The Startup Defense

Resilient autonomy starts with answering: Where am I?

Guest: Jesse Hamel – Founder & CEO, VICTUS

GPS is embedded in everything from autonomous vehicles and precision weapons to aviation, shipping, communications, and financial transactions—but its signal is fragile and increasingly easy to jam or spoof. Jesse Hamel joins Callye Keen to explain how VICTUS uses machine learning and existing onboard sensor data to create synthetic GPS for autonomous systems operating from low Earth orbit to the seabed.

• Why GPS denial is now a military and commercial problem
• Synthetic GPS and software-defined alternative PNT
• Using machine learning to extract more value from onboard sensors
• Extending resilient autonomy across air, ground, maritime, and space systems
• Founder–market fit, conviction, and the cost of building a defense startup
• Why timing is the next major challenge beyond position and navigation

• Autonomy fails if the system cannot answer “Where am I?” Position is the foundation for navigation and higher-order decision-making.
• VICTUS uses a machine-learning state estimator to interpret motion and other onboard data rather than adding more hardware to the platform.
• The same core positioning problem exists across drones, aircraft, ground robots, surface vessels, subsurface vehicles, weapons, and satellites.
• GPS denial is not limited to combat. Jamming, spoofing, solar activity, and signal loss also affect commercial aviation and maritime operations.
• Founder–market fit matters in defense because operational experience can create an advantage that capital alone cannot replicate.
• Strong founders test both the market opportunity and their own willingness to bear the cost before committing fully.
• Position and navigation are only part of PNT. Precise timing also underpins communications, mesh networks, aviation tracks, and financial systems.

[00:00] - Why you can’t jam gravity

[00:22] - Conviction, national security, AI, and robotics

[02:54] - America’s advantage is creating new secrets

[03:53] - AI and robotics give builders unprecedented leverage

[06:03] - Why Jesse founded a startup instead of joining a prime

[08:43] - Testing founder–market fit and asymmetric advantage

[14:35] - Operational experience as a defense-startup moat

[18:21] - Founders as the principal investors in their companies

[22:24] - The fragility of GPS in contested environments

[26:20] - Turning onboard motion data into synthetic GPS

[28:22] - Autonomy built on fragile legacy infrastructure

[30:55] - Expanding from small drones across every domain

[39:00] - Position, navigation, and the difficult timing problem

[42:35] - Smarter interpretation instead of more sensors

[44:31] - Perception and orchestration as the real unlock

• VICTUS Technologies
• Jesse Hamel – Founder profile
• VICTUS on LinkedIn
• The Startup Defense

• Guest: Jesse Hamel / VICTUS
• Host: Callye Keen

“You can’t jam gravity.”

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How intelligent, modular power enables defense and emergency-response missions at the edge

Guest: Sascha Dainat – Chief Revenue Officer, BKPK Power

Power is rarely the mission, but nearly every modern mission depends on it. Sascha Dainat joins Callye Keen to explain how BKPK is turning disconnected generators and batteries into an intelligent, modular system that teams can plan, monitor, scale, and adapt in real time.

• Expeditionary power as mission infrastructure
• Modular power for vehicles, camps, emergency response, and fixed sites
• Software, AI, and mission-level power orchestration
• Battery safety, transport compliance, and UN 38.3 certification
• Partnerships, cybersecurity, field validation, and production scale

• Better power infrastructure extends missions, reduces logistics burdens, and enables critical equipment at the edge.
• A modular platform can support a mobile team, scale into a forward camp, or provide backup power at a fixed site.
• Software-defined power gives operators a common picture of demand, capacity, priority loads, connected equipment, and system health.
• Compliance must shape the product from the beginning. BKPK designed around lithium transport limits, manageable pack weight, LFP chemistry, and certification.
• Power usually enables another system, making partnerships central to defense go-to-market.
• Power data can reveal equipment use and unauthorized devices, creating value for operational awareness and cybersecurity.
• Complex hardware should be designed for repeatable production before field demand reaches hundreds or thousands of units.

