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Commercial tech that works can still take years to reach the warfighter. The bottleneck usually isn't the technology. It's everything in between. Sarah Pearson, Director of Strategy at the Defense Innovation Unit, joins us to break down The Bridge, DIU's initiative to systematically tear down the barriers that stall commercial capabilities inside the department. Drawing on lessons from 600+ prototypes, she walks through the three big ones: getting companies cleared and into classified space, fixing the ATO and RMF accreditation process, and bringing test and evaluation left so products are buyable from day one. Sarah also shares what success looks like within 12 months, and a direct call to action for the builders, policymakers, investors, and buyers who make it all move. As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Explore Shield Capital's portfolio and thesis at: https://shieldcap.com/Follow Shield Capital and the Mission Matter Podcast on LinkedIn to catch every episode of Mission Matters: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mission-matters-podcast/

Cyber offense is moving to machine speed, and human-speed defense can't keep up. In this episode of the Mission Matters podcast, we sit down with Lou Manousos, co-founder and CEO of Ent Security, to talk about defending at machine speed in the age of AI. Ent is building intent-aware cybersecurity: edge-deployed AI agents that run at the operating system layer to detect and prevent attacks in real time, with full context of a user's normal behavior. Founded in 2025, Ent has raised more than $100 million and is working with enterprises across financial services, defense, hospitality, and more. Lou is a five-time cybersecurity founder whose last company, RiskIQ, was acquired by Microsoft, where he stayed on to lead early development of their security copilot product. We get into the current state of AI for offensive and defensive cyber, the closed vs. open model debate, why he believes the industry has to shift back to prevention, and what it takes to build trust for autonomous agents on mission-critical systems. As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Explore Shield Capital's portfolio and thesis at: https://shieldcap.com/ Follow Shield Capital and the Mission Matter Podcast on LinkedIn to catch every episode of Mission Matters: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mission-matters-podcast/

Ben Kohlmann is the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, the chief talent officer for a workforce of more than a million people. A former F-18 carrier pilot who went on to work in venture capital and run a hard-tech startup, he now oversees recruiting, retention, and readiness across the Department of the Navy. Maggie Gray and David Rothzeid talk with him about moving the Navy's personnel system out of the industrial age, bringing commercial tech talent into uniform through the Naval Innovation Unit, reforming shipyard pay to compete with the private sector, and preparing for the demographic cliff coming to military recruiting. As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Explore Shield Capital's portfolio and thesis at: https://shieldcap.com/ Follow Shield Capital and the Mission Matter Podcast on LinkedIn to catch every episode of Mission Matters: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mission-matters-podcast/

Language models aren't the only path to intelligence. For physics, the primitive is fields.In this episode of the Mission Matters Podcast, Maggie Gray and Akhil Iyer sit down with Pratap Ranade, CEO & Co-Founder of Arena Physica, to discuss how he and his team are building electromagnetic superintelligence. Pratap breaks down Atlas, an agentic platform that pairs non-deterministic AI agents with deterministic physics and simulation models, and Heaviside, the first foundation model for RF design, trained on electromagnetic fields instead of words.They cover why hardware's software-defined future makes electromagnetism matter more than ever, how Heaviside hit its "GPT-1 moment" with fully autonomous RF design, how Arena generates training data in a field with none publicly available, the pivot that deleted a double-digit-million revenue stream, and Pratap's vision for a new kind of Bell Labs.As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Explore Shield Capital's portfolio and thesis at: https://shieldcap.com/Follow Shield Capital and the Mission Matter Podcast on LinkedIn to catch every episode of Mission Matters: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mission-matters-podcast/ Visit Arena Physica's website: https://www.arenaphysica.com/0:00 – Introduction2:37 – What is electromagnetic superintelligence?5:20 – The current state of design tools8:09 – What "software-defined" actually means12:28 – Pairing non-deterministic agents with deterministic physics18:01 – Building a foundation model for RF22:43 – Where the training data comes from25:06 – From pilot to rollout: patterns across industries30:05 – Winning over the skeptics34:48 – Using Atlas internally: DJI drone teardowns36:59 – The vision: a new Bell Labs40:08 – The hardest moment building Arena43:08 – Closing advice: build stupidly ambitious things

