The Twenty Minute VCTorsten Reil, Helsing Founder: Raising $828M to Build the Defence Champion of Europe | E1237
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 0:53
Why autonomy in defense is inevitable—and the “Tesla moment” risk
Torsten opens with a warning: software, AI, and autonomy are an unstoppable wave reshaping defense. He argues Europe must adapt fast or risk a “Tesla moment,” where incumbents fail to transition and adversaries leap ahead with autonomous systems.
- •Autonomy/software as the next dominant defense paradigm
- •What a defense-sector “Tesla moment” would look like
- •Why democracies must compete while maintaining ethical standards
- •Preview of Russia-Ukraine and China-Taiwan as galvanizing events
- 0:53 – 3:00
From NaturalMotion to Helsing: pivoting, risk-taking, and focus
Torsten recounts building NaturalMotion from an Oxford spin-out to blockbuster licensing deals, then pivoting into mobile games to unlock hockey-stick growth. He explains how that experience shaped Helsing’s willingness to take big risks while staying focused and adaptable.
- •Early tech: simulated creatures + neural nets, ahead of its time
- •Licensing to films/games vs. the need for exponential growth
- •The decisive pivot to building iPhone games (CSR Racing)
- •Lesson carried forward: focus, but pivot quickly when reality disagrees
- 3:00 – 7:35
Hiring only exceptional people: talent density over headcount
He describes a core lesson learned the hard way: scaling headcount can slow a company if hiring isn’t elite. Helsing commits to “talent density,” believing a few outstanding people can outperform many good ones and preserve speed.
- •Why “hiring for headcount” creates complexity and drag
- •Helsing size (~350) and why compromises aren’t necessary yet
- •How quickly he judges exceptionality (often within 30 minutes)
- •Signals he looks for: ‘effortlessness’ and mastery of detail
- 7:35 – 12:20
Small teams, self-selection, and performance management calibration
Torsten explains how Helsing uses a small number of small, high-performing teams, often letting people self-select for fit and communication. He then outlines a rigorous performance culture, including quarterly calibration sessions among leaders to maintain fairness and standards.
- •Why 3–4 exceptional people can outperform larger teams
- •Team formation: identifying must-have areas and staffing lightly
- •Performance management as an exhausting but essential founder job
- •Quarterly calibration to avoid harsh/lenient rating drift
- •Recognizing mis-hires early and parting ways amicably when needed
- 12:20 – 16:01
“Helsing speed”: blitzscaling intentionally (and temporarily)
He defines “Helsing speed,” inspired by Zynga, as a deliberate early-phase decision to prioritize velocity—even at the cost of some inefficiency. Raising significant capital early enabled rapid recruiting and the ability to pursue major defense programs rather than small innovation grants.
- •Speed as a strategic advantage amid shifting geopolitics
- •Using capital to move faster (e.g., external recruiting help)
- •Blitzscaling as a time-boxed phase (6–12 months)
- •Seed (€8.5M) to rapid €100M Series A with Prima Materia
- •Why capital enabled pursuit of “programs of record” early
- 16:01 – 17:44
Co-founding a defense company: founder bandwidth, complexity, and decision quality
Torsten argues Helsing could only be built with multiple founders due to defense’s operational complexity and the volume of high-stakes decisions. He contrasts this with his earlier experience as a mostly solo founder and explains the value of constant founder-level sounding boards.
- •Why defense adds layers: security, export law, compliance, gov relations
- •Complementary founder backgrounds + sheer decision bandwidth
- •Co-founders as continuous sounding boards for hard calls
- •Why solo founding was harder at NaturalMotion
- 17:44 – 21:03
Crimea as the watershed: predicting Ukraine and the need for higher defense spending
He points to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea—and the West’s insufficient response—as the moment the threat trajectory became obvious. Helsing’s 2021 deck predicted invasions of Ukraine and Taiwan (timing off for Ukraine), and he argues Europe must now accept spending tradeoffs to deter conflict.
- •2014 Crimea as the ‘clock starts ticking’ moment
- •Why societies ‘knew’ but avoided consequences emotionally
- •Helsing’s 2021 prediction slide (Ukraine + Taiwan)
- •Defense spending: NATO ~2% vs historical 3–6%
- •Poland as proof rapid increases are possible
- 21:03 – 23:49
Trump, European sovereignty, and what a “defense spending boom” really means
Torsten frames Trump’s stance as accelerating an existing trend: Europe must build more self-reliant security capability. He predicts uneven spending increases across Europe—sharpest on the eastern flank—and cautions that much new spend will repair broken readiness before funding new tech.
