U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was inspired after visiting Capital Factory in downtown Austin and hearing pitches from three local startups on Oct. 4.
Blinken, along with his staff and traveling press pool, swept through three floors of the startup accelerator in a whirlwind tour. Along the way, they heard pitches from AI security startup HiddenLayer, which helps protect AI models from hacking and recently raised $50 million in series A funding; public safety drone startup Eve Vehicles Corp.; and Gazelle Ecosolutions Corp., a startup founded by two University of Texas students that enhances transparency in carbon markets.
Blinken asked the startup founders a few questions, and he noted that the young companies could have a positive impact globally.
"For me to be here today to see what's actually happening is both inspiring, exciting and just sparks a lot of ideas about how we can better design with the tech and innovation community to help advance our interests around the world," Blinken said after hearing the last pitch of the day.
While Blinken has been in the news lately for his guitar playing, in addition to global issues from migration to Ukraine, he remained focused on startups and the technologies they're deploying during the tour.
"I'm absolutely convinced, after some years of doing this, that the strongest comparative advantage that the United States brings to the world is in our innovation, in our technology, in our science — it's an incredible source of strength for us around the world," he told a room full of local entrepreneurs. "And for the State Department, looking at some of the things that we've just seen today, whether it's on cybersecurity, whether it's on public safety and security, whether it's here dealing with agriculture, you can see almost immediately the applications that this would have with partner countries around the world, as well as right here at home."
Amod Daherkar, co-founder and CEO of Gazelle Ecosolutions, and co-founder and CTO Siddharth Thakur were among the founders who pitched to Blinken. Their startup has developed carbon projects in Botswana, and as they learned more about carbon sequestration and credits, they decided to build software tools to make it easier to do audits and calculations.
They said it was an important opportunity.
"A lot of our work is done on the governmental side of things, helping create frameworks and legislation," Thakur said. "So in Botswana, we're actually involved in crafting the legislation for the voluntary carbon market in the country. And so in the U.S. this is also important for us all to understand what it looks like. What are some of the sustainable goals and targets set up by the White House, the State Department or other sort of legislative branches? So this is hopefully us bridging the connection between the private industry and the government and helping create frameworks that help both sides of the party before, because we all want to hit the Paris Climate Accords, right? It's gonna take partnership to get there."
After his Capital Factory tour, Blinken was slated to appear at a 1 p.m. panel discussion at the University of Texas moderated by former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison. Later in the day, Blinken planned to travel to Mexico City for a meeting about migration with Mexican Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena, Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva and Panamanian Foreign Minister Janaina Tewaney.
Blinken is among dozens of high-profile visitors to Capital Factory.
The accelerator's VIP tour program has also hosted then-President Barack Obama, Apple CEO Tim Cook, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, General John M. Murray, Commanding General of U.S. Army Futures Command, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, Army Secretary Eric Fanning, Air Force Secretary Barbara Bennett, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, tennis star Andy Roddick, SEC Commissioner Kara Stein and Slash from Guns N’ Roses.
The VIP visits typically include a walk through coworking and lab spaces, with frequent stops at the desks where local startups are working. Many of those startups get a few minutes to give the VIPs a customized mini pitch about what they're working toward.
For Capital Factory, the big-name visits are part of its ongoing effort to expose local startup founders to potential clients and investors, as well as share their tech journeys with high-ranking military and political leaders, Capital Factory founder Joshua Baer said.