[00:01] - Expeditionary and software-defined power

[02:43] - Why power is boring until it isn’t

[03:30] - Fragmented power at a counter-UAS exercise

[05:08] - Treating deployed power as a system

[06:43] - Portability, output, modularity, and scale

[08:45] - Engineering and compliance barriers

[09:46] - Focus in defense and emergency response

[10:25] - Designing a transportable 4 kWh pack

[11:20] - UN 38.3 certification and LFP safety

[12:22] - Partnerships as a go-to-market strategy

[14:48] - Where AI fits into power systems

[16:30] - Planning missions with Orchestrator

[17:46] - Monitoring and analyzing power use

[19:15] - Connected-device visibility and security

[20:12] - Protecting physical and digital interfaces

[23:04] - Designing for mass production

[24:05] - Field validation with firefighters and defense partners

• BKPK Power
• BKPK deployed-power technology
• BKPK on LinkedIn
• The Startup Defense

• Guest: Sascha Dainat
• Host: Callye Keen

“Power is boring until it isn’t.”

Subscribe to The Startup Defense for candid conversations with the founders, operators, and builders turning emerging technology into fieldable defense capabilities.

Why good companies drift from their founding purpose and how leaders can build organizations that resist corruption

Guest: Eric Ries - Author of Incorruptible, creator of The Lean Startup, and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange

Eric Ries returns to the fundamental problem behind company building: creating an organization that can remain worthy of its original mission after it becomes successful. He joins Callye Keen to explain financial gravity, mission mortality, governance risk, and the practical steps founders can take to protect their companies from short-term pressure, acquisition, and internal drift.

• The evolution from The Lean Startup to Incorruptible
• How financial gravity changes organizational behavior
• Mission statements fail without management and business model alignment
• Protecting founders and companies through governance
• Dual-use technology, acquisitions, and mission risk
• Building companies aligned with human flourishing

• Financial gravity is the pressure to align with whoever controls money, status, or power.
• Repeated behavior eventually becomes culture, even when it contradicts the original mission.
• Founders must document the principles they will not sacrifice for financial gain.
• Mission integrity requires purpose, aligned incentives, culture, and structural protection.
• Founder control alone cannot prevent a board, investor, or acquirer from redirecting a company.
• The next generation can build durable companies and civic institutions designed around long-term value.

[00:00] - Eric Ries on restoring human agency

[02:16] - From The Lean Startup to Incorruptible

[07:22] - How financial gravity reshapes companies

[10:10] - The force no one controls but everyone obeys

[15:56] - How behavior becomes organizational culture

[16:22] - Inoculating a company against mission drift

[18:37] - Defining fiduciary commitments beyond profit

[22:01] - Purpose, business model, culture, and structural integrity

[24:45] - Dual-use technology and unintended consequences

[29:48] - Acquisitions, founder control, and value destruction

[31:15] - Building companies aligned with human flourishing

• Incorruptible - Why good companies go bad and how great companies stay great
• Official publisher page
• Long-Term Stock Exchange
• Lean Startup Co.

• Guest: Eric Ries on LinkedIn
• Host: Callye Keen on LinkedIn

“The more successful an organization becomes, the more valuable it will be to somebody else to take it over.”

Subscribe to The Startup Defense for conversations with the founders, investors, operators, and leaders building technology and institutions for national security.

Guest: Noam Oz - Co-Founder & Managing Partner, MIM Ventures; Former Director for Innovation Operations, NavalX

Defense acquisition is changing, but new authorities only matter when they produce results for the warfighter. Noam Oz returns to The Startup Defense to discuss commercial-first acquisition, operator-led startups, mission engineering, CSOs, acquisition culture, AI assurance, and the relationships required to move technology from mission need to fielded capability.

