DIB Innovators

Doodle Labs engineered multi-band radios that frequency-hop in milliseconds, outpacing jamming attacks that make satellite control impossible for real-time drone operations. When conflict in Ukraine started, the engineering team repurposed this architecture for anti-jamming by hopping between bands faster than adversaries could track and jam.  Ashish Parikh , Co-CEO, details their monthly software...

Oura tracked an armored unit's gunnery qualification and found baseline heart rate variability statistically predicted top-quartile performance on weapons platforms. Their three-tier privacy architecture gives individuals AI-driven feedback, lets them share data with coaches by explicit consent, and provides command aggregate de-identified metrics. This information helps command know not only...

Clark Haymond , COO of DEWM , leveraged active duty relationships to compress validation timelines that would take years through traditional AFRL sequences. Having friends now in squadron leadership enabled direct jet time allocation for hypothesis testing, proving DEWM's DART could complete actual SEAD kill chains before committing to the formal program of record pathways. This network-driven app...

Storing cargo in orbit is becoming cost-comparable to maintaining hundreds of terrestrial warehouses scattered globally, but in orbit, they’re not as vulnerable to atmospheric conditions, geographic limitations, and single points of failure. Justin Fiaschetti , CEO & Co-founder of Inversion , explains how this approach requires orders of magnitude fewer units to cover the same geographic area...

Jonathan DiMattei , Founder & CEO of Lothric Labs , describes his pathway into defense manufacturing as fearless, relentless, and totally unbiased networking. He attended every ribbon cutting, grand opening, and Chamber of Commerce event he could find, regardless of industry. The breakthrough came at World Trade Center Denver, where events put him directly in front of United Airlines, Lockheed...

Primer.ai reduced a 50-day intelligence analysis timeline to hours, enabling operators to redirect friendlies away from hostile forces before collision. CEO Sean Moriarty explains why this speed advantage stems from working backward from customer need rather than leading with AI capabilities — understanding workflow bottlenecks where analysts spend more time assembling information than analyzing i...

SpaceX's early mission operations exposed a fundamental problem: mission-critical teams were executing complex procedures across Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, and fragmented communication channels, creating dangerous gaps where hardware gets destroyed and critical data falls through the cracks. Laura Crabtree , Co-founder & CEO of Epsilon3 , built Epsilon 3 to solve this after watching teams flip...

Michael Peters , CEO & Founder of Lazarus Alliance , built his cybersecurity career on one principle: turn over rocks before the bad guys do. After 25 years conducting audits, he's watched DIB companies treat compliance frameworks like magical protection. For Michael, however, passing CMMC means you had two good weeks, not 50 weeks of security. His Security Trifecta framework overrides this ch...

OpsLab's scheduling platform saves Air Force squadrons 200 hours per month — time previously spent by pilots manually fixing flight schedules until late at night. Arun Nair , Founder & CEO, showcases how OpsLab 's three-layer intelligence system went from 30% scheduler acceptance to operational deployment across 75+ squadrons by combining operations research algorithms, reinforcement learning...

When Kim Crider , Founding Partner at Elara Nova , became the Air Force's first Chief Data Officer, she had no mandate, minimal staff, and skeptical four-star commanders. Her CORONA presentation changed everything: using actual pilot retention data and analysis, she demonstrated how insufficient training aircraft was driving attrition. The Secretary's response unlocked buy-in across the service. ...

Roger fills gaps other military banks ignore: free credit score monitoring that typically costs $20 monthly, 2% yield on checking with savings rates reaching 5.25% during peak periods, and zero overdraft fees while competitors generate significant revenue from service member overdrafts. Jill Castilla , President & CEO of Roger Bank / Citizens Bank of Edmond , walks through how the platform's f...

Sasha Seymore , Co-founder & President at Ethos , walked onto the UNC basketball team as a senior, struggled with outdated playbook training, and turned that frustration into a company that cuts military schoolhouse failure rates by two-thirds while saving millions per location. His co-founder Andrew was student body president studying active learning pedagogy, and together they built a platfo...

