DIB Innovators

Rifath Shaarook, Co-Founder and CEO of Catalyx Space, says building a satellite is easier than the compliance around it. The hardest part is figuring out which license applies, ITU or FAA, and which military, NASA, or ESA standards to maintain. Get it wrong, and technical talent won't save the team.He also walks Steve through Catalyx's foldable heat shield. It uses cable tension to deploy wider in space, so it faces 900 to 1,000 degrees instead of 2,500 or more and can use much lighter material.Topics discussed:- Navigating ITU frequency coordination and FAA licensing- Tracking military, NASA, and ESA standards- Understanding qualification and testing requirements before building hardware- Engaging defense stakeholders from the first design validation- Using cable tension and tensegrity to deploy reentry heat shields- Designing reentry vehicles for a 1:1 payload-to-mass ratio- Lowering return costs toward $5,000 per kilogram- Removing the founder bottleneck to scale business developmentListen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTubeWebsite

Steen Bisgaard spent over a decade in the Australian Army's Armoured Corps before founding GaardTech to build the combat robots he wished he had in the field. His concept of a "robotic fighting echelon," where autonomous systems hold terrain, deny access, and strike before human formations ever engage, is now being validated in live operations across four nations.GaardTech's Jaeger robotic munition systems survive .50 cal fire and operate across land, littoral, and air domains. Built with full vertical integration and zero outside capital, the company manufactures across Australia, the UK, and the US. The Australian Army recently completed its first live UGV detonation using GaardTech hardware.Topics discussed:- Why robotic fighting echelons will define future land warfare- Building a defense company on revenue instead of venture capital- Vertical integration as a competitive advantage in robotic systems- The 20/40/40 lethality matrix and defense budget gaps- Jaeger robots built to deny terrain and survive direct fire- Scaling internationally across AUKUS nations from 20 employees- Standalone edge autonomy as an alternative to swarming- Lessons from Afghanistan and Ukraine on robotic warfareListen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTubeWebsite

Asylon showed up to an Air Force aircraft inspection demo with zero general visual inspection software. While every competitor brought five or six people, Asylon operated a drone and robot dog around an aircraft with one person on the ground, controlled remotely from Philadelphia. That proved to the Air Force that autonomous robot operations at scale was the harder problem to solve.Damon Henry, CEO and Co-Founder of Asylon, tells Dave how the company built a managed robotic security service with over 350,000 autonomous missions logged. Damon breaks down why selling outcomes instead of robots changes the acquisition equation, and why NDAA-compliant hardware built for defense makes their commercial business stronger by default.Topics discussed:- From Boeing and GE to co-founding an autonomous robotics company- Building hardware as a means to software and data- Selling security as a service instead of selling robots- Winning a Phase 3 Air Force contract for aircraft inspections- Operating robot dogs and drones with minimal human footprint- NDAA-compliant manufacturing as a dual-use advantage- Filling security labor shortages with persistent autonomous patrols- The blank screen vision for future security operationsListen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTubeWebsite

If 85% of defense M&A exits land below $100 million in enterprise value, why are so many defense tech founders raising at valuations unmoored from the fundamentals? Morgan Hitzig, General Partner at Overmatch Ventures, thinks the answer lies in who founders take money from and whether those investors understand budget cycles, colors of money, and what it takes to scale production.Morgan walks Dave through how Overmatch deploys its oversubscribed $250 million fund across deep tech, defense, and space at the pre-seed to Series A stage. She introduces the "Founder Offset" thesis, where America's edge over China is thousands of founders nobody had to approve, and explains why supply chain single points of failure are where she sees the most urgent gaps.Topics discussed:- Deploying a $250M fund from pre-seed to Series A- The "Founder Offset" thesis against China's central planning- Spotting "forces of nature" founders on a first call- Why inflated valuations risk defense tech longevity- Mapping single points of failure across defense supply chains- The "bring your own operator" syndrome in government sales- How the Office of Strategic Capital changes venture math- Understanding colors of money and budget cyclesListen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTubeWebsite

Manan Patel deployed to Iraq as a civilian engineer and mission commander on airborne ISR platforms, then left the government lab with no business plan to start Special Operations Solutions. A decade later, private equity merged his company with two others to form AEVEX, which went public on the NYSE and has delivered over 6,000 autonomous platforms.As CTO, Manan explains how AEVEX's CompassCore hardware-software stack runs across every platform size and domain, enabling mass production by design. He breaks down ForgeX, a 3D printing capability that lets operators build and fly drones in the field without AEVEX personnel.Topics discussed:- Deploying to Iraq as a civilian engineer on ISR platforms- Founding Special Operations Solutions and scaling to PE acquisition- Designing Atlas for the Army's launched effect short range program- Building CompassCore as a common stack across all platforms- Operating autonomous UAS in GPS denied and comms degraded environments- Forward-deployable drone manufacturing with ForgeX- Separating kinetic and surveillance payloads with modular nose cones- Scaling from prototype to full rate productionListen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTubeWebsite