Building the Base

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with Ken Bedingfield, Chief Financial Officer and President of Missile Solutions at L3Harris. This episode was recorded on December 6, 2025 at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, CA. Ken discusses his journey across the defense industrial base, from leadership at a traditional prime to serving as the 20th e...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with Paul Kwan, Managing Director at General Catalyst, where he leads the global resilience investment team, recorded live at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley. Paul traces his path from reading The Hunt for Red October in sixth grade to becoming one of the original defense tech VCs, and walks through what...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with Matthew Steckman, President and Chief Business Officer of Anduril Industries, recorded live at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley. Matt discusses his path from being among the first dozen employees at Palantir's DC office to co-founding Anduril, which has grown from operating out of his backyard shed i...

In this episode recorded live from the December 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum, hosts Lauren Bedula and Hondo Geurts sit down with David Appel, Vice President of Global Government for Amazon Web Services. With 28 years at Raytheon before joining AWS, David brings a unique perspective on the evolution of the defense industrial base and the critical role cloud infrastructure plays in national se...

In this episode recorded live from the 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, hosts Lauren Bedula and Hondo Geurts welcome back Ranking Member Adam Smith of the House Armed Services Committee for the second year in a row. Following his morning keynote address, Rep. Smith discusses the current state of defense innovation and acquisition reform, which he characterizes as a "good news, ba...

In this episode recorded live from the 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, hosts Lauren Bedula and Hondo Geurts sit down with the Honorable Brent Ingraham, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. Secretary Ingraham shares his remarkable journey from designing engines at General Motors to answering an unexpected call from the Marine Corps in 2009 to...

In this episode recorded live from the 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, hosts Lauren Bedula and Hondo Geurts sit down with Congressman Rob Wittman, Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Co-Chair of the Defense Modernization Caucus. Congressman Wittman shares his journey from reforming a Boy Scout troop in his small Virginia hometown to leading defense modernizat...

In this episode recorded live from the 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, hosts Lauren Bedula and Hondo Geurts sit down with Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of Robinhood and founder and CEO of Aetherflux. Baiju shares his remarkable journey from the son of Indian immigrants, his mother arriving pregnant with two suitcases of pots and pans, to democratizing access to America's financial sys...

In this episode recorded live from the 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, hosts Lauren Bedula and Hondo Geurts sit down with the Honorable Michael "Mike" Dodd, Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies and Acting Deputy Director of the Defense Innovation Unit. Secretary Dodd shares his remarkable journey from enlisted Marine amtracker to Mustang infantry officer, through...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with August Cole, strategist, author, and futurist who has spent his career exploring fiction's role in national security strategy. Drawing from his journey from Wall Street Journal journalist covering defense and technology to co-authoring the groundbreaking novel Ghost Fleet with Peter Singer, Cole discusses how fictio...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with Jamie Jones Miller, CEO of Northeastern University's Arlington campus and Interim Director of the Kostas Research Institute. Drawing from her journey from Capitol Hill legislative work on the House Armed Services Committee to the Pentagon's Office of Legislative Affairs, and now leading national security research in...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with Zach Beecher, Partner at Scout Ventures, who brings a unique perspective from serving as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq to now leading dual-use technology investments on the front lines of defense innovation. Drawing from his combat experience witnessing "innovation at the speed of battle" dur...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with Congressman Pat Harrigan (NC-10), who brings a rare combination of Special Forces experience, defense entrepreneurship, and fresh congressional perspective to America's national security challenges. Drawing from his service in 3rd Special Forces Group, his journey building a weapons and munitions manufacturing compa...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with Ranking Member Jim Himes (D-CT), who serves on both the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Financial Services Committee. Drawing from his unique background spanning Wall Street and public service, Congressman Himes discusses the critical intersection of technology innovation, national sec...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula reconnect with Cameron McCord, Co-Founder and CEO of Nominal, two years after his first appearance on the show (linked here ). Drawing from his unique journey from submarine officer (484 days underwater) to defense tech entrepreneur, McCord discusses building software to accelerate testing and validation of mission-critical syste...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula are joined by James Parker and Chris Lay, co-founding partners of Leonid Capital Partners , a private credit fund supporting the US national security ecosystem. Drawing from their unique backgrounds in astrophysics and neuroscience, Parker and Lay discuss how their innovative lending approach fills a critical gap in defense tech...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula are joined by Becca Wasser and Philip Sheers from the Center for New American Security (CNAS) to discuss their recent report, "From Production Lines to Front Lines." Drawing from extensive industry research and stakeholder interviews, Wasser and Sheers offer a comprehensive look at the critical challenges and opportunities facing...

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with John Maslin, Co-founder and CEO of Vulcan Elements , for an insightful conversation about the critical importance of rare earth magnets to U.S. national security. Drawing from his background as a Navy Supply Corps officer and his entrepreneurial journey, Maslin offers a candid look into the challenges and opportunit...

Today's episode of Building the Base is part two of our "Founders in Focus" series, recorded at Manifest: Demo Day where 34 companies from across the defense industrial base demoed their disruptive tech. Hosts Hondo and Lauren caught up with some of the most dynamic founders: Tyler Sweatt from Second Front , Josh Lospinoso from Shift5 , and Troy Demmer from Gecko Robotics , asking them everything...

Today's episode of Building the Base is part one of our "Founders in Focus" series, recorded at Manifest: Demo Day where 34 companies from across the defense industrial base demoed their disruptive tech. Hosts Hondo and Lauren caught up with some of the most dynamic founders: Jeff Cole from Hidden Level , Doug Bernauer from Radiant , and Topher Haddad from Albedo , asking them everything from "Are...

In this episode of Building the Base, Melissa "Mojo" Johnson, Acquisition Executive at US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), offers a candid look into the world of military acquisition, drawing from her extensive experience with the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office and SOCOM.  Five key takeaways from today's episode: To drive organizational growth effectively, Mojo advocates for horizontal...

In this episode of Building the Base, Lauren and Hondo sit down with Eric Lofgren, a professional staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Eric provides an insider's perspective on the need for comprehensive acquisition reform. He discusses his unexpected path to this role, initially joining a defense contractor before becoming deeply interested in the history and economics of the syst...

In this episode of Building the Base, Lauren Bedula and Hondo Geurts sit down with Congressman Pat Ryan (NY-18). Rep. Ryan represents a diverse district of 800,000 in upstate New York, which includes his alma mater, West Point. An Iraq war veteran, Rep. Ryan transitioned from active duty, to defense tech, to Congress, where he now champions defense innovation and national security issues. In March...

This episode of Building the Base features an interview with Thomas Robinson, Chief Operating Officer of Domino Data Lab, who has an interesting background in finance and a strong passion for contributing to national security. Hosted by Lauren Bedula and Hondo Geurts, the conversation dives into Thomas’s transition from a hedge fund to defense tech, and how his background has informed his leadersh...

In this episode of Building the Base, Andy Lowery, CEO of Epirus, discusses his journey from his days as a Navy reactor operator to leading a counter-UAS high-power microwave (HPM) system company. Epirus' HPM technology, which uses electromagnetic pulses to disable drones, has been tested successfully by the Army for over 15 months. Lowery emphasizes the importance of directed energy in countering...