Crossing the Valley

From University Lab to Critical Defense Supplier

About Jonathan Rowntree

Jonathan Rowntree brings three decades of materials commercialization experience to his role as CEO of Niron Magnetics. His background spans scaling technologies across consumer electronics, industrial applications, automotive, and defense sectors. Before joining Niron in 2022, Rowntree led global businesses and specialized in taking new material technologies from development to market-scale production. His experience includes both successful ventures and instructive failures in solar thermal materials and heat transfer applications. Rowntree describes his 30-year career as an "apprenticeship" that prepared him to tackle the unique challenges of scaling breakthrough magnet technology during a critical geopolitical moment.

About Niron Magnetics

Founded in 2013 and spun out of University of Minnesota research, Niron Magnetics has developed the world's most powerful rare earth-free permanent magnet using iron nitride technology. The company's breakthrough material delivers 2.4 Tesla magnetic strength compared to 1.4 Tesla for traditional rare earth magnets, while using abundant materials (iron and nitrogen) that can be sourced anywhere. Niron has raised over $150 million in development funding and secured strategic investments from automotive OEMs (GM, Stellantis), tier-one suppliers (Magna, Allison), and technology companies (Samsung). The company serves multiple markets including audio, industrial motors, automotive, and defense applications. Their first commercial manufacturing facility breaks ground in fall 2025 in Minnesota, with plans for global expansion to meet tripling demand by 2030.

For more Crossing the Valley: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crossing-the-valley

For more on Niron: https://www.nironmagnetics.com/

About Dan Wright

Dan combines deep operational experience with strategic thinking about technological competition. Starting his career as a lawyer at Goodwin Proctor, Wright made the transition to technology by joining AppDynamics as one of the early employees, eventually becoming COO. He then served as CEO of DataRobot before co-founding Armada in 2022.

Dan combines three critical elements that prepared him for building Armada: legal expertise that taught him to understand complex regulatory environments, operational experience scaling enterprise software companies, and a data-centric worldview developed across three technology companies focused on extracting value from information.

About Armada

Armada has positioned itself as "the hyperscaler for the edge" - building distributed cloud infrastructure for the 70% of the world not served by traditional data centers. The company's core product line consists of modular data centers called Galleons, ranging from suitcase-sized units (Beacon) to megawatt-scale facilities (Leviathan).

The company's strategy centers on three technological convergences: Starlink bringing fiber-quality connectivity to remote locations, the explosive growth of edge data generation (75% of all data by 2025), and the rise of AI capabilities. Armada combines these trends into a full-stack platform that processes data locally rather than sending it to centralized cloud facilities.

Operating across 70+ countries with over 10,000 connected assets, Armada serves both defense customers (including active work with the US Navy) and industrial clients in energy, mining, and manufacturing. The company has raised over $200 million from investors including Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Microsoft, with their latest $131 million round announced alongside their "American AI Dominance" strategic framework.

To learn more about Armada: https://www.armada.ai/

Follow Dan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wrightdh

Follow Crossing the Valley: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crossing-the-valley

Case Study: Blue Water Autonomy's Lightning-Fast Series A

About the Guests

Rylan Hamilton is Co-founder and CEO of Blue Water Autonomy, bringing a unique combination of naval service and commercial robotics expertise. After his Navy career, Hamilton spent years in the commercial robotics space focusing on warehouse and logistics automation, giving him deep understanding of both military requirements and commercial-scale robotics deployment.

Austin Gray is Co-founder of Blue Water Autonomy and a prominent voice in the maritime autonomy and defense technology movement. Gray combines operational understanding of defense acquisition challenges with strategic thinking about how commercial innovation can reshape military capabilities.

About Blue Water Autonomy

Blue Water Autonomy is developing medium unmanned surface vessels specifically designed for U.S. Navy operations. Based outside Boston, the company is building on the region's robotics expertise, drawing talent from successful companies like Amazon Robotics and iRobot.

Their vessels are approximately half a football field in length - large enough for cross-ocean operations but small enough to be manufactured at dozens of mid-tier shipyards rather than requiring major naval facilities. The company focuses on creating "attritable" platforms that balance capability with cost-effectiveness, designed around cost-to-kill ratios rather than pure survivability.

