Jackie Barbieri is the CEO and co-founder of WhiteSpace, a defense tech company applying advanced AI to real-world national security and operational challenges. Her work bridges AI, defense innovation, and operator-informed design, building systems that perform in contested, real-world environments.

Jarren Reid is the CEO and Co-Founder of Usul, an AI platform that helps companies win government contracts across 60+ nations. Its goal is to build a global marketplace for governments to buy products quickly, starting with defense.

Andy Markoff is a former Special Operations Officer in the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, and currently the Co-Founder and CEO of Smack Technologies, which uses deep reinforcement learning and machine learning to accelerate critical decision-making from the command center to the front lines. Dan and Andy discuss speeding up military kill-chains and command decisions for better "decision dominance" in future conflicts, especially amid rising Indo-Pacific tensions.

Mike Sims is the Co-Founder and CEO of Empirium, a unified marketplace platform connecting verified buyers and suppliers across aerospace, defense and manufacturing.

This convo covers:

- Why China dominates 45% of global manufacturing & how we became dangerously dependent.

- Building a trusted defense/aerospace marketplace.

- Amplifying the voices of end-users.

Mike Sims is the Co-Founder and CEO of Empirium, a unified marketplace platform connecting verified buyers and suppliers across aerospace, defense and manufacturing.

This episode covers:

- 9/11 moment that made him drop everything to join the fight.

- Arabic language mastery.

- Becoming a Marine Raider.

Chad McCoy is a Co-Founder and the Chief Strategy Officer at Firestorm Labs. He’s a Special Operations Veteran and retired Chief Master Sergeant from the United States Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron. The convo covers: -Importance of a military background as a defense tech founder. -Speeding up DoD adoption. -Firestorm’s strategy. -Winning the Pacific.

Brandon Florian has over 20 years of experience in aerospace and defense at Northrop Grumman and Starburst. He’s the Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Grid Aero, building rugged, long-range autonomous aircrafts to revolutionize cargo logistics at scale. 

They cover: 

• Grid Aero is building a “pickup truck of the skies”.  

• Which top defense primes work the best with startups? 

• What separates successful companies?  

“Defense is an away game; we’re not going to be able to fight our way in” 

Stephen Rodriguez is the Founder of One Defense and an Operating Partner at DCVC. He invests in and serves on the boards of leading defense-tech companies, including Applied Intuition, Firestorm, Ursa Major, Mach Industries, and ZeroMark. He chairs Booz Allen’s Defense Technology Board, leads Blue Forge Alliance as Chairman and serves as a Commission Director at the Atlantic Council. 

This episode covers:  

• American war fighting patterns.  

• Defense is an away game.  

• Replicator Initiative.  

Stephen Rodriguez is the Founder of One Defense and an Operating Partner at DCVC. He invests in and serves on the boards of leading defense-tech companies, including Applied Intuition, Firestorm, Ursa Major, Mach Industries, and ZeroMark. He chairs Booz Allen’s Defense Technology Board, leads Blue Forge Alliance as Chairman and serves as a Commission Director at the Atlantic Council. 

This episode covers: 

• What should our defense policy be? 

• Drone manufacturing reforms.  

• How to keep up with China.  

Ex-SpaceX Dragon Capsule software lead, Karthik Gollapudi, built two-fault-tolerant systems that flew astronauts to the ISS. He left to found Sift, an AI platform that automates testing, manufacturing and observability for rockets, rovers and autonomous fleets. 

This episode covers: 

• SpaceX’s young staff & the push for automating everything. 

• Same job in 12 months = failure.  

• Bootstrapping a tech startup team and funding.  

CEO and Co-Founder of Picogrid, Zane Mountcastle is a key member of the emerging El Segundo defense tech scene. Him and Dan discuss the tough questions facing founders today.