In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell is joined by Mariia Cherpak, a Berlin-based defence professional working across business development, strategic partnerships and ecosystem development in European defence.

Originally from Kharkiv, Mariia brings together perspectives from Ukraine’s wartime innovation environment and Europe’s rapidly evolving defence industry. She is also involved with Women in Defence Tech, a professional community connecting people across industry, government, the military, investment, academia and start-ups.

The conversation examines what Europe can learn from Ukraine without pretending that wartime conditions can, or should, be recreated elsewhere.

Mariia identifies three important lessons: user-driven development, rapid iteration and genuine ecosystem collaboration. In Ukraine, military personnel are not simply the final recipients of technology. They often help shape it. Products are put into users’ hands early enough to generate meaningful feedback, rather than being perfected in isolation against requirements that may already be changing.

That leads to a central idea in the episode: technology needs to be useful before it is perfect.

Erica and Mariia discuss why companies should involve end users as early as realistically possible, while recognising that Ukrainian personnel are fighting a war and cannot be treated as a freely available testing service. Trusted organisations such as Brave1, accelerators and other intermediaries can help assess technologies, filter companies and create structured routes into testing without overburdening operational units.

Mariia also explores the role played by Ukraine’s volunteer and charitable organisations, which have helped fund equipment, prototypes and early production. In some cases, they have acted like a form of early-stage risk capital. The lesson for Europe is not that private citizens should replace the state, but that early operational validation needs faster and more flexible funding before a system is ready for full procurement.

The conversation then turns to Europe’s expanding defence investment market. More capital is entering the sector, but not every investor brings deep defence knowledge or the strategic experience needed to guide a company through testing, procurement, compliance and market entry. Accelerators, hackathons, professional communities and specialist advisers are beginning to fill some of those gaps.

Women in Defence Tech is one example. Mariia explains how the community helps professionals develop credible networks, find opportunities and enter an industry that can appear closed from the outside. She also makes the case that defence needs people from a much wider range of backgrounds, not only military personnel and engineers.

For founders, the episode includes practical advice on entering European defence markets. Companies should begin with the operational requirement, not the headline spending figure. They need to understand whether a country needs their capability, offers access to users or testing, has a realistic procurement route, and can provide suitable local partners.

Europe is not a single defence market. Each country has its own requirements, institutions, procurement systems and industrial relationships. Small companies therefore need to choose their first market carefully rather than spreading limited resources too widely.

This is a useful episode for defence and dual-use founders, investors entering the sector, professionals considering a career transition, and anyone interested in what Europe can learn from Ukraine about speed, collaboration and building technology around real operational needs.

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell is joined by James Murray, Accelerator Manager at Janus, the UK accelerator delivering the NATO DIANA programme in partnership with UK Defence Innovation.

James brings a wide-ranging background in entrepreneurship, venture capital, university innovation and early-stage company building. Before joining Janus, he worked across entrepreneurship education, autonomous systems, drone companies and university seed funding, including the Oxford Seed Fund. His move into defence has been driven by a desire to use that experience to support founders building technologies that can matter to national security, sovereignty and the NATO alliance.

The conversation starts with what NATO DIANA is actually designed to do. James explains how the programme supports emerging defence and deep-tech companies from across the NATO alliance, taking them through validation, testing, mentoring, exposure to end users and investor readiness. Janus delivers the UK programme, bringing together business support, science and technology, defence and security expertise, and deep-tech investment experience.

Erica and James also discuss what founders often misunderstand about defence as a market. Defence is formal, regulated and difficult to navigate, but it is also deeply relationship-driven. Conversations after events, introductions through trusted networks, and informal moments around conferences can matter just as much as the formal programme itself. For companies without a defence background, learning how to build those relationships is part of the work.