The team has grown rapidly from stealth to over 50 employees, including key hires like COO Tim Glinatsis (20+ years in naval shipbuilding) and ship designer Ryan Maatta (formerly on a DARPA autonomous ship program).

Fortem Technologies - From Radar Innovation to Counter-UAS Leader

About Jon Gruen

Jon brings a unique combination of operational experience and defense industry knowledge to his role as CEO of Fortem Technologies. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, he served 10 years on active duty as a Navy SEAL, including multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

His transition to the private sector began in 2007 when he joined the Navy Reserve while simultaneously building his commercial career. He spent 11 years at Lockheed Martin learning acquisition processes and big program management, while concurrently commanding unmanned aerial system units in the reserves for four years. This dual perspective gave him front-row seats to both the traditional defense contracting world and the emerging defense innovation ecosystem.

Before joining Fortem, Gruen worked as an operational consultant helping multiple aerospace and defense startups navigate the valley of death. He took the helm at Fortem in 2022.

About Fortem Technologies

Founded in 2016 by Adam Robertson, Fortem Technologies began as a radar company leveraging Robertson's decades of experience developing military radars, particularly for IED detection during the Wars on Terror. Robertson's breakthrough was creating an architecture that enabled very low size, weight, power, and cost (SWAP-C) radar systems.

The company's evolution accelerated when DARPA recognized the potential of their small radar technology and suggested mounting it on drones in 2018. This led to Fortem developing comprehensive counter-UAS solutions spanning the entire detect-to-mitigate spectrum:

* Ground-based and airborne radars with edge computing and AI

* Command and control software integrating multiple sensors

* A family of counter-UAS drones using various effectors (nets, explosives, future high-powered microwave)

* Man-portable systems that fit in commercial trucks for tactical mobility

Fortem has been operationally deployed in Ukraine for over three years, working with border guards and other units while providing real-time intelligence on electronic warfare environments to U.S. government agencies. They've also developed significant homeland security capabilities, becoming the only approved kinetic solution for safely removing drone threats in the continental United States.

For more on Fortem: fortemtech.com

For more Crossing the Valley: valleycrossers.com

How Palantir, SpaceX & Anduril Veterans Are Redefining Cybersecurity for the Defense Industrial Base

About the Guests

Nik Seetharaman and Grace Clemente represent perhaps the most elite defense tech pedigree possible. Between them, they've touched the holy trinity of modern defense juggernauts: Palantir, SpaceX, and Anduril.

Nik's journey began in special operations before transitioning to the private sector. At Palantir, he learned the art of aggressive execution and brutal feedback loops that forge high-performing teams. His stint at SpaceX reinforced the culture of rapid iteration and learning from failure. But it was at Anduril where he faced his defining challenge: becoming the first security engineer at a company scaling from 100 to 4,000 people while building weapon systems under constant foreign adversary attention.

Grace built her expertise in the most sensitive areas of corporate security—insider threat and counter-espionage programs at both SpaceX and Anduril. She witnessed firsthand the daily reality of nation-state adversaries attempting to penetrate critical infrastructure and defense technology companies. Her experience shaped a deep understanding of what real security looks like versus the theater of compliance checkboxes.

Their pain points weren't academic—they were personal and professional crises. Waking up at 3 AM to alerts, logging into 40+ different security tools, spending hours gathering context for simple decisions, and watching talented security professionals burn out from cognitive overload and poor tooling.

About Wraithwatch

Wraithwatch emerged from a simple but profound question: What would we have wanted to gift ourselves as lone security engineers told to "protect the company" with 100,000 possible next steps?

The company addresses a fundamental market shift in defense technology. Security has evolved from a cost center to a revenue generator. Defense companies literally cannot sign government contracts without robust security controls, making cybersecurity teams direct contributors to revenue generation rather than overhead expenses.

Wraithwatch's core innovation is a unified security platform that breaks down the data silos plaguing modern cybersecurity. Instead of forcing teams to operate 40+ point solutions, Wraithwatch creates a "digital twin" of customer environments and runs thousands of attack simulations to identify the most critical vulnerabilities and provide actionable remediation steps.

