Ashley Vaughan spent years inside the CIA running cyber ops before realizing the tools meant to keep clandestine work invisible were leaving fingerprints all over the blockchain. Now she is building Numan, a stealth startup using AI and crypto rails to create private financial infrastructure for national security ops and anyone who needs money movement to stay quiet. She gets into polygraph interviews, why the agency treats disruptors like black sheep, and why space could be the next frontier.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.
Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.
Apply today at collide.io

Click here to view the episode transcript.

0:00 What Ashley is building in stealth
1:20 Getting recruited into the CIA at 25
4:30 The leap of faith and the mission pull
6:40 The resume gap nobody can read
8:30 Why she left the agency
11:15 Disruptors as black sheep
14:35 Playing poker against China and Russia
15:55 Offense will always beat defense
17:15 Why crypto rails are leaking intelligence
19:25 Suitcases of cash do not work anymore
21:40 Introducing Numan
24:14 How the wallet works for operators
25:53 Building alongside the customer
28:55 Why government adoption is broken
33:41 Trading repeatability for security
38:43 Raising pre-seed and the road ahead
44:29 Why the agency looks nothing like TV
45:53 Skip a generation
46:17 China is playing the long game
49:53 Trust as the founder advantage
50:20 Silicon Valley discovers defense tech
52:15 Trying to land a one liner
54:22 Outpacing private sector copycats
55:19 What one ups Numan
57:03 Electromagnetic warfare and old oil rigs
59:31 Nobody planned for the digital attack
1:02:00 The most controversial position