• Operational experience cannot be replicated through coursework alone.
• A demand signal requires a validated need, funding, and a viable contracting pathway.
• Acquisition reform must be measured through changed behavior and fielded results.
• Startups build credibility by placing prototypes in users’ hands, collecting evidence, and iterating.
• Technical exchanges create value through visibility, partnerships, and customer access, even without an immediate contract.
• Relationships compound over time and often become decisive when the right opportunity appears.
• AI assurance must advance alongside AI adoption.
• Clear government priorities and acquisition pathways improve investor confidence.

[00:04] - Noam Oz returns to The Startup Defense

[01:09] - Keeping the warfighter involved

[05:13] - MEIA and clearer capability demand signals

[07:50] - End-to-end capability delivery

[09:11] - CSOs, OTAs, and production follow-ons

[14:17] - Building credibility through prototypes and results

[15:39] - SOF Week, Vulcan, and ecosystem access

[17:14] - Why relationships and continued action create opportunity

[19:48] - Technical exchanges as partner environments

[20:44] - Relationships over transactions

[21:54] - AI assurance, TEVV, safety, and security

[24:02] - New capital models for defense hard tech

• MIM Ventures - https://mim.ventures/
• Mission Engineering and Integration Activity - https://www.cto.mil/meia/
• Asymmetris - https://asymmetris.com/
• Optica Labs - https://opticalabs.ai/

• Guest: Noam Oz - https://www.linkedin.com/in/noamoz
• Host: Callye Keen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/callyekeen/

“Don’t go after it for the transaction. Go after it for the relationship.”

Subscribe to The Startup Defense and share this episode with a founder, operator, investor, or acquisition professional working to move commercial technology into operational use. For support developing, integrating, manufacturing, and scaling defense hardware, visit Kform at https://www.kform.com/.

How robotic manufacturing, AI, and flexible factories could reshape American industrial power

Guest: Edward Mehr - Machina Labs

Edward Mehr joins The Startup Defense to discuss why America does not have a design problem, it has a factory problem. Callye and Edward explore software-defined manufacturing, robotic sheet forming, defense readiness, and why the future of industrial advantage may come from factories that can rapidly switch from cars to missiles to aircraft panels.

• Software-defined manufacturing and the future of flexible factories
• Why manufacturing is the gate that turns ideas into real capability
• Robotic forming, trimming, QC, heat treatment, forging, welding, and assembly
• Reindustrialization, defense readiness, and supply chain deterrence
• Why 3D printing opened the imagination but is only one tool in the manufacturing stack
• Founder lessons for building capital-intensive industrial startups

• America’s advantage depends less on ideas alone and more on the ability to convert ideas into physical products quickly, repeatedly, and affordably.
• Flexible manufacturing creates strategic optionality. A factory that can shift from commercial parts to defense components gives the country more responsive industrial capacity.
• Defense agility is increasingly tied to manufacturing agility. The ability to respond to new battlefield systems quickly can become a decisive advantage.
• The future factory will not be just additive manufacturing. It will combine robotics, machining, forming, 3D printing, welding, QC, software, and AI into a coordinated production system.
• Industrial founders need more than venture capital. They should understand customer-funded development, government support, debt financing, and how to finance capital equipment intelligently.

[00:00] - Why reindustrialization and advanced manufacturing matter now

[00:37] - Edward Mehr on being a builder and why robotics plus AI are entering the physical world

[03:22] - The Machina Labs vision: a factory that can rapidly turn designs into final products

[04:13] - Sheet forming without product-specific tooling

[05:32] - Expanding from forming into trimming, QC, heat treatment, forging, welding, and assembly

[06:49] - “America doesn’t have a design problem. We have a factory problem.”

[08:30] - Manufacturing as the gate that focuses and creates innovation

[12:58] - Flexible manufacturing as a defense readiness advantage

[14:15] - Why the factory itself may become a strategic weapon

[16:25] - What 3D printing promised, what it missed, and what the next manufacturing toolchain looks like

[19:05] - Why additive manufacturing is one tool, not the whole factory

[20:05] - Combining roboforming, machining, 3D printing, and robotic welding into a software-defined factory

[21:24] - Advice for founders building in defense, manufacturing, and other capital-intensive markets

• Machina Labs - https://machinalabs.ai/
• Kform - https://www.kform.com

• Edward Mehr: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-mehr/
• Callye Keen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/callyekeen/

“The factory is the weapon.”