- •Trump as a catalyst for faster European sovereignty
- •Why Europe can’t rely on partners indefinitely
- •Spending increases will vary by threat exposure (Baltics/Scandinavia/Poland)
- •Not all incremental budget becomes ‘new defense tech’
- •Open question: U.S. support for Ukraine
- 23:49 – 30:55
Who Helsing sells to: export law vs ethics, and building an ‘ethics muscle’
He explains Helsing’s approach to customer selection: comply with export laws but go further through internal ethics processes that build broad employee buy-in. Ethics workshops explore gray zones, using tools like The Economist Democracy Index as a starting point while acknowledging shifting political realities.
- •Two reasons for deep ethics: democratic responsibility + talent attraction
- •Ethics workshops as a company-wide decision process
- •Clear no-sell examples (e.g., North Korea) vs ambiguous middle cases
- •Using the Democracy Index and accounting for changing governments
- •Handling the ‘transience’ of right/wrong during conflicts
- 30:55 – 33:32
Why Helsing shifted into strike drones: ‘precise mass’ needs a hardware carrier
Torsten announces Helsing’s move to strike drones and explains why software alone isn’t sufficient in some domains. He argues deterrence now requires “precise mass”—large numbers of affordable, software-driven drones—and claims the West lacks manufacturers capable of producing at that scale, prompting Helsing to build HX2.
- •Helsing remains software-first, but drones require a physical carrier
- •Goal: precise mass at scale for deterrence
- •Critique: boutique, exquisite drones vs mass manufacturable systems
- •Shifting complexity from hardware into software to reduce cost
- •HX2 announcement and rationale for vertical integration
- 33:32 – 35:15
Hardware + simulation: iterating fast, and the realities of deployment
He describes how Helsing blends software simulation with hardware testing to accelerate iteration cycles. Deployment (including in Ukraine) reveals unanticipated conditions that simulation can miss, forcing continuous learning and rapid product evolution.
- •Building hardware expertise: design, components, supply chain
- •Simulation platforms and AI infrastructure as leverage for hardware
- •Iteration loop: simulate → hardware test → return to software
- •Why real conflict environments surface unknown unknowns
- 35:15 – 41:21
Procurement and compliance: reforming incentives with a 20% ‘new defense’ allocation
Torsten acknowledges compliance and procurement rules slow adoption but argues many exist for good reasons. His proposed fix is structural: mandate that 20% of defense equipment spending goes to ‘new defense’ companies (vs. <1% today) to realign incentives toward innovation and speed.
- •Compliance can inhibit procurement, but rules often have rationale
- •Procurement incentives favor primes and low personal risk
- •Proposal: mandatory 20% of equipment spend to new defense
- •Current reality: new defense spend estimated <1%
- •Challenges beyond compliance: lobbying dynamics and incumbent resistance
- 41:21 – 57:24
The future of warfare: jamming, autonomy, saturation economics, and contactless battlefields
The discussion turns to Ukraine-derived trends: mass drone production, increasing autonomy, and electronic warfare as a dominant constraint. Torsten argues the economics of saturation favor cheap autonomous systems over exquisite platforms, pushing warfare toward human “no-go zones” and software-speed operations.
- •Ukraine/Russia producing drone mass (e.g., FPV scale)
- •Near-term shift: one operator controlling multiple drones
- •Success metrics: hitting targets under GPS/comms jamming
- •Electronic warfare density along the frontline
- •Saturation economics: cheap swarms overwhelm expensive defenses
- •Trajectory toward ‘contactless’ warfare and ethical implications
- 57:24 – 1:17:28
Europe’s ambition gap, US capital’s role, and predictions for Russia-Ukraine and China-Taiwan
Torsten argues Europe’s limiting factor is not capital but founder ambition and aggressiveness—too many founders optimize for early exits rather than building sovereignty-scale companies. He describes US capital as valuable later for injecting growth mentality, then closes with forward-looking risk: plausible NATO eastern flank threats and a non-distant possibility of China-Taiwan conflict, plus quick-fire views on leadership, process, and technology harms.
- •“Capital isn’t the problem, ambition is” in Europe
- •Need for repeat founders to build sovereignty-scale champions
- •US capital as later-stage accelerant and mindset injection
- •Call to action: build vs complain; sovereignty needs (energy, semis, defense)
- •3-year outlook: plausible heightened NATO eastern flank threat
- •China-Taiwan conflict considered plausible and not 10+ years away
- •Quick-fire: org ‘shedding skin,’ work smart+hard, founder-led stance, TikTok risks, relationship to money