In this Techquisition Edition of The Mission Matters Podcast, Maggie Gray and David Rothzeid break down Secretary Hegseth's new memo establishing a Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager (DRPM) for unmanned and autonomous systems. David unpacks what a DRPM actually is, how it differs from traditional Portfolio Acquisition Executives and Joint Program Offices, and why this new "czar" reports directly to the Deputy Secretary of Defense with authority to redirect funding and set standards across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. They trace the historical precedent back to JIEDDO and the MRAP program, walk through where Replicator, the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG), JIATF 401, and Drone Dominance now fit under this new structure, and dig into the budget realities, including the proposed $54 billion request for the DAWG and what a likely continuing resolution means for FY27. They close with practical guidance for founders and investors: how to navigate a rapidly shifting stakeholder landscape, why engaging with the Defense Innovation Unit matters more than ever, and what to expect as the fiscal year turns over. Chapters: 00:00 – Intro 01:46 – What is a DRPM, and why create one for unmanned systems (UXS)? 03:26 – DRPM vs. PEO/PAE vs. Joint Program Office (F-35 JPO example) 05:53 – Who controls the budget and contract decisions in the short term 07:39 – Historical precedent: JIEDDO and the MRAP 09:06 – Recent DRPM examples: Golden Dome, submarines, B-21/F-47 10:23 – New DRPM authorities over budgeting and the DAWG's $54B request 11:52 – How the DRPM folds in Replicator, DAWG, Drone Dominance, and JIATF 401 14:11 – Why now: commercial tech has outpaced how the Pentagon employs drones 16:33 – DIU's expanded role as the industry front door 18:15 – Budget breakdown: Replicator, DAWG, JIATF 401 funding history 20:11 – Outlook on Congress passing a budget vs. another continuing resolution 20:46 – Advice for startup founders and investors 23:07 – Closing thoughts and next episode preview

The Magura family of USVs, built by UFORCE, sank 14 Russian warships. UFORCE air systems have flown over 220,000 combat missions and downed two Su-30 fighter jets — all in under three years of operation. In this episode, CEO Oleg Rogynskyy joins David and Maggie to talk about building Ukraine's first defense tech unicorn from the front lines: how UFORCE manufactures under missile threat, why most Western defense tech fails the "coconut test," and what the US military should be buying right now. Topics covered: autonomous systems, drone warfare, defense acquisition, Indo-Pacific strategy, Ukraine lessons for the West, and scaling a defense company from warzone to global market. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction(02:14) UFORCE's Platforms and Combat Effects in Ukraine(06:32) Building a Defense Unicorn in Wartime(10:51) Applying Silicon Valley Lessons to Defense(13:33) Hardening Systems for Real Combat(15:12) Autonomy and the Bottom-Up Adoption Model(18:47) Ukraine's Outcomes-Based Acquisition Revolution(23:17) Lessons for Iran, Hormuz, and US Conflicts(26:30) Scaling to the US: Hiring Sean Planke(30:20) What Western Defense Tech Misunderstands(32:44) Manufacturing and Supply Chain Under Fire(36:52) Global Demand Across Four Theaters(40:29) The Future of UFORCE(42:44) If Oleg Were US Secretary of War

AI made writing code cheap. Verifying it is the new bottleneck. Peter Morales, CEO and co-founder of Code Metal, joins Maggie Gray and Pat O'Reilly to talk about modernizing the legacy code running US national security — and why formal verification is the durable moat in an era of commodity AI code generation. Founded in 2023, Code Metal has raised ~$200M and signed contracts with the US Air Force, L3Harris, RTX, and Toshiba. Projects that used to take engineering teams months now take minutes. In this episode: Why US weapons systems still run on COBOL, Fortran, and AdaHow Code Metal pairs LLMs with formal verification for safety-critical codeWhy the verification layer is more valuable than the model itselfPeter's advice for founders building in defense tech Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (2:10) Why would you want translate code? (4:11) How does Code Metal accelerate this process? (5:27) Customer interest in Code Metal (6:22) Outdated weapons systems programming language (8:39) Code Metal's formula (12:14) How does Code Metal choose a model to use (14:11) Lessons learned from working in international markets (15:20) Navigating commercial and government customers (18:03) Getting approval to work with classified customers (19:46) Customer success stories (23:06) Building trust with mission-critical customers (24:10) Why did you decide to start your own company? (26:22) How do you approach recruitment for working in a startup? (28:47) Biggest changes in defense space over Peter's career (30:11) Advice for founders and investors to leverage a board (32:16) Lessons from Ukraine and Middle East conflicts (33:10) Subcontracting as a way to gain access to larger contracts (34:39) What's next for Code Metal? (35:38) Biggest surprised building Code Metal (36:19) Advice for founders building in the national security domain