How founders can use grants, contracts, teaming, and acquisition pathways to fund hard tech without giving up equity too early

Guest: Mollie Jahner - Mission Cultivate, formerly Spring and Forge

Non-dilutive funding can be a major advantage for defense startups, but winning it requires more than filling out grant applications. Mollie Jahner about how founders should think about grants, government contracts, teaming, SBIRs, state funding, acquisition pathways, and why the best proposals are written for the reviewer, not the founder.

• Why non-dilutive capital is powerful but still difficult to win
• How defense startups should treat grants like part of the product roadmap
• Why teaming, past performance, and partner strategy matter
• How private capital is learning to follow government demand signals
• Why TRL can be misleading in defense innovation
• How Mission Cultivate is expanding access to funding intelligence and grant support

• Non-dilutive funding is not “easy money.” Founders need a targeted strategy, agency understanding, and clear reviewer-focused writing.
• Grant and contract pursuit should be routine. Mollie recommends founders apply to two or three aligned opportunities every quarter.
• Teaming is an underrated growth mechanism. Startups can strengthen larger proposals by partnering with organizations that already have past performance.
• Government interest can strengthen investor conversations. A credible demand signal from a program office, command, or acquisition stakeholder can help unlock private capital.
• TRL is often too blunt for defense tech. Commercially mature technology may still be immature in a new mission context.
• Founder-problem fit matters. Founders who have personally experienced the mission problem often understand the market, user, and operational gap more deeply.
• AI and software can democratize access to funding opportunities, helping smaller teams compete with organizations that have dedicated capture resources.

[00:33] - Mollie’s current focus: helping founders raise non-dilutive capital

[01:46] - Lessons from closing more than $800 million in grants and government contracts

[02:00] - Why founders need to understand the agency, reviewer, and funding mechanism

[04:25] - Treating grants like a product roadmap, not a one-time event

[05:00] - Teaming as a practical way for startups to access larger funding opportunities

[07:06] - Why program manager conversations can sharpen proposals

[09:07] - How VCs are getting smarter about government funding signals

[10:50] - SBIRs as an entry point, not always a complete acquisition pathway

[13:24] - What makes a founder ready to pursue non-dilutive funding

[14:48] - Why TRL can fail to explain real defense innovation maturity

[16:13] - Innovation as a human terrain and orchestration problem

[17:33] - Drone fatigue and the challenge of differentiation in crowded markets

[19:01] - Spring and Forge’s acquisition by Mission Cultivate

[21:44] - Why government funding is almost a second language for new founders

[22:30] - SBIR mills, repeat winners, and the challenge of access for new entrants

• Guest: Mollie Jahner on LinkedIn
• Email: Mollie at Mission Cultivate

“Grant funding should be part of your product roadmap.”

Subscribe to The Startup Defense for more conversations with founders, investors, builders, and defense leaders working to move technology from idea to fielded capability.

Why accelerating decision-making—not just building models—is the real frontier of defense AI

Guest: Mack Ohlinger – CEO, Dunedain

Most AI conversations in defense focus on models, data, or compute. This one does not. Mack Ohlinger, CEO of Dunedain, is building agent-based systems designed to compress military planning and decision-making timelines from days to seconds. This episode breaks down what actually matters: architecture, user interaction, and the hard reality of getting AI from demo to production. 

• Building agent-based AI systems for military planning workflows (MDMP/MCPP)
• Why most AI companies fail between demo and production
• The role of architecture, testing, and user interaction in mission-grade AI

• The core constraint in defense is decision speed, not access to data or models.
• AI systems that succeed mirror existing cognitive workflows and compress them, rather than replacing them outright.
• The gap between demo and production is driven by integration, edge cases, and real user behavior—not model performance.
• High-quality data is necessary but insufficient; systems must continuously learn from users in real environments.
• Modular, MOSA-aligned architectures introduce integration complexity that must be actively managed.