Zone 5 Technologies cut cruise missile costs from $1.5 million to $200,000 by rethinking not just the engineering, but how you build the supply chain and factory floor around cost targets from day one. Thomas Akers , CEO, shares how his team goes from contract award to weapon flight in 4 months by keeping engineers right next to the production line, writing all their own software, and doing machin...

What happens when China sanctions your drone company? For Skydio , it became the catalyst for complete supply chain independence and battle-tested technology that now guides Ukrainian artillery strikes. Mark Valentine , Global Head of National Security Strategy, breaks down the story for Dave : when their drones in Ukraine failed due to single-band radios and GPS dependence, his team made 36 field...

Defense contractors assume they understand CMMC assessments, but Matt Bruggeman , Director of GTM Federal at A-LIGN , has a harsh reality check for them: organizations consistently arrive for certification without basic documentation like authorization boundaries or data flow diagrams. The gap between CMMC perception and assessment reality is creating a compliance crisis, he tells Dave .   A-LIGN...

Venus Aerospace achieved the first flight of a high-thrust rotating detonation rocket engine, proving that decades of theoretical research can translate into breakthrough propulsion technology. Sassie Duggleby , CEO & Co-founder,  tells Dave about conducting eight engine tests per day while maintaining manufacturing, mission control, and testing in the same facility compressed development time...

America's defense innovation pipeline has a massive bottleneck that most people don't even realize exists: the infrastructure access problem that prevents our best technology companies and cleared talent from working on classified programs. Sean Blackman , Co-founder & CEO at Nooks , experienced this firsthand as a Navy F-18 pilot trying to get non-traditional companies onto classified contrac...

The underwater domain has become central to great power competition, yet existing autonomous underwater vehicles cost $500,000+ and require teams of specialists to operate single units. Nelson Mills , CEO & Founder of Vatn Systems , and his team have flipped this equation, building vehicles that travel 30+ knots underwater while enabling one operator to deploy hundreds of units with minimal tr...

The defense industrial base faces a manufacturing crisis that goes far deeper than workforce shortages, and John Albers , President/CEO of Albers Aerospace has positioned his company at the center of solving it. He grew Albers Aerospace from solo systems engineering to a $10 million vertically integrated manufacturer through 12 strategic acquisitions, all funded internally without outside investme...

The Ukrainian conflict revealed a stark reality that should light a fire under American defense planners: modern warfare consumes weapons at rates that would exhaust our entire arsenal in months, not years. In his conversation with Dave on the latest DIB Innovators, Kunal Mehra , President of Scientific Systems , brings a unique perspective to solving this crisis, shaped by his family's experience...

When America's adversaries can outbuild us in ships, what's our strategic advantage? Paul Lwin , CEO & Co-founder of HAVOCai , shares how his company is revolutionizing maritime operations by creating affordable autonomous vessels that can operate in swarms. As a Myanmar refugee who first saw American uniforms during his evacuation at age 10, Paul brings a unique perspective to defense innovat...

When Rhys Andersen , Founder & CEO at Method MFG , moved to Texas with an architecture degree, he never imagined he'd end up machining components for spacesuits and rockets. Yet his journey from welding to founding his company exemplifies the untapped potential in American manufacturing. By combining cutting-edge technology with a focus on upskilling his entire team, Rhys has created a manufac...

President & COO Matthew Malone 's journey from solving locomotive failures in Indonesia to leading Graham Manufacturing offers rare insight into how technical expertise transforms into business leadership. In this episode of DIB Innovators, Matthew tells Dave how Graham bridges the innovation gap between rapid-iteration space technology and methodical defense requirements while manufacturing c...

The race to protect America's orbital assets is accelerating, and Agile Space Industries is providing the engines needed for rapid spacecraft maneuverability. In this episode of DIB Innovators, CEO Chris Pearson walks Dave through how decades-old chemical propulsion technology is finding new relevance as Space Force openly prepares for potential conflict in space. Through vertical integration comb...

Samuel Semwangu , CEO of Bazze , provides his insider perspective on the revolution happening in defense intelligence collection that most Americans aren't seeing. Bazze federates queries across dozens of commercial data vendors, delivering intelligence insights in seconds that previously took days. He also explains why the Ukraine war has become the ultimate proof point for commercial intelligenc...