become a favored location for venture capital funds hoping the appearance of proximity to the incoming president will bolster their fundraising efforts — or result in a chance meeting with someone who has his ear. “The energy that Mar-a-Lago and the new administration represents is that change is coming and change is needed,” Keegan told Forbes, adding that he had run into Trump while at the club. “When he walked out, I stood up and said, ‘Good luck, sir,’” Keegan explained. “He looked right at me and gave me the famous point, and said, ‘thank you very much.’”
Trump’s so-called ‘winter White House’ in Palm Beach, Florida, has been the nerve center of his presidential transition, drawing business titans, foreign leaders and politicians alike. There has also been the conga line of Silicon Valley leaders who’ve made the pilgrimage to dine with Trump, including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Tim Cook (all of whom have donated to Trump’s inaugural committee). Other tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen have taken on more permanent posts at the club, helping with the proposed Department of Government Efficiency and recruiting efforts for the incoming administration.
But amid the hurricane of billionaires and powerbrokers shaping America’s future at the club, access to its gilded events spaces for smaller firms like Marlinspike, which is hoping to raise over $100 million to invest in weapons technology and help portfolio companies secure government contracts, has been surprisingly easy — and helped project outsized proximity to the incoming president and his inner circle. (The Trump transition team didn’t respond to a comment request.)
Last month, Type One Ventures, a firm that has raised more than $100 million, according to Pitchbook, and backs companies looking to contribute to “interplanetary civilization,” held a luncheon focused on promoting investments in space and AI companies. Alongside cohosts 1789 Capital — which recently hired Donald Trump Jr as a partner — members of Trump’s inner circle met with guests, including David Sacks, the tech billionaire and incoming AI and crypto czar, and Jacob Helberg, a Palantir advisor set to become the undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment. (Through spokesperson Marcy Simon, Type One managing partner Tarek Waked declined to comment; 1789 didn’t respond.)
And this week, another firm, Balerion Space Ventures, is holding a one-day defense tech summit headlined by Tom Mueller, Elon Musk’s first employee at SpaceX, and Hamdullah Mohib, the former Afghanistan ambassador to the U.S. who now runs a space company in the United Arab Emirates. Cofounder Philip Scully, who has raised $60 million across two funds, and is now raising for Balerion’s third, said he expected potential administration officials to drop by. “We’re entering a period of time where it’s the golden era of hardware investing,” he said. Mar-a-Lago “is where everyone is right now.”
Marlinspike’s CEO Keegan, a U.S. Navy veteran and financier, launched the firm’s first fund in 2022, and has backed defense unicorns like weapons manufacturer Anduril, dronemaker Shield AI and SpaceX. During the event last week, around 60 people gathered under the Tea Room’s heavy gold drapes and crystal chandelier. With Carla Sands, the former Trump administration ambassador to Denmark, plus family offices, institutional investors and U.S. veterans in attendance, Keegan underscored the group’s proximity to history: Trump had vetted his potential cabinet picks in the room weeks earlier. Later, at a dinner held in Palm Beach, one attendee posted on LinkedIn that Donald Trump Jr. was dining at a table nearby, having just returned from his widely-reported trip to Greenland. “You can feel the momentum,” Keegan told those gathered.
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In an interview with Forbes, he clarified that Marlinspike, which counts a top former CIA official among its partners, is a “firmly apolitical firm” but acknowledged the event “might have been a subliminal notion of some association with the administration.”
That was a departure from the past, he said, when Marlinspike previously avoided opportunities to host events at Mar-a-Lago, available thanks to a limited partner who is a club member. “I didn’t want to upset you know, half of the potential limited partner universe,” he said. But since Trump was elected, he said the firm’s backers are “very favorable to the incoming administration.”
After Trump bought Mar-a-Lago in the 1980s, the private club was frowned upon by Palm Beach’s waspy crowd for its on-the-nose exuberance. But since Trump’s first term in office, attending the venue became a side-door to the country’s highest office. And Trump himself has attended some investors’ events. Weeks after the election, Trump stopped by a Mar-a-Lago event held by Azoria Capital, which was announcing a fund, CEO James Fishback told Forbes. “For the last couple of months it’s been no question that it’s the center of the universe. I’ve spoken with Elon there, with RFK, with Trump himself a number of times,” Fishback said. “People are having access to the president and important conversations, which means he can hit the ground running on day one.”
Perhaps most striking is the ease and speed at which these firms are organizing their events. With a Mar-a-Lago member to sponsor their gatherings (initiation fees for new members can exceed $1 million), the Balerion and Marlinspike events were planned in a matter of weeks. “I love it, this is America, we’re a capitalist country,” Keegan said. “This is all about business.”
Those attending Balerion’s event this week — including companies like Radiant, which makes portable nuclear reactors, and Space Nukes, a firm trying to deploy fission energy in space — will meet and mingle with government officials from U.S. Space Force and NASA, Scully said. Not to mention the helpful possibility of bumping into members of Trump’s inner circle, like Musk. “If Elon thought it was interesting and was able to come, it’s very convenient for him,” he said.
It’s unclear whether Mar-a-Lago will hold the same allure once Trump moves to D.C. next week after his inauguration. “Capturing this moment, it’s now, and I don’t know if it’s going to have the cache or the panache after January 20,” Keegan said. “I mean the guy was basically running the country from Mar-a-Lago since he got elected.”
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