[00:00] – Intro and mission: accelerating decision-making in defense

[02:30] – From operator experience to startup: identifying the planning bottleneck

[07:00] – Why most AI demos fail to survive contact with real users

[10:30] – The challenge of testing stochastic, multi-agent systems

[18:00] – How to frame AI capability for defense customers (KPPs, outcomes, trust)

[26:00] – Decision-making under changing requirements and dynamic missions

[28:30] – The future: AI-enabled planning from the CoCom level to the individual operator

• Mack Ohlinger — https://www.linkedin.com/in/mack2
• Dunedain — https://dunedainsystems.com/

“The hardest part is not building the system. It’s getting from 99% to 100%—from demo to production.”

How operator trust, patient capital, and integrated platforms turn defense technology into fielded capability

Guest: Justin MacLaurin - Founder & CEO, Digital Force Technologies

Justin MacLaurin has built, sold, bought back, and scaled a defense technology company focused on real operator needs. In this episode, Justin and Callye discuss sensor fusion, edge compute, counter-UAS, SOCOM acquisition speed, and why defense startups must build complete capabilities, not isolated widgets.

• The convergence of technology and military operations
• DFT’s origin story with Naval Special Warfare
• Sensor fusion, edge processing, and battlefield awareness
• Selling to BBN, moving under Raytheon, and buying the company back
• Patient capital versus traditional VC expectations in defense hardware
• Partnership, ruggedization, cyber, and integration for startups
• Counter-UAS, drone scale, and manufacturability
• Building operator trust before scaling to larger services

• Defense technology only matters when it works in operational context.
• Startups win by staying close to the mission and moving faster than traditional acquisition cycles.
• The government buys capabilities, not components, so integration and deployability matter.
• Patient capital can fit defense hardware better than constant fundraising cycles.
• Partnerships help startups avoid wasting runway on non-core work.
• Operator trust is the first contract. Without it, formal acquisition does not matter.

[00:00] - Introducing Justin MacLaurin and DFT

[00:44] - Technology and military operations as the core passion

[01:20] - Why sensor fusion is reaching an inflection point

[04:00] - From video surveillance to edge compute and battlefield data

[06:42] - Translating operator needs at Naval Special Warfare

[08:00] - The unmet need for rapid tactical technology development

[09:00] - Building DFT around mission relevance

[10:12] - Selling to BBN and crossing the Valley of Death internally

[11:20] - Raytheon integration and the shift from startup speed

[12:35] - Buying DFT back and rebooting the company

[16:28] - Choosing scale over a lifestyle business

[17:30] - Partnering with DC Capital Partners

[18:52] - Moving from SOCOM to larger service programs

[19:39] - Patient capital and defense market realities

[23:29] - Startup culture as a mentality, not a size

[24:00] - Helping startups wrap technology for military use

[25:30] - Drone manufacturing, scale, and solving the right problem

[26:30] - The Seraphim platform and rapid sensor integration

[28:27] - Avoiding overinvestment in non-core technology

[31:47] - Marketing, OPSEC, and the modern defense tech noise floor

[33:30] - Building a trust contract with operators

[34:27] - Closing thoughts on fielded capability

Connect

Justin MacLaurin | LinkedIn

Callye Keen | LinkedIn

Advanced Sensing Technology | Digital Force Technologies

Why defense innovation still stalls, how to fix the operating model, and what it takes to get commercial technology into warfighters’ hands at mission speed

Guest: Meagan Metzger – Founder + Chief Executive Officer, Dcode

What actually keeps great commercial technology from reaching the Department of Defense is rarely the technology itself. In this episode, Meagan Metzger joins Callye Keen to break down the real blockers: incentive misalignment, slow operating models, rigid budgeting, and the persistent gap between prototyping and scale. Together they dig into how defense teams can move from admiring the problem to building an acquisition system that rewards outcomes, fast feedback, and rapid fielding.

