Imagine watching Shark Tank where Mr. Wonderful writes a $2 million check, takes nothing in return, and wishes the founder luck. The network would cancel that show by lunch. Yet that’s the standing offer from Washington. The National Science Foundation’s seed fund advertises “0 percent equity” and up to $2 million, with nothing to pay back. Founders keep the company and the intellectual property. I run a small business, so I like founders. I’m also a taxpayer, and the national debt stands at $40.3 trillion. If we want Washington to run like a business, the first rule of the business is that risk capital earns a return.
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My proposal is simple. Leave basic research grants alone. For later-stage companies with a real shot at commercial scale, attach a small, capped warrant to the federal check. Taxpayers fund the risk. When the bet pays off, they should own a slice of the winner. Think of it as a toll on success, collected only when someone wins. In business, we call that risk and reward.
The arithmetic is unforgiving. The Congressional Budget Office projects debt held by the public at 101 percent of GDP this year and 120 percent in 2036, with real growth averaging just 1.8 percent a year from 2027 to 2036. Spending restraint belongs in the answer, and growth supplies the rest. Growth comes from Americans who start companies, hire their neighbors, and bet their savings on an idea.
Does public money create private value? The best evidence says yes. Economist Sabrina Howell studied Department of Energy awards and found that an early-stage award roughly doubled a firm’s chance of later venture capital, with large gains in patenting and revenue. Washington is writing the first check. It just doesn’t have an interest in the future value.
I’ve spent a career in financial services and in courtrooms testifying as an expert witness. Both worlds run on one rule. If you fund risk, you get paid for it. If you hold other people’s money, you answer for it. Taxpayers are the ultimate other people. I worked full-time through college, and I learned early that money you earned gets spent differently than money someone else sent you.
Early backing is also how I’ve watched talent develop. I met kids playing under-8 rugby who went on to play in college and for the USA Eagles. You can spot some of them early, and the job is to build an environment that challenges them while nurturing their skills. I’ve met early-stage fund managers with the same “it factor,” and several hedge fund spinouts went on to build very successful firms. The market has priced that insight. Blue Owl’s GP Strategic Capital platform reported $65.1 billion of assets under management in its minority-stakes strategy at year-end 2025.
A warrant is a right to buy shares later at a price set today, with no obligation to buy. It costs the company no cash up front and pays only if the company’s value climbs past the strike price. A funder holding one wants the company to win, and a company that wins doesn’t resent the capital that got it there.
Washington has done this before. When Treasury put capital into banks in 2008, it took warrants and across 139 TARP investments.
The current administration has rediscovered the idea in bigger bites. Intel announced in August 2025 that Washington would convert $8.9 billion, made up of $5.7 billion in unpaid CHIPS Act grants and $3.2 billion in Secure Enclave funds, into 433.3 million shares at $20.47, a 9.9 percent stake, plus a warrant for another 5 percent at $20. The stake is passive, with no board seat. Intel closed at $95.37 on October 15, which puts the stake near $41.3 billion, a paper gain of roughly $32.4 billion.
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These stakes run far above the 1 percent to 5 percent I’m proposing, and each one was negotiated by whichever agency held the pen. No serious investor runs a portfolio that way. On February 3, 2025, the president signed Executive Order 14196, directing Treasury and Commerce to propose a sovereign wealth fund within 90 days, including “any need for legislation.” Congress should write the statute and fund the sovereign wealth fund, and the statute must make it independent.
A sovereign wealth fund has to outlast every administration. Congress should charter it as an independent institution, governed by a bipartisan board of financial professionals. Congress has built this before. The board that runs the Thrift Savings Plan has five members, three named by the president and two on the recommendation of congressional leaders who must consult the minority leaders, all confirmed by the Senate. Members need substantial experience managing investments, and they serve four-year terms. Alaska’s voters went further and wrote their Permanent Fund into the state constitution in 1976. The . I’d add removal only for cause and a mandate to invest for return.
The design is simple. Basic research and early Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards stay non-dilutive. The Public Technology Upside Fund invests only in companies that have finished early R&D and need money to scale. The fund holds warrants only, covering 1 percent to 5 percent of fully diluted equity, exercisable after an IPO, a sale, or a major private financing, and expiring in seven to ten years. No board seats, no votes. Each deal gets an independent valuation, and any official who touches awards, regulation, or exits gets an ethics screen. An annual public scorecard reports every return. Sunlight remains the best disinfectant. Proceeds go to the Treasury, ideally against the $40.3 trillion debt.
Skeptics will point to Solyndra, and they have a case. Solyndra received a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee in 2009 and failed in 2011. A House Republican report called the guarantee “a bad bet from the beginning,” and Democrats disputed its findings. Most early-stage bets fail. Economists Matthias van den Heuvel and David Popp found that public money helps attract venture capital to clean energy startups, yet the success rate of publicly funded firms stays small. That’s why the fund holds many small positions. Taxpayers already carry the downside, and warrants add upside at no extra cost.
Conflict of interest is the other serious worry. A government that funds, regulates, and buys from a company shouldn’t also pick its portfolio. The independent board handles that, and warrants with no votes and no board seats finish the job, the passive posture Intel’s deal uses, where the government agreed to vote with the board.
Pricing early-stage warrants sounds impossible until you remember Treasury did it. Of the $9.2 billion it raised, . Some founders might walk away. Participation is voluntary, and they can keep raising private capital. Those who accept get a federal partner that asks for a sliver of upside and no control.
Marcus Aurelius wrote that what is bad for the swarm is bad for the bee. A government carrying $40 trillion in debt is bad for every bee, including the three sons I’m raising, who will inherit the tab. America’s best answer to hard times has been to bet on people willing to build. Give those builders a patient partner run by professionals, and let the winners help pay down the bill. Running the country like a business starts with the question every investor asks before wiring money: what’s in it for me? Mr. Wonderful would call that table stakes.
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