Crossing the Valley

About Eric Eric didn’t start as an entrepreneur. After serving 12 years as an infantry officer in the US Army, including deployments during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, he attended Stanford GSB while still on active duty. Exposure to business school thinking, combined with his frontline understanding of technology pain points, set him on an unexpected path. In 2017, he co-founded Key Square Labs...

About Dave Tuttle Dave Tuttle’s career reads like preparation for exactly one mission: building defense logistics software that actually works at the tactical edge. After commissioning as an Army officer and deploying to Afghanistan, he transitioned to aerospace and defense investment banking on Wall Street, where he learned to decode J-books and understand the intricacies of defense budgeting and...

About Jeff Cole Jeff Cole is the CEO and co-founder of Hidden Level, bringing 20 years of experience developing radar and sensing technology for defense, intelligence, and commercial customers. Before founding Hidden Level, Jeff worked at Saab and SRC (a not-for-profit defense company), where he developed cutting-edge systems for customers including the Army, FAA, and NASA. He also collaborated wi...

From University Lab to Critical Defense Supplier About Jonathan Rowntree Jonathan Rowntree brings three decades of materials commercialization experience to his role as CEO of Niron Magnetics. His background spans scaling technologies across consumer electronics, industrial applications, automotive, and defense sectors. Before joining Niron in 2022, Rowntree led global businesses and specialized i...

About Dan Wright Dan combines deep operational experience with strategic thinking about technological competition. Starting his career as a lawyer at Goodwin Proctor, Wright made the transition to technology by joining AppDynamics as one of the early employees, eventually becoming COO. He then served as CEO of DataRobot before co-founding Armada in 2022. Dan combines three critical elements that p...

Case Study: Blue Water Autonomy's Lightning-Fast Series A About the Guests Rylan Hamilton is Co-founder and CEO of Blue Water Autonomy, bringing a unique combination of naval service and commercial robotics expertise. After his Navy career, Hamilton spent years in the commercial robotics space focusing on warehouse and logistics automation, giving him deep understanding of both military requiremen...

Fortem Technologies - From Radar Innovation to Counter-UAS Leader About Jon Gruen Jon brings a unique combination of operational experience and defense industry knowledge to his role as CEO of Fortem Technologies. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, he served 10 years on active duty as a Navy SEAL, including multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq during Operations Enduring Freedom...

How Palantir, SpaceX & Anduril Veterans Are Redefining Cybersecurity for the Defense Industrial Base About the Guests Nik Seetharaman and Grace Clemente represent perhaps the most elite defense tech pedigree possible. Between them, they've touched the holy trinity of modern defense juggernauts: Palantir, SpaceX, and Anduril. Nik's journey began in special operations before transitioning to the pri...

About James Boyd James Boyd is the archetype of a mission-driven founder. Born in California but raised in the UK, his trajectory changed completely on September 11, 2001, when he was a Stanford computer science student. Instead of following his peers into consulting or investment banking, Boyd made the contrarian decision to enlist in Army Special Forces—a choice that would define his entire care...

LeoLabs is Building the "Living Map" of Space Activity About Tony Frazier Tony Frazier joined LeoLabs as CEO after a distinguished career scaling technology companies in complex government markets. At Maxar Technologies, he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Earth Intelligence, overseeing partnerships with over 60 allies worldwide and supporting critical missions from humani...

About Lieutenant General (ret) Ross Coffman Ross Coffman represents a rare breed in defense innovation - a senior military leader who transitioned directly from the Pentagon to startup leadership. During his final seven years in the Army, Lt Gen Coffman was deep in technology, serving as director of the next generation combat vehicle cross-functional team before becoming deputy commanding general...

Case Study: Bridging the Strategy-Industrial Reality Gap About the Experts Becca Wasser and Phil Sheers from the Center for New American Security (CNAS) authored "From Production Lines to Front Lines: Revitalizing the U.S. Defense Industrial Base for Future Great Power Conflict." Wasser specializes in defense strategy and great power competition, while Sheers focuses on defense budgets and acquisi...