The episode then moves into dual-use technology, and James offers a useful challenge to the way the term is often used. Rather than treating dual-use as a neat technical category, he argues that it is often better understood as a business and market strategy. The real question is not whether a product can be labelled dual-use, but whether the capability is genuinely useful to an end user, whether it has been validated, and whether the company understands how to translate between commercial and defence markets.

There is also a practical discussion about pitching. James has seen thousands of companies and is clear about what good pitches need: a clear problem, a defined customer or end user, evidence of validation, a realistic view of the market, and a strong call to action. He and Erica discuss where technically strong founders often go wrong, particularly when they get trapped in technical detail, fail to explain the operational problem, or do not show that they have spoken to real users.

One of the strongest themes in the episode is the need to “get out of the building”. James and Erica both stress that founders cannot build credible defence companies from behind a screen. They need to speak to users, attend industry days, test assumptions, join relevant programmes, listen hard, and use feedback to iterate quickly. For companies coming into defence with no track record, this early learning and relationship-building can be just as important as the technology itself.

The episode also highlights one of NATO DIANA’s most important advantages: reach across the alliance. James explains how the programme can give companies exposure beyond a single national market, connecting them with different NATO countries, different ways of working, end users, test opportunities and potential routes to adoption. He also talks about the Rapid Adoption Service and why access to a NATO-level programme can significantly change the commercial opportunity for the right company.

This is a useful episode for founders, SMEs, investors and non-traditional suppliers trying to understand NATO DIANA, dual-use company building, defence pitching, end-user validation and how to move from an interesting technology to something defence users can actually adopt.

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell is joined by Tim Stringer, VP Defence at Gravity Industries, the UK company behind the Gravity Jet Suit.

Founded by Richard Browning in 2017, Gravity Industries began as something many people saw as extraordinary, futuristic and almost impossible to categorise. Since then, the company has taken the Jet Suit from spectacle to serious capability, demonstrating it with users including the Royal Marines, NATO mountain warfare units, the US Navy’s Joint Prototyping and Experimentation Maritime Programme, and the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre.

Tim brings a valuable perspective to the conversation. Before joining Gravity, he served in the Royal Air Force and later moved through defence technology companies including Improbable and Skyfarer. That background gives him first-hand experience of both sides of the defence innovation problem: users who need better tools, faster, and companies trying to bring genuinely novel technology into a procurement system that does not always know where to place it.

The conversation looks at what it takes to move a hardware-first, visually spectacular capability from “that looks cool” to “how would we actually use this?” Tim explains how Gravity has had to manage both the benefit and burden of the Jet Suit’s extraordinary public profile. The same thing that attracts attention can also make people dismiss it as a gimmick, so credibility has to be built through serious operational demonstrations, direct user engagement and practical use-case development.

Erica and Tim discuss the importance of the “show me” factor in defence. For novel technology, especially hardware, a pitch deck is rarely enough. Users need to see the capability in realistic conditions, understand what it can and cannot do, and begin to imagine how it could be incorporated into their own concepts of operation. For Gravity, that has meant demonstrating rapid mobility across difficult terrain, maritime boarding scenarios, mountain environments and other situations where moving a person quickly, safely and unpredictably may offer operational value.

The episode also explores what dual-use really means when it is more than a label. Gravity has a strong commercial events and entertainment business, while also developing serious defence and security use cases. Tim explains how the two sides of the business support each other without becoming confused, and how the same underlying technology can serve very different customers when the use case is properly understood.

For non-traditional suppliers, there are useful lessons throughout. Tim talks about why companies need curiosity, humility and empathy when engaging operational users, why they should avoid assuming they already understand the problem, and why hiring veterans or service leavers can help translate technology into language defence users recognise. Erica also highlights the importance of helping veterans turn deep subject-matter expertise into commercial value.

The episode closes with a practical discussion on how companies move from interest to procurement. Tim points to the importance of finding the right user, building a credible champion, understanding funding and contracting routes, and knowing when to be tenacious and when to let the system work through its process.

