The Shawn Ryan Show

#244 Victor Vescovo – Solo Dive to the Titanic, Cloning Humans & Reviving Extinct Animals

13 Oct 2025

2h 28m

25847 words

3 speakers

13 Oct 2025

Audio

Description

Victor L. Vescovo is a private investor with over thirty years of experience in a variety of complex business situations. He co-founded private equity firm Insight Equity in 2002 with his business partner, Ted Beneski and raised over $1.5 billion in equity capital across four funds. In 2023, he departed Insight in order to focus on his own investments with new capabilities to support industrial startups, life sciences, and other areas of venture capital and special situations. Victor received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a Master’s Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received an MBA from Harvard Business School where he graduated as a Baker Scholar. Additionally, Victor served 20 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve as an intelligence and targeting officer, retiring in 2013 as a Commander. In 2017, Victor completed the “Explorer’s Grand Slam” which requires climbing the highest peak on all seven of the world’s continents including Mt. Everest and skiing at least 100 kilometers to the North and South Poles. He piloted the first repeated dives to the ocean’s deepest point, Challenger Deep, in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench - now fifteen times, and in August 2019 became the first person to visit “The Five Deeps,” the deepest point in all five of the world’s oceans. Victor has now personally explored the bottom of seventeen deep ocean trenches and has made three dives to the Titanic including the only solo dive ever made there. He and his team also discovered and surveyed the two deepest shipwrecks in the world: the USS Johnston in 2021 and the deepest, the USS Samuel B. Roberts at 22,600 feet, in 2022. In 2025, the US Navy announced that T-AGOS 26, a new ocean surveillance vessel of the Explorer class, would be named after him. He is also a commercially rated, multi-engine jet, glider, seaplane, and helicopter pilot, a certified submersible test pilot, and recently flew into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, becoming the first person in history to climb Mount Everest, dive to the bottom of the ocean, and visit space. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: Buy PSYOP Now - https://psyopshow.com https://tryarmra.com/srs https://aura.com/srs https://betterhelp.com/srs This episode is sponsored. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/srs and get on your way to being your best self. https://bubsnaturals.com – USE CODE SHAWN https://bunkr.life – USE CODE SRS Go to https://bunkr.life/SRS and use code “SRS” to get 25% off your family plan. https://shawnlikesgold.com https://moinkbox.com/srs https://mypatriotsupply.com/srs https://patriotmobile.com/srs https://prizepicks.onelink.me/lmeo/srs https://rocketmoney.com/srs https://ROKA.com – USE CODE SRS https://shopify.com/srs https://USCCA.com/srs Victor Vescovo Links: X - https://x.com/VictorVescovo IG - https://www.instagram.com/victorlvescovo Caladan Capital - https://www.caladancapital.com Caladan Oceanic - http://www.caladanoceanic.com Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Vescovo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Victor Vescovo

Shawn Ryan

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Transcription

Full Episode

5.347 - 22.385 Shawn Ryan

Victor Vescovo, welcome to the show. Thank you very much for having me. Man, I'm looking forward to this. You've done so much in life, especially with exploring the earth and even outside of the earth. It's going to be a fascinating interview, so I really appreciate you coming.

22.405 - 24.067 Victor Vescovo

Thank you for the invitation. It's quite a privilege.

24.388 - 34.138 Shawn Ryan

Thank you. All right, we're going to get right into it. So I'm going to do a little bit of a life story on you, and then towards the end, I just want to talk about all the...

34.118 - 59.438 Shawn Ryan

amazing adventures that you've been on but we always start off with with an introduction here so here we go okay victor viscovo private investor with over 30 years in complex business deals co-founder of insight equity where he raised over 1.5 billion now running Caledon Capital, focused on defense startups, high-tech hardware, and life sciences. Retired U.S.

59.478 - 80.763 Shawn Ryan

Navy Reserve Commander with 20 years of service as an intelligence officer in Extreme Explorer, who completed the Explorer's Grand Slam by submitting by summiting the highest peaks on all seven continents, including Everest and skiing to both poles. Plus, you're the first person to dive to the deepest points in all five oceans.

81.243 - 103.992 Shawn Ryan

You hold the Guinness Book of World Records the most dives to Challenger Deep 15 times, discovering the deepest shipwrecks and achieving the extreme trifecta by going to Everest, the ocean's bottom, and to space on Blue Origin. That's insane. Member of the Ocean Elders, where you're an outspoken advocate against deep sea mining.

104.753 - 128.503 Shawn Ryan

You have a ship named after you, a naval ship, the USNS Victor Vescovo TAGOS-26, a Navy Ocean surveillance ship. You push the boundaries by mitigating risk with preparation in life and finance and on your adventures. And, you know, quite the introduction there. I'm probably missing some stuff, but wow.

128.483 - 139.959 Shawn Ryan

But right off the bat, sometimes we do an EDC pocket dump in here, but I think this is going to be a long one, so we're not. But Jeremy had told me about your timepiece.

140.5 - 141.201 Victor Vescovo

Yes.

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The Shawn Ryan Show

#244 Victor Vescovo – Solo Dive to the Titanic, Cloning Humans & Reviving Extinct Animals

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