• Why the Department needs a new operating model to move at the speed of relevance
• How incentive structures shape acquisition behavior and startup outcomes
• Why the “valley of death” is a solvable transition problem, not an unavoidable law of nature
• How rapid capability can go from need to fielded feedback in under 90 days
• Why outcome-based requirements and budgeting create better paths for commercial technology adoption

• Speed in defense innovation requires changing the operating model, not just asking teams to work harder inside the same system.
• Startups need fast clarity, not long maybes. A fast no is often more valuable than prolonged engagement without a buying path.
• Portfolio and mission-outcome thinking can align budgets, acquisition decisions, and fielding efforts around real capability instead of fragmented technology buys.

[00:05 - 01:51] Why this moment feels different for defense innovation and commercial tech adoption

[03:52 - 06:31] The Department needs a new operating model, not just more urgency

[08:43 - 10:43] Incentives, startup reality, and why a fast no beats a long maybe

[12:03 - 14:30] Reframing the valley of death and building a rapid acquisition integration cell

[15:10 - 19:29] Capability portfolios, mission outcomes, and what portfolio leaders should actually measure

[22:12 - 25:14] Why outcome-based requirements and budgeting matter for commercial technology adoption

[27:51 - 30:16] From zero to warfighter feedback in under 90 days and why that loop matters

[30:42 - 32:41] Where to learn more about DCODE and why this work is possible now

• DCODE official website
• Dcode leadership and company background
• “Act Like a CEO” by Meagan Metzger on portfolio leadership and operating models
• Kform and The Startup Defense

• Guest: Meagan Metzger on LinkedIn
• Host: Callye Keen on LinkedIn

How government teams can buy, trust, and operationalize commercial data faster for mission-critical decisions

Guest: Jen Obernier | CEO, Grist Mill Exchange

What does it take to get the exact commercial data a mission team needs before the decision window closes? In this episode, Jen Obernier joins Callye Keen to explain why speed in defense data is not just a technology problem. It is an acquisition, trust, and integration problem, and the teams that solve it will have a major advantage in decision-making, AI adoption, and mission execution.

• Why coherent data matters more than raw collection volume
• How Grist Mill Exchange helps governments discover, license, and deliver commercial data faster
• Why successful AI efforts start with the decision and required data, not just the model
• How resilient data pipelines reduce risk when providers, business models, or mission needs change
• Why the next defense advantage may belong to teams that can integrate and move data where decisions happen

• Speed comes from coherence: the right data, in the right place, at the right moment
• Many mission data bottlenecks are business model and procurement problems before they are technical problems
• AI programs are far more effective when teams identify the decision first, then align the data strategy to support it
• Trusted, flexible access to commercial data is becoming part of the defense data supply chain
• The future power brokers inside government may be the people who can integrate, route, and operationalize data across systems

[00:04 - 01:22] Jen explains her core passion: enabling better mission decisions with the specific data needed, exactly when and where it is needed

[03:10 - 05:25] From neuroscientist to Pentagon executive to CEO, Jen shares the career path that led her to Grist Mill Exchange

[05:25 - 07:47] Why 9 to 18 month acquisition timelines make mission-relevant data useless by the time it arrives

[07:51 - 10:58] Callye connects mission data assurance to supply chain resilience and the risks of depending on fragile commercial inputs

[10:58 - 13:20] Jen breaks down why commercial data access is as much a business model problem as a technology problem

[14:29 - 16:16] Subscription access, one-time historical purchases, and metered APIs as flexible ways to buy only the data needed

[17:00 - 18:55] Real-world use cases from policy analysis to supply chain intelligence and mission operations

[20:39 - 22:23] Why AI pilots succeed when they are built around a real decision and the data required to support it

[25:16 - 26:58] Jen’s prediction for the next three to five years: data integrators and infrastructure builders become the new power brokers

• Grist Mill Exchange: Official website

“Speed comes from coherence.”

Follow The Startup Defense for more conversations at the intersection of commercial technology and defense innovation. If this episode was useful, share it with a founder, operator, or acquisition leader working on mission data, AI, or defense modernization.