This is a useful listen for defence innovators, dual-use companies, hardware founders, veterans moving into industry, and anyone trying to understand how genuinely novel technology can earn credibility inside defence.

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell is joined by Mads Jensen, Managing Partner at SuperSeed, for a practical conversation about AI, seed investment, technical founders and what it takes to build a credible company in a very noisy market.

Mads is a former entrepreneur, technologist and investor who has spent two decades building and scaling technology businesses. At SuperSeed, he backs ambitious technical founders across the UK and Europe, with a particular focus on AI, enterprise technology and what he describes as “physical AI”: the next generation of AI systems that can help software understand, navigate and transform the real world.

The conversation looks at what investors are really listening for when founders pitch AI companies. Mads explains why buzzwords are not enough, why “me too” AI companies are hard to fund, and why the strongest founders usually have a clear view of how the world is changing, a deep understanding of the customer problem, and enough technical capability to build something genuinely differentiated.

Erica and Mads also discuss the changing shape of early-stage company building. With tools like Claude Code and other AI-enabled development systems, small teams can now build faster, iterate more quickly and get much further before raising significant capital. For Mads, that changes investor expectations. Founders should be able to show evidence of customer engagement, real learning and momentum before asking for large amounts of money.

The episode also covers founder risk, pitch quality, customer discovery, internationalisation and the difference between raising capital to scale and raising capital simply to buy time. Mads is clear that early-stage founders should stay lean for as long as possible, learn quickly, test their assumptions with customers and only raise serious capital once they have a stronger signal that they are onto something.

For the defence and dual-use audience, the conversation turns to where AI investment is heading next. Mads discusses why SuperSeed is interested in technologies that transform real-world sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, construction, energy and agriculture, and why many of these areas naturally overlap with defence and security applications. He also gives his view on dual-use companies, the extra requirements that appear when defence becomes part of the customer base, and why companies need to understand the difference between selling to industry and selling directly to government.

The episode closes with a wider discussion about sovereignty, European supply chains and the scale of the AI transformation still ahead. Mads argues that we are still in the early stages of AI’s impact, and that by 2030 many sectors may look very different from how they do today.

This is a useful listen for technical founders, AI companies, defence and dual-use start-ups, investors, and anyone trying to understand what credible AI company-building looks like beyond the buzzwords.

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell is joined by Drew Rudhall, Senior Associate at Reddie & Grose, for a practical discussion on intellectual property and what defence, security and dual-use technology companies need to understand before they start sharing their ideas with the world.

Drew is a UK and European patent attorney with a technical background in laser physics and biophotonics. His work covers a wide range of technology areas, including telecommunications, AI, cybersecurity, electronics, medical devices, mechanical engineering and 3GPP technologies. That combination of scientific training and legal practice gives him a useful perspective on how technical companies think about invention, protection, disclosure and commercial value.

The conversation focuses on a problem that comes up repeatedly for small businesses and start-ups entering defence and security markets: how much to say, when to say it, and what needs to be protected before conversations with government, investors, partners or potential customers begin. Some companies are so protective of their IP that they struggle to explain what they have built. Others disclose too much, too early, and risk undermining the very protection they later need.

Drew explains why public disclosure can be such a serious issue for patent protection, why timing matters when filing a patent application, and why companies should speak to a patent attorney before a conference, investor pitch or government engagement if they think their technology may be protectable. He also discusses the limits of relying on NDAs alone. An NDA may be necessary, but it is not the same thing as having a robust IP position, especially if a company would struggle to enforce it later.

The episode also looks at collaboration risk. Defence and security companies often work with partners, subcontractors, advisers, investors and government users while their technology is still developing. Drew explains why it is important to understand what IP each party brings into a collaboration, who owns anything created during the work, and what happens if a key inventor leaves the company. These issues can become particularly difficult when technical staff move to competitors or when patent applications have been filed in the wrong name.

