DefTechPod

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell is joined by James Murray, Accelerator Manager at Janus, the UK accelerator delivering the NATO DIANA programme in partnership with UK Defence Innovation. James brings a wide-ranging background in entrepreneurship, venture capital, university innovation and early-stage company building. Before joining Janus, he worked across entrepreneurship educat...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell is joined by Tim Stringer, VP Defence at Gravity Industries, the UK company behind the Gravity Jet Suit. Founded by Richard Browning in 2017, Gravity Industries began as something many people saw as extraordinary, futuristic and almost impossible to categorise. Since then, the company has taken the Jet Suit from spectacle to serious capability, dem...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell is joined by Mads Jensen, Managing Partner at SuperSeed, for a practical conversation about AI, seed investment, technical founders and what it takes to build a credible company in a very noisy market. Mads is a former entrepreneur, technologist and investor who has spent two decades building and scaling technology businesses. At SuperSeed, he back...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell is joined by Drew Rudhall, Senior Associate at Reddie & Grose, for a practical discussion on intellectual property and what defence, security and dual-use technology companies need to understand before they start sharing their ideas with the world. Drew is a UK and European patent attorney with a technical background in laser physics and biopho...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Jonatan Luther-Bergquist, General Partner at Inflection and co-founder of the European Defence Tech Hub. Jonatan comes to defence through engineering physics, cryptography, venture capital and deep tech rather than a conventional defence career. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has been focused on how Europe can move fa...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Alex Scott, Director of Commercial Affairs at Steel Rock Capital, a specialist financing house working exclusively with companies in the defence, security and resilience sectors. For many defence SMEs, the problem is not only finding opportunities or understanding procurement routes. It is surviving the financial reality of delivery. Lo...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Steve Mason, founder and CEO of Nova Blue Technologies and former technical director at GCHQ, and Dave Collins OBE, senior director for cybersecurity at Nova Blue and former Royal Air Force officer. The conversation looks at what cybersecurity really means for companies working in and around UK and NATO defence. Steve and Dave explain w...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica speaks with Denys Demko, Economic Secretary at the Embassy of Ukraine in the United Kingdom, about Ukraine’s defence technology ecosystem and what allied companies, investors and partners can learn from it. Denys explains how Ukraine’s defence sector has grown under wartime pressure, with thousands of companies now operating across drones, UGVs, electronic warf...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Anssi Aikio of XD Solutions about Finnish defence innovation, Arctic testing, and why cold-weather experimentation matters far more than many companies realise. The conversation explores how XD Solutions works with the Finnish Defence Forces and the wider Finnish defence ecosystem to connect emerging technology with real operational nee...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Nico Nelson, founding general partner of Archangel Ventures, about what it really takes to build, back, and scale defence technology in Europe. Drawing on two decades across defence, intelligence, national security, corporate strategy, and investing, Nico brings a sharp view of where founders, investors, and institutions still get thing...

In this episode, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Luca Leone, CEO of Kahootz, about secure collaboration in defence, what sovereignty actually means in practice, and why these questions matter far more than many early-stage companies realise. Luca brings a rare mix of experience across engineering, defence business development, innovation support, and software leadership, and the conversation gets i...

In this episode, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Jake Bostock, Technology Scout at Beaten Zone Venture Partners and an Australian Army reservist working in capability development, about the realities of the Australian defence market, AUKUS Pillar 2, and why Australia can be both a valuable landing point and a difficult market to break into. They discuss what makes Australia different from the U.S....

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Chloe Friberg, President of the Norwegian American Defense and Homeland Security Industry Council, about what serious market entry support actually looks like when a country is trying to help its defence companies succeed in the United States. They discuss how NADIC became a practical bridge between Norwegian industry and the U.S. defen...

For many international defence companies, entering the U.S. Department of War can feel slow, opaque, and highly competitive. This episode challenges that assumption. Erica Dill-Russell is joined by Colonel Jeffrey Naff, Director of the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) Program, to unpack one of the most underused and misunderstood pathways into U.S. defence acquisition. FCT exists for a specific p...

In this episode of DefTechPod, we speak with Andre Turville, a seasoned CEO and entrepreneur whose career spans cybersecurity, energy, clean technology and defence across Europe and Asia. Andre shares a grounded view of what it actually takes to build and scale companies in complex, high-stakes sectors. From early exposure to engineering and entrepreneurship through to leading ventures at the inte...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Dan Sawyers, Head of jHub in the UK. Dan discusses why innovation has become such an urgent priority for defence and how the pace of technological change is forcing institutions to rethink how they identify, adapt and adopt new capabilities. The conversation explores the role of jHub within the UK defence innovation landscape, the press...

Justin Hedges | Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Prevail Partners Justin Hedges, former Royal Marines officer and Executive Chairman of Prevail Partners, joins DefTechPod to discuss what modern conflict is teaching the defence technology community. Drawing on Prevail’s operational work in Ukraine, Justin explains why laboratory success rarely translates directly to battlefield relevance. He de...

In this episode of DefTechPod, Erica Dill-Russell speaks with Toby McCrindle, Partner and Head of Defence & Deep Tech at Mishcon de Reya, about what really happens between early enthusiasm and an actual defence contract. Toby has worked across major aerospace and defence programmes, inside primes, within venture-backed start-ups, and now advises dual-use and defence tech companies navigating p...

In this episode of DefTechPod, we speak with Marcus Roberts - former British Army officer and now a key figure within Janus Allies and IoT Tribe - about what it really takes for dual-use technology to enter defence markets. Marcus shares how his operational experience in Afghanistan shaped the way he judges new technology, why innovation cycles are accelerating dramatically, and what founders ofte...

In this episode of the DefTechLink podcast, Tasha Josefsson is joined by David Rolen for a grounded discussion on how defence procurement actually works in practice. They unpack the role of Program Executive Offices (PEOs), how requirements move from interest to structure, and why procurement timelines, incentives, and decision authority are so often misunderstood by SMEs and non-traditional suppl...

In this episode, Tasha Josefsson speaks with Thomas Nygaard about the story behind Eelume , Norway’s approach to dual-use technology, and what meaningful collaboration actually looks like in practice. The conversation explores how Eelume bridges commercial and defence requirements, why subsea and maritime autonomy demand long-term trust rather than quick wins, and how Norwegian industry, academia,...

In this episode of the DefTechLink podcast, Tasha Josefsson sits down with Erica Dill‑Russell to talk through how DefTechLink came into being and, more importantly, why. Erica shares the gap she kept seeing from both sides of the table. Capable companies with strong technology repeatedly misreading defence pathways, burning time and money, and mistaking interest for progress. Rather than building...