How the CIA got into the Venture Capital Game

With the rise of technology in the late 1990s, a new national security threat quickly emerged. And the U.S. government had to find a way to protect itself — and its secrets — from foreign adversaries and cybercriminals. It needed the cutting-edge technologies coming out of Silicon Valley, from startups that had never done business with the government — and probably didn’t see much reason to. Enter In-Q-Tel, a non-profit venture capital firm designed to fund innovations that would meet U.S. intelligence needs. Twenty-five years later, the firm now sits on approximately $1 billion in assets. What is this strange, secretive VC firm? How does it work? And what value does it deliver to ordinary Americans? Sue Gordon, a career intelligence official and one of its founders, tells us all about it.

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