
Harpoon is an early-stage venture capital firm based in California.
Austin Hays is an Associate at Harpoon where he performs technical due diligence, product evaluation, and helps portfolio companies. Prior to Harpoon, Austin advised defense special project teams at BMNT and Booz Allen Hamilton for product-market fit. In addition, he helped internal teams build custom products using data analytics and natural language processing.
Austin holds a joint degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At MIT, he performed core research in astrophysics and machine learning.
Enrique Oti is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harpoon. A co-founder of both the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in Mountain View, CA and Kessel Run in Boston, MA, Enrique distinguished himself as a leader in commercial-to-military technology transition and integration, and software development for the Pentagon across a 23-year military career.
At Stanford University, Enrique was a National Security Affairs Fellow conducting research on Chinese security strategy and international offensive cyber operations and policy. Before Stanford, he commanded the 694th Intelligence Support Squadron at Osan Air Base in the Republic of Korea, served as a strategist in Pacific Command’s China Strategic Focus Group in Hawaii, led the 11th Communications Squadron Information Systems Flight in DC, served as Secretary Joint Staff to Joint Task Force Bravo—Honduras, and was a Course Director at the US Air Force Special Operations School at Hurlburt Field, FL.
Enrique holds a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a master’s from the Joint Military Intelligence College, and was selected as an Olmsted Scholar to attend Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China where he earned a second master’s.