About Dr. Alex Miller Dr. Alex Miller serves as the Chief Technology Officer of the United States Army, a position that oversees technology modernization across one of the world's largest and most complex organizations. An intelligence professional by trade, Miller was elevated to this strategic role to drive the Army Transformation Initiative—the most significant military modernization effort in...

Checking in on Accrete: Building a Dual-Use AI Company That Scales About Brian Drake & Bill Wall Brian Drake serves as Federal Chief Technology Officer at Accrete AI, bringing deep government intelligence experience from his time at Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Bill Wall leads federal operations, managing the complex dance between classified and unclassified work across government contracts....

About Brian Streem Brian Streem is the founder and CEO of Vermeer, a company building vision-based navigation systems for GPS-denied environments. His unconventional path began at NYU film school, where a screenwriting teacher taught him that good stories are "both unpredictable and inevitable" – a principle that would define his entrepreneurial journey. Streem became one of the first legal drone...

Building Multi-Domain Capabilities Through Iterative Experimentation About our Guests Repeat guests from Episode 43 , Lt Colonel Tommy Burns and Lt Colonel Aaron Ritzema are completing their tours with the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany, where they've spearheaded some of the Army's most innovative experimentation efforts. Both officers bring operational experience to the challenge of trans...

Case Study: How ULA CEO Tory Bruno Stewarded a Legacy Giant Through Existential Threats About Tory Bruno Tory joined United Launch Alliance as CEO in August 2014, bringing four decades of aerospace experience and a track record of over 400 rocket launches. Previously at Lockheed Martin, he led programs in hypersonics, directed energy, and missile defense while running one of the company's largest...

About Josh Joshua Steinman brings a unique combination of operational military experience, senior policy leadership, and entrepreneurial drive to the challenge of securing America's industrial infrastructure. A retired naval officer, Josh was one of the original "10 heretics" tasked by the Chief of Naval Operations to find asymmetric opportunities for the Navy - an effort that helped catalyze toda...

SOF Week Part II: How Early Stage Companies’ Strategies Played Out Last week, we connected with the founders of EdgeRunner AI, Aurum Systems, and Distributed Spectrum before they made their way to Tampa for SOF Week. In this follow-up episode, we hear how they performed. Edgerunner AI: From Education to Validation Original Objective : Meet "shot callers" (decision-makers at multiple levels) and ed...

SOF Week Pt. 1: A Tale of Three Defense Tech Startups In this special edition of Crossing the Valley, we sit down with three promising defense technology companies ahead of their trip to SOF Week—one of the defense industry's premier events. Each company represents a different stage in the journey across the "valley of death" from concept to production, providing valuable insights for founders nav...

The Army's Multi-Domain Task Force: Soldier-Driven Innovation in Action About our Guests Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Burns serves as the Deputy Commander of the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF), headquartered in Germany in support of US Army Europe and Africa. With a background in traditional Army operations, Burns brings a task force-level perspective on how new capabilities need to integrate int...

Is the Department of the Navy Taking the Lead in Defense Acquisition? About Justin and Artem Justin Fanelli serves as the Navy Chief Technology Officer and has earned a reputation for dismantling bureaucratic barriers that traditionally slow defense innovation. Coming from a technical background, Fanelli has developed new mental models for technology adoption within the Department of the Navy, inc...

About Grant Grant DeMaree founded Onebrief after serving on joint task forces in Liberia during the Ebola crisis and later in Iraq. As a second lieutenant in Liberia, Grant witnessed how the military's decision-making processes were lagging three months behind the movement of the Ebola virus, resulting in treatment units being built in locations where they were no longer needed. This experience le...

About Jason Brown After serving 26 years in the Air Force, where he commanded the 480th Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing, Jason became deeply involved in defense innovation initiatives. He founded the Air Force AI Accelerator at MIT and helped stand up the Joint AI Center before transitioning to the private sector. Prior to joining Applied Intuition as General Manager of their def...

Today, we announce Blue Water Autonomy is coming out of stealth, on Crossing the Valley Presents: Launch Day! About Blue Water Autonomy Founded in spring 2024 and based in Boston, Blue Water Autonomy is designing and building autonomous ships with a "defense first, dual-use" approach. Their first customer is the U.S. Navy. What distinguishes BWA from other players in the space is their focus on de...