Erica and Drew also discuss when patenting may not be the right answer. Some technologies may be better protected as trade secrets, particularly where the underlying process is hard to reverse engineer. Other inventions may be difficult to patent because the genuinely new element is narrow, easy to design around, or falls into a difficult area such as some types of software. Drew explains how companies should think about the difference between commercial value, patentability and freedom to operate.

For companies building technology for defence, security, R&D, trials, procurement or investor-backed growth, this episode is a useful guide to the decisions that need to be made before momentum builds. It is not enough to have a strong invention. Companies also need to understand how to protect it, how to talk about it, and how to avoid creating problems that only become visible when funding, procurement or investment due diligence begins.

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Jonatan Luther-Bergquist, General Partner at Inflection and co-founder of the European Defence Tech Hub.

Jonatan comes to defence through engineering physics, cryptography, venture capital and deep tech rather than a conventional defence career. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has been focused on how Europe can move faster, invest more seriously, and build a new generation of technology-first defence companies.

The conversation looks at what Jonatan calls “New Defense”: agile, software-centric, venture-backable companies that can work alongside legacy primes but move at a very different pace. He explains why not every successful defence company is right for venture capital, why some defence problems require genuinely transformational engineering, and why the best founders are often assessed less on their first product than on their ability to learn, adapt and find the right one.

Erica and Jonatan also discuss the European Defence Tech Hub hackathons, which bring engineers, founders, defence users and Ukrainian stakeholders into the same room to work on real operational problems. Jonatan explains what these events are designed to solve, why technically capable people often need better access to defence problem owners, and what can realistically come out of a seventy-two-hour build sprint.

The episode also covers the relationship between new defence companies and the established primes, the continuing challenge of the defence “Valley of Death”, the need for Europe to become more comfortable with risk, and why founders should think beyond single national markets if they want to build companies that can matter at scale.

Topics covered include:

European defence tech after Ukraine

Why venture capital is moving into defence and deep tech

What “New Defense” means in practice

The role of hackathons in connecting builders with real defence problems

How Ukrainian defence stakeholders change the quality of challenge-setting

Why not every defence company is venture-backable

Space, cyber, subsea and other areas of emerging defence opportunity

The role of primes and where smaller companies can move faster

The defence Valley of Death in Europe

Why founder quality matters so much at idea stage

How European defence companies need to think beyond domestic procurement

This episode is for founders, engineers, investors and defence professionals interested in how Europe builds a stronger defence-tech ecosystem, and what it takes to turn technical talent into companies that can solve serious defence problems.

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Alex Scott, Director of Commercial Affairs at Steel Rock Capital, a specialist financing house working exclusively with companies in the defence, security and resilience sectors.

For many defence SMEs, the problem is not only finding opportunities or understanding procurement routes. It is surviving the financial reality of delivery. Long procurement cycles, milestone payments, delayed invoices, sovereign buyers, prime contractors and complex consortium structures can create serious cash-flow pressure, even for companies with strong technology and credible contracts.

Alex explains why defence requires a specialist approach to finance, why standard bank products often do not fit the sector, and how private credit can help companies bridge the gap between winning work and being paid. The conversation covers the difference between scaling capital and working capital, how invoice and purchase-order finance can support delivery, and why companies should think about contract finance before they win the contract, not seven days before they run out of cash.

The episode also explores the role of finance in Ukraine-linked defence production, the practical barriers facing companies moving between the UK, Europe and the front line, and why risk cannot simply be pushed onto small companies trying to deliver critical capability.

Alex and Erica also discuss common red flags for defence SMEs seeking finance, including unclear funding asks, weak financial planning, late-stage CFO hiring and poor understanding of repayment cycles. For founders, operators, investors and anyone working with defence SMEs, this is a practical conversation about the financial mechanics that often sit behind successful defence delivery.

