Donald Stoker discusses military history, national strategies, and today’s global state.

0:00 Intro

1:11 About Don

3:44 The Korean War

11:01 North Korea and Iran Today

13:11 War in Ukraine

23:29 Don's Class at Nat'l Defense Uni

27:33 The American Revolution

32:28 Wars of Expansion

34:35 First Gulf War & Military Buildup

40:16 Karl Von Clausewitz

47:28 Why America Loses Wars

54:50 The Impact of Drones on War

1:06:00 Academia

1:09:28 American History Rhyming?

1:14:03 Nuclear Weapons

1:16:18 Purpose and Power, Don's Book

1:22:17 Revisionist Powers & Modern War

1:33:40 Don's Future Plans

1:38:20 Outro

Dhruva Rajendra discusses autonomy, defense innovation, mergers, and lessons from Ukraine.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(0:35) This Week in Startups Podcast

(2:40) Michael Saylor & MicroStrategy

(5:36) Steve's Review of Wicked

(10:21) Company Updates

(13:33) Fuses

(17:42) BlueHalo-AeroVironment Merger

(25:55) Elon's F-35 Debate

(36:49) The Future is Autonomy

(40:58) Podcast Rebrand

(44:50) America's Missing Pieces in Defense

(50:00) Not Learning From Ukraine

(56:17) Small Drone Markets & Regulations

(1:06:40) Building Ahead of Requirement

(1:11:25) Commercial Use Case First

(1:14:40) Different Weapons for Each Conflict

(1:16:45) Could America Just Retool For War?

(1:21:09) Outro

Dhruva Rajendra is the co-founder and CEO of Deterrence, a defense tech startup company building advanced autonomous manufacturing systems.

Mike Fiuk shares Darkhive’s vision, roadmap, and insights on selling and tech in defense.

Alex Taylor shares insights on aerospace, the Thiel Fellowship, and purpose-driven American innovation.

Dan Magy, co-founder and CEO of Firestorm Labs, talks the new drone and logistics tech at Firestorm, his experiences in startups and defense tech, and more.

Chapters:

(1:40) Changing the Podcast Name

(6:26) Firestorm Products

(9:20) Additive Manufacturing & The XCell

(14:34) Original Vision vs. Customer Requests

(18:17) Learning Appropriations and the End User

(20:44) Act Like You Belong

(22:34) Dan’s Previous Ventures

(28:20) Personal Investments & Mistakes

(34:47) Drones & Laser Landscape

(39:00) Product Strategies and Ideas

(43:13) More Drone Companies

(50:58) How Steve Got Into Startups

(57:26) Steve Story: Meeting Patrick Mahomes

(59:40) Some Favorite Backgrounds of Employees

(1:02:50) DoD: “The Mother of Enterprise Sales”

(1:05:53) The Crazy COVID ZIRP Era

(1:09:07) Ukraine & Europe

(01:13:57) Firestorm in 2025 Plans

(01:20:36) Outro

Dan Magy co-founded Firestorm Labs in May 2022 and is currently serving as CEO. In July 2022, he joined Bonsai Robotics as a Chief Strategy Advisor. Dan is also a Board Member at Beyond Capital since June 2022. In 2016, Dan founded Citadel Defense Company in 2016, which was later acquired by Blue Halo in November 2021.

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Doug Livermore talks West Point, drones in warfare, deploying to Africa, Ukraine, and more.

(2:06) "College Life" at West Point

(6:52)Training the Congalese Army

(12:16) Training Former Rebels in Mali

(15:33) Africa: What's Going On?