Decoding the President’s Budget Request, POM, and DoD J-Books for Defense Tech Startups. In this Techquisition Edition episode of The Mission Matters Podcast, Maggie and David explain why the President’s Budget Request, the Pentagon POM process, and the DoD “J-books” are key public roadmaps of priorities and funding signals, while emphasizing the request is not law and Congress controls appropriations. Joined by Matt MacGregor of Creative Defense and the Defense Tech and Acquisition News newsletter, they break down today’s defense spending picture (base budget, reconciliation, and a possible Iran-related supplemental), explain “colors of money” (O&M vs RDT&E vs procurement) and shifts toward procurement, and describe how companies can mine J-books via keywords, major thrusts, and contract follow-through. They discuss notable FY27 signals including AI infrastructure/compute, CDAO changes, Maven, DIU funding dynamics, Golden Dome linkages, service-level priorities (counter-UAS, shipbuilding, EW, hypersonics), Air Force autonomy vs legacy platforms, and what happens next in Congressional markups. Visit Creative Defense and check out Matt's substack to learn more:  Defense Tech and Acquisition NewsAs always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:36 Why Budget Docs Matter 01:41 PBR vs Appropriations 02:28 Meet Matt McGregor 05:12 Three Budget Pieces 07:56 Colors of Money 13:15 How to Use J Books 18:40 AI Funding Highlights 23:44 DIU and Golden Dome 33:13 PAEs and Autonomy 35:13 Air Force Tradeoffs 40:08 What Happens Next 44:20 Wrap Up and Next Episode

In this episode, Shield Capital's Maggie and Akhil sit down with Dan Wright (Co-Founder & CEO) and Pradeep Nair (Founding CTO) of Armada — the company building distributed AI infrastructure for the world's most remote and mission-critical environments. They cover why the cloud breaks at the edge, how Armada is deploying sovereign AI infrastructure across defense, energy, and mining, and why winning the AI race is just as much about infrastructure as it is models. As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Listen on: Apple Podcasts YouTube Shield Capital Visit Armada's website to learn more! As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Timestamps: 0:00 - Armada Introduction 3:30 - What does the DOW's current AI adoption look like? 5:25 - Technical challenges for AI adoption in mission critical organizations 10:50 - Working with start-ups 15:49 - Non-military AI applications 18:49 - DOE's New Genesis Mission 26:26 - Problems with current AI infrastructure 29:47 - Customer education and trust 40:52 - What is it going to take to build US AI Dominance? 47:39 - Advice for founders

After a 6 month lapse, the SBIR program is officially back following Congressional reauthorization. In this episode of the Mission Matters podcast, we sit down with Chris Benson, the CTO of Istari Digital and an Air Force acquisition pioneer who was one of the architects behind the modernization of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program during his time at AFWERX. We discuss: • How SBIR evolved from a slow, lab-driven R&D program into a real commercialization pathway • Why Open Topic and TACFI/STRATFI changed the game for venture-backed defense startups • What the new Strategic Breakthrough Awards mean for scaling to production • Why founders need to think about Phase III and production contracts from day one • How proposal caps, foreign due diligence, and other new rules could reshape the program going forward As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security.

