The people behind the vanguard.

Leadership and a bench of operators building at the frontier of the national interest — each listed once, each with a real bio.

Leadership

Jakob Diepenbrock

Founder & General Partner

Founded Discipulus in 2024, at 22. He began in venture inside the office that runs Steve Ballmer’s family office while studying CS and finance at Northeastern — then dropped out and moved to El Segundo to build a fund and residency around the Gundo hard-tech scene.

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Augustus Doricko

Venture Partner

Founder & CEO of Rainmaker, the El Segundo weather-modification company re-engineering precipitation — and one of the most vocal builders of the Gundo hard-tech movement.

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Senior Advisors

Josh Manchester

Senior Advisor

Founder of Champion Hill, and an investor and writer focused on defense and national-security technology across the American-dynamism landscape.

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Kevin Hartz

Senior Advisor

Co-founder of Eventbrite and Xoom, co-founder of A*, and one of the most prolific angel investors in tech.

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Ben Kohlmann

Senior Advisor

A defense-innovation leader and former US Navy officer, focused on getting new technology into the hands of the warfighter.

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Josh Steinman

Senior Advisor

Founder of Galvanick (industrial cybersecurity) and former Senior Director for Cyber at the National Security Council — a national-security operator turned founder.

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Isaiah Taylor

Senior Advisor

Founder & CEO of Valar Atomics, building mass-manufacturable nuclear reactors for abundant, sovereign energy.

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● The origin

“I met the guy who ran Steve Ballmer’s family office and worked there while I was in college.”

— Jakob Diepenbrock, Founder & General Partner

01 · The desk

A family-office start

The youngest on a small team, doing big-picture analysis of the venture world — while still studying CS and finance at Northeastern.

02 · The turn

Meeting the Gundo

In fall 2023 he met Augustus Doricko, was convinced of El Segundo as a hard-tech hub, and dropped out of Northeastern to move to Southern California.

03 · The build

Founding Discipulus

In 2024 he founded Discipulus in El Segundo — now ~$40M across funds, a two-week residency, and a network built for the national interest.

● Admissions — join us

Build alongside this team.

Discipulus backs young technical founders building for the national interest. Applications for the Fall cohort are open.

Apply now → View the cohort →

Next residency · Sep 29 – Oct 8, 2026 · El Segundo, CA