(19:41) Rare Earth Minerals In Africa

(21:27) Africa's Vicious Cycle of Turmoil

(24:04) Steve's Private Military Plan

(27:20) The Rapid Development of Drones

(30:09) Drones as Munitions

(31:50) Adventures in Russia

(35:39) ZYN & Ozempic

(37:56) Iraq is Unraveling

(42:56) Drones In Iraq

(44:49) What's "Irregular Warfare" Now

(47:51) Drones in Myanmar, Mexico, Azerbaijan

(50:43) Social Media Sharing Drone Kills

(52:22) Rethinking C-UAS and Air Defense

(54:54) Glide Bombs

(57:38) Oura Ring

(58:45) CenCore, Doug's New Company

(1:00:38) Nonprofits in Defense & National Security

(1:07:51) Alternative Drugs for Veteran PTSD

(1:10:47) More Nonprofit Work with Ukraine

(1:14:05) How Will the War in Ukraine End?

(1:20:45) Upcoming Defense Tech Trends

(1:23:19) AeroVironment, Inc. (AVAV)

(1:26:40) Lasers + Dexter TV Series

Doug Livermore is the Senior VP at the CenCore Group and Director of Special Operations, Irregular Warfare, Special Programs, and Sensitive Activities for the Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy. Multiple international affairs and security studies journals have distributed Doug’s works, including many publications in War on the Rocks, Small Wars Journal, and the Military Times.

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Topics:

(1:36) Matt's Warfighting & Intelligence Background

(3:30) The Future of Artillery

(8:07) Why Matt Went Into Intel

(9:49) Discovering The Drone Problem

(12:26) Trends & Insights on Drones

(15:35) Calculations of Our Adversaries

(19:20) Missteps & Brutality in Ukraine

(22:30) Weakness of Current C-UAS

(24:25) How The IED Problem Was Addressed

(27:45) Offensive vs. Defensive Combat

(29:19) North Koreans in Ukraine

(31:49) Matt's New Media Project

(34:52) New Tools For Journalists

(38:34) Prediction Markets & Media

(45:46) Additive Manufacturing

(54:35) Firestorm's xCell and Logistics

(59:11) Cana: Molecular Beverage Printer

(1:01:58) The Value of Patience in Defense

(1:03:54) Our Swanky Podcast Studio

(1:06:30) Del Ray, Alexandria, VA Is Great

(1:08:24) Polarization in Media

(1:11:22) Is Social Media Overpersonalized?

(1:17:13) The Panama Papers

(1:18:44) Social Platform Preferences

(1:20:07) Telegram CEO Issues

(1:21:48) Starting a Business, Then vs. Now

(1:24:22) Outro

Check out Matt's work: https://www.protocolmedialabs.com/

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(1:16) Pryzm, not sponsored

(1:56) Scott Being Early on Drone Warfare

(6:35) Drones in Urban Combat

(8:19) Takeaways From Ukraine War

(10:13) Military "Rustiness" & Turnover

(12:18) Putin's Interview with Tucker

(14:16) Acquired Podcast shout out

(15:50) How Forterra’s CEO got into the business

(18:07) Reality of DoD Procurement for Startups

(20:50) SBIRs: Pros and Cons

(23:18) Best Path for a New Defense Product

(26:37) Problems with "Cost + Fixed Fee"

(30:00) Is Building a Successful American Drone Company Possible?

(31:40) Should We Ban DJI Drones / TikTok?

(34:52) How Scott Got Into Anduril Early

(38:45) Anduril's Early Product Development

(44:02) Your Buyer Is Not Your User

(45:38) Issues with DoD's Detailed Requirements

(48:11) OSINT

(49:44) Testing Hard Tech Products

(52:02) Why a Self Driving Car on the Battlefield

(56:01) Risks of Forterra Business Model

(59:55) Buying An Autonomous Vehicle Off-the-Shelf

(1:04:16) Aliens & UFOs

(1:07:39) Outro

Scott Sanders is chief growth officer at Forterra - a leading provider of autonomous systems for ground-based movement in the working world.Before Forterra, Scott was Head of Business Development at Vannevar Labs and Senior Director for Anduril Industries’ Counter Unmanned Systems division, where he built the company’s acquisition strategy for its $1 billion SOCOM Systems Integration Partner program.

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Brice Cooper is a former Green Beret, former head of SOCOM C-UAS, and the Chief Strategy Officer of Allen Control Systems. Follow for more! Leave us a review!