Mission Matters Podcast

In this Techquisition Edition of The Mission Matters Podcast, Maggie Gray and David Rothzeid break down Secretary Hegseth's new memo establishing a Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager (DRPM) for unmanned and autonomous systems. David unpacks what a DRPM actually is, how it differs from traditional Portfolio Acquisition Executives and Joint Program Offices, and why this new "czar" reports directly t...

The Magura family of USVs, built by UFORCE, sank 14 Russian warships. UFORCE air systems have flown over 220,000 combat missions and downed two Su-30 fighter jets — all in under three years of operation. In this episode, CEO Oleg Rogynskyy joins David and Maggie to talk about building Ukraine's first defense tech unicorn from the front lines: how UFORCE manufactures under missile threat, why m...

AI made writing code cheap. Verifying it is the new bottleneck. Peter Morales, CEO and co-founder of Code Metal, joins Maggie Gray and Pat O'Reilly to talk about modernizing the legacy code running US national security — and why formal verification is the durable moat in an era of commodity AI code generation. Founded in 2023, Code Metal has raised ~$200M and signed contracts with the US Air F...

Decoding the President’s Budget Request, POM, and DoD J-Books for Defense Tech Startups. In this Techquisition Edition episode of The