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Secure Tactic
Chris Nolan
01/01/2004
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Kelly Porter is not a particularly menacing man, but his investment strategy plumbs the depths of our society’s most elemental and pressing fears. As the essentially genial and cheery 40-year-old explains, ZAP Ventures, his three-year-old venture capital firm, will invest a total of $40 million in Silicon Valley start-ups active in what he calls "the fastest growing industry in our nation today—homeland security."
 "The Internet bubble was driven by greed," observes Porter, whose father, Bill, founded eTrade, the online brokerage firm. "This is something that’s driven by fear."
It is also backed by a well-funded government agency. When Congress created the Department of Homeland Security in 2002, it also funded the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA). The research and funding agency bears a mandate to encourage the development of technologies that make the nation safer through grants, investments and outright purchases.
The part Silicon Valley technology entrepreneurs would play in achieving this goal became clear last summer when HSARPA Deputy Director Jane Alexander told the Valley’s tech firms that HSARPA will spend about $1 billion in 2004. Independent consulting firms have predicted that private and public spending on homeland security technology could total as much as $100 billion over the next 10 years.
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