Former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen David Goldfein (Ret.) and former CIA Middle East expert Norm Roule break down recent U.S.-Israeli military operations in Iran

Drones are re-defining modern warfare – and the U.S. is behind. On the latest Mission Matters episode, we sat down with Andy Yakulis, CEO & Co-Founder of Vector Defense, to discuss what it will actually take to achieve American Drone Dominance. Vector isn’t just building drones. They describe their business model as “Modern Warfare as a Service.” Instead of waiting years to push hardware through traditional procurement pathways, they deliver integrated capability — technology, tactics, training, and battlefield feedback loops — under service contracts that tap into O&M funding. We discuss:- Why the Pentagon’s $1B Drone Dominance initiative is the clearest USG demand signal for attritable systems yet- How “Drone as a Service” business model unlocks O&M funding (the largest color of money)- Lessons from Ukraine & Israel (and why it’s not copy-paste for the U.S.)- Building a China-free supply chain and re-industrializing American drone manufacturing

Space is a contested domain. Russian and Chinese satellites are conducting proximity operations near American satellites. Critical U.S. and allied infrastructure depends on space-based assets that can be inspected, approached — or interfered with. On the latest Mission Matters episode, we sat down with Austin Link, CEO of Starfish Space, to discuss why rendezvous & proximity operations (RPO) are becoming mission-critical. Starfish is building “space tugs” that can dock with and move other satellites — extending mission life, disposing of debris, and enabling other national security use cases. Their recent Remora mission autonomously maneuvered one satellite within 1,250 meters of another, validating a core thesis: software can radically lower the cost of operating in orbit. We discuss: Why affordability and scale matter as much as exquisite capability in a contested domain The role RPO plays in U.S. military operations The current state of our adversaries’ orbital warfare capabilities How SBIR → STRATFI can be a springboard to building a scalable business Navigating classified work without slowing commercial velocity Where LEO, GEO, and cislunar actually fit in over the next five years The power of software to conduct complex RPO missions with relatively cheap, simple hardware As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security.

After a brief government shutdown, Congress finally passed the $839B Defense Appropriations bill! What does this new budget mean for startups? In our newest Techquisition Edition of the Mission Matters podcast, David and I sit down with fmr. HAC-D staff director Johnnie Kaberle to discuss how startups can best take advantage of the opportunities presented new FY26 Approps bill. We cover: 🔴 How the Appropriations Bill, NDAA, President's Budget Request, and the reconciliation (the “one big, beautiful bill”) fit together – and where the real funding signal lives 🔴 How startups should engage Congress to advocate for their technology without burning credibility 🔴 What next-generation technologies (AI, autonomy, space, maritime, digital infrastructure) are actually funded in the bill 🔴 The importance of the Joint Explanatory Statement (JES) to understand appropriators' intent behind the bill 🔴 How to tell whether a budget line is real, available, and competitive, or already spoken for 🔴 How appropriators think about risk, flexibility, and accountability with taxpayer dollars. As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security.

🚨EMERGENCY POD! The DoW has officially released a new AI strategy, and along with it a whole slew of new reforms to the Defense Innovation Ecosystem. In the newest episode of the Techquisition Edition of the Mission Matters podcast (link below), David and I break down the DoW’s new AI strategy, the major changes to the defense innovation ecosystem, and what all these new initiatives mean for startups. We discuss: What it means for DIU and SCO to be designated as “field activities”What new major AI projects the DoW is startingHow DoW is investing in data and compute infrastructure to enable rapid AI adoptionNew initiatives in the services and PAEs designed to bring innovation into the hands of warfightersAnd more!As always, please let us know your thoughts, and please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of commercial technology and national security.  DoW AI Strategy: https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/12/2003855671/-1/-1/0/ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE-STRATEGY-FOR-THE-DEPARTMENT-OF-WAR.PDF Transforming the Defense Innovation Ecosystem to Accelerate Warfighter Advantage memo: https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/12/2003855657/-1/-1/0/TRANSFORMING-THE-DEFENSE-INNOVATION-ECOSYSTEM-TO-ACCELERATE-WARFIGHTING-ADVANTAGE.PDF Transforming Advana to Accelerate Artificial Intelligence and Enhance Auditability Memo: https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/12/2003855671/-1/-1/0/ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE-STRATEGY-FOR-THE-DEPARTMENT-OF-WAR.PDF