New Mexico pulls in talented people, whether through the state's national entities like Los Alamos National Laboratory or its research universities, including New Mexico State University and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. But the state also exports its talent, with founders like Paul Allen, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos getting their start in the Land of Enchantment.
Add Addam Jensen's name to that list.
Jensen, born and raised in Albuquerque, co-founded an artificial intelligence-backed software startup, called Holocron Technologies, early last year while a student at The Ohio State University. He and co-founder Tristan Yang, a Princeton University graduate, have since left their respective universities and set up shop with their five-person startup in Washington, D.C.
That's because the nation's capital is a good spot for companies looking to innovate in the U.S. national security space, like Holocron, Jensen told Albuquerque Business First. The startup uses publicly-available information and natural language processing to track tech trends worldwide.
It's a "dual-use" company, Jensen said — meaning that Holocron is targeting both large private corporations and public sector entities like the Department of Defense to work with.
Although D.C. is a good spot for dual-use startups, so too is New Mexico, Jensen said, thanks in part to the presence of the Department of Defense, the National Nuclear Security Administration and other public institutions in the state.
"I think there's certainly a lot of promise in the national security innovation space in Albuquerque," Jensen said. "There's great potential in the future to collaborate pretty closely with those entities.
"From my perspective, we're super excited to do so in the future and one day generate jobs in New Mexico," he continued.
Jensen said that for the time being, Holocron will stick to its base in D.C., where it has an office a few blocks north of The George Washington University campus. But in the next few years, an Albuquerque office "is very possible," he said.
"I definitely think that there's a lot of components at Sandia [National Laboratories] and Los Alamos [National Laboratory] who would be interested in some of the technology we're developing, and also at the National Nuclear Security Administration at the high level," Jensen said. "We're super excited to continue to navigate that ecosystem in Albuquerque and continue building those relationships and sort of nurturing the ones that are already in existence."
Those relationships in Albuquerque have been built since Jensen was in middle school. He started working as a software engineer at Albuquerque web development company Real Time Solutions at age 15 and continued working with that company through high school.
A La Cueva High School graduate, Jensen split his time while at La Cueva between working in information technology for Heritage Companies and as a software engineer with Sandia National Laboratories. He enrolled at the University of New Mexico before transferring to The Ohio State University.
Before all that, he fixed computers for neighbors and family friends at home.
"That entrepreneurial mindset started in New Mexico," Jensen said. "Places like Real Time Solutions, Heritage Companies and even Sandia, those guys are the ones who really are responsible for my mindset and mentality."
Part of that mindset and mentality came from Jensen's mentors while working for those companies in Albuquerque, he said, including Jim Long, the CEO of Heritage Companies.
"Addam is a brilliant young man. He impressed us from a very young age," Long told Business First. "I do believe this young man has the potential to be one of New Mexico's most successful entrepreneurs."
A $50,000 grant awarded through a startup support program at The Ohio State University helped get Holocron off the ground. And in May this year, the startup pulled in its first bit of venture capital through a $1.5 million pre-seed investment round — a very early financing stage for new startups that typically ranges in size anywhere from $25,000 to $1 million.
New North Ventures, a New Hampshire-based venture fund, led the round. Eight others joined in — including Winklevoss Capital, the investment firm led by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins who gained notoriety by suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea for the social media platform.
Jensen told Business First that finding investors for the pre-seed round was a "long and harsh" process. Once Holocron's software-as-a-service product is more "battle tested," he said the startup would look to open its seed financing round, which could come in early 2024.
"We're not afraid to message anybody," Jensen added. "We're not afraid to go out and be ambitious."
But even though Holocron was able to pull in a good-sized pre-seed round, Jensen said that for him and Yang, the startup's co-founder, money's not the most important thing.
"We're excited to sort of proliferate some of the technology that we're creating to give the United States an advantage and give American corporations an advantage to proliferate those democratic values and secure them for the future," he said. "So, I'm excited about making an impact. I think that's the No. 1 thing. I would weigh impact over money any day."