Their "gain of function" approach uses advanced AI offensive capabilities to continuously improve defensive strategies—a co-evolution process that mirrors how nation-state adversaries actually operate. The platform deploys in as little as 22 minutes and immediately begins autonomous threat modeling without executing actual attacks against production systems.

The user experience philosophy is radical for cybersecurity: make defenders feel like Tony Stark commanding an intelligent system rather than helpless operators drowning in alerts. This includes features like AI-generated daily briefs with voice narration, 3D network visualization, and one-click remediation capabilities.

For more on Wraithwatch: https://www.wraithwatch.com/

Follow Nik: On X | LinkedIn

Follow Grace: On X | LinkedIn

Follow Noah: On X | LinkedIn

About James Boyd

James Boyd is the archetype of a mission-driven founder. Born in California but raised in the UK, his trajectory changed completely on September 11, 2001, when he was a Stanford computer science student. Instead of following his peers into consulting or investment banking, Boyd made the contrarian decision to enlist in Army Special Forces—a choice that would define his entire career.

Boyd was in the First Special Forces Group for about three years. It was during these deployments that he experienced firsthand the friction between cutting-edge intelligence systems and the analog processes that dominated day-to-day military operations. This experience led him to Palantir, where he spent nearly seven years building and deploying data analytics platforms across special operations units.

The combination of Stanford computer science education, Special Forces operational experience, and Palantir's high-velocity startup culture created a unique skill set: deep technical capabilities paired with intimate understanding of military operations and bureaucratic navigation. This intersection would prove invaluable when founding Adyton.

About Adyton

Adyton was founded in early 2020 with a simple but powerful thesis: while defense organizations had invested heavily in enterprise systems and data analytics, the actual warfighters—the people doing maintenance, training, and operations—remained trapped in analog processes using paper notebooks, clipboards, and manual data entry.

The company's flagship product, Adyton Operations Kit (AOK), transforms these analog workflows into seamless digital experiences optimized for mobile devices. Rather than requiring new government-furnished equipment, AOK leverages the smartphones that service members already carry, addressing everything from personnel accountability to digital asset management to training coordination.

Adyton's growth trajectory has been impressive: 500% growth in 2024, deployment across 39 of 59 Army Brigade Combat Teams, adoption by seven Special Forces groups, and recent expansion to multiple Navy aircraft carriers. The company achieved this scale through organic, bottom-up adoption—end users demanding the product rather than top-down procurement mandates.

Follow James Boyd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-alexander-boyd/

Learn more about Adyton: https://www.adytonpbc.com/

Subscribe for more Crossing the Valley: www.valleycrossers.com

LeoLabs is Building the "Living Map" of Space Activity

About Tony Frazier

Tony Frazier joined LeoLabs as CEO after a distinguished career scaling technology companies in complex government markets. At Maxar Technologies, he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Earth Intelligence, overseeing partnerships with over 60 allies worldwide and supporting critical missions from humanitarian assistance to the Ukraine conflict. His earlier experience includes leadership roles at Cisco Systems and Infor, plus startup experience during the late 90s internet boom. Tony's unique combination of product expertise, P&L management, and deep government market knowledge made him the ideal leader to scale LeoLabs from innovative technology to mission-critical infrastructure.

About LeoLabs

Founded in 2016, LeoLabs commercialized radar technology from Stanford Research Institute to create the world's most comprehensive space domain awareness platform. The company operates a globally distributed network of 11 radars across 7 countries, tracking over 24,000 space objects daily and providing persistent monitoring services to government and commercial customers. LeoLabs has raised over $140 million through Series B funding and serves a diversified customer base spanning US government (33% of revenue), international governments (60%), and commercial space operators (7%). With recent wins including a $60 million STRATFI award and $4 million TACFI award, the company is positioned to scale its next-generation "seeker" class radar technology as space activity explodes toward 100,000+ trackable objects in the coming decade.

For more about LeoLabs: https://leolabs.space/

For more Crossing the Valley: www.valleycrossers.com

About Lieutenant General (ret) Ross Coffman

Ross Coffman represents a rare breed in defense innovation - a senior military leader who transitioned directly from the Pentagon to startup leadership. During his final seven years in the Army, Lt Gen Coffman was deep in technology, serving as director of the next generation combat vehicle cross-functional team before becoming deputy commanding general for combat development at Army Futures Command from 2022 to 2024.