Topics covered include:

Specialist finance for defence, security and resilience companies

Why mainstream banks often struggle to lend to defence SMEs

Working capital, scaling capital and contract delivery

Invoice and purchase-order finance

How companies can bring finance into the tender process

The importance of early financial planning

Ukraine, frontline supply chains and defence production risk

Red flags for SMEs seeking finance

Why CFO discipline matters earlier than many founders expect

The changing appetite for defence investment and lending across Europe

This episode is for defence and dual-use companies that are moving from opportunity to delivery, and for anyone who wants to understand why cash flow, not technology, is often the point where promising defence businesses break.

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Steve Mason, founder and CEO of Nova Blue Technologies and former technical director at GCHQ, and Dave Collins OBE, senior director for cybersecurity at Nova Blue and former Royal Air Force officer.

The conversation looks at what cybersecurity really means for companies working in and around UK and NATO defence. Steve and Dave explain why small and medium-sized companies are not too small to be targeted, how adversaries use supply chains and digital infrastructure as attack surfaces, and why cyber risk is now a business and operational issue, not just a technical one.

They also discuss Cyber Essentials, the MOD cybersecurity model, the Defence Cyber Certification framework, and the gap between basic cyber hygiene and what defence customers may expect. For SMEs, the message is practical: start early, build cyber into your business roadmap, understand your cloud security settings, use multi-factor authentication, and treat cyber readiness as part of being credible in the defence market.

This episode is for founders, SMEs, dual-use companies, defence suppliers and anyone trying to understand what cyber readiness means before it becomes a blocker to growth, contracts or survival.

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica speaks with Denys Demko, Economic Secretary at the Embassy of Ukraine in the United Kingdom, about Ukraine’s defence technology ecosystem and what allied companies, investors and partners can learn from it.

Denys explains how Ukraine’s defence sector has grown under wartime pressure, with thousands of companies now operating across drones, UGVs, electronic warfare, air defence, AI and battlefield data. The conversation looks at why Ukraine’s innovation cycle can move in weeks rather than years, how developers work directly with military users, and why operational feedback has become central to capability development.

The episode also covers Brave1, Ukraine’s defence innovation platform, and how international companies can engage with testing, partnerships and investment routes. Denys discusses the importance of working with Ukrainian industry rather than simply trying to sell into Ukraine, the role of local presence and collaboration, and why investors should pay closer attention to battlefield-tested Ukrainian defence technologies.

For companies, investors and ecosystem organisations trying to understand Ukraine beyond the headlines, this is a practical conversation about urgency, adaptation, procurement, partnership and the realities of building technology in wartime.

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Anssi Aikio of XD Solutions about Finnish defence innovation, Arctic testing, and why cold-weather experimentation matters far more than many companies realise.

The conversation explores how XD Solutions works with the Finnish Defence Forces and the wider Finnish defence ecosystem to connect emerging technology with real operational needs. Anssi explains where Finland is making progress, where the system is still fragmented, and how companies can begin to engage, whether through ecosystems, innovation networks, or practical testing opportunities.

A major focus of the episode is Griffin Tech Days, the large-scale Arctic event run on behalf of the Finnish Defence Forces and Finnish Special Operations Forces. Erica and Anssi discuss what companies actually learn when they test in extreme cold, from battery failure and de-icing issues to glove compatibility, brittle components, and the simple reality that laboratory testing is not the same as three days above the Arctic Circle.

They also get into a point that more founders need to hear: failure in a demanding test environment is not always a negative outcome. Often it is the fastest way to understand what needs fixing before a technology reaches operators in the field. The episode looks at how companies should prepare for these events, why the right technical people need to be in the room long before demo day, and how much better performance tends to be when firms treat preparation seriously.

The conversation closes with a look at the technologies currently catching attention in Finland, including battery innovation, Arctic mobility, sensor integration, GNSS-denied navigation, and practical solutions for harsh operational environments. It also highlights what is coming next through XD Solutions, SOF Week, and future Nordic testing opportunities.