His portfolio at Army Futures Command spanned satellite payloads to vaccines for monkeypox - giving him a unique perspective on how the military evaluates and adopts new technology. After 35 years of military service, Lt Gen Coffman joined Forward Edge-AI as president, a company building cybersecurity products for the quantum age.

About Colonel Dan Cormier

Colonel Cormier brings the operational perspective as both a seasoned warfighter and current educator at the Naval Leadership and Ethics Center in Newport. His focus on senior leader development provides crucial insight into how bureaucratic processes shape military thinking, particularly the tension between compliance-based junior leadership and the dynamic thinking required at senior levels.

About Forward Edge AI

Forward Edge AI is an early-stage startup focused on cybersecurity for the quantum age. The company's core values align with national defense, public safety, and national security - a mission alignment that drew Coffman from his military career to startup leadership.

For more on Ross Coffman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-coffman

For more on Daniel Cormier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-j-cormier

For more Crossing the Valley: www.valleycrossers.com

Case Study: Bridging the Strategy-Industrial Reality Gap

About the Experts

Becca Wasser and Phil Sheers from the Center for New American Security (CNAS) authored "From Production Lines to Front Lines: Revitalizing the U.S. Defense Industrial Base for Future Great Power Conflict." Wasser specializes in defense strategy and great power competition, while Sheers focuses on defense budgets and acquisition policy. Their research combines strategic analysis with practical policy recommendations.

About CNAS

The Center for New American Security is a leading defense policy think tank that bridges the gap between government and industry through rigorous research and strategic analysis. CNAS's defense industrial base work examines how America's manufacturing capacity intersects with national security strategy, and makes recommendations for policymakers and industry leaders on navigating the transition from “Pax Americana” to great power competition.

About Dr. Alex Miller

Dr. Alex Miller serves as the Chief Technology Officer of the United States Army, a position that oversees technology modernization across one of the world's largest and most complex organizations. An intelligence professional by trade, Miller was elevated to this strategic role to drive the Army Transformation Initiative—the most significant military modernization effort in decades. Working directly with Army Chief of Staff General Randy George and Secretary Dan Driscoll, he manages everything from organic industrial base operations (e.g., production of ammunition for the Joint Force) to next-generation command and control systems.

About the Army Transformation Initiative

The Army Transformation Initiative represents a fundamental shift in how the military acquires, tests, and fields technology. Directed by an April 30th memo from the Secretary of Defense, the initiative focuses on two critical areas: divesting outdated systems and investing in war-winning capabilities. The program encompasses everything from holistic soldier fitness to counter-drone warfare, magazine depth for missile systems, and close combat force equipment. What makes this transformation unique is its emphasis on real soldier testing through the "Transforming in Contact" program, where three brigades serve as beta testers for new technologies in demanding training environments. Rather than relying on contractor demonstrations, the Army is letting soldiers determine what works in actual field conditions—from Louisiana swamps to freezing German winters.

Timestamps:

[00:01:33] Army 250th birthday celebration and family military legacy

[00:03:15] Role and scope of Army CTO - "The Army does everything, everywhere, all the time"

[00:05:51] Army Transformation Initiative focus areas and modernization priorities

[00:07:45] Counter-drone warfare: "This generation's IED flying at 100 mph"

[00:10:01] "Transforming in Contact" - fixing broken Pentagon procurement process

[00:14:02] Learning from ABMS failures and structuring top-of-funnel experimentation

[00:18:30] The divestment challenge: divesting old equipment and congressional battles

[00:20:40] RQ7 Shadow case study: $77M for sub-50% readiness rates

[00:22:30] Humvee divestment after 40 years and 103,000 vehicles

[00:24:45] Detachment 201 deep dive: Big Tech executives commissioning as Lieutenant Colonels

[00:33:28] Final thoughts: Building irreversible momentum beyond personality-driven change

Check out the full interview on YouTube and follow Crossing the Valley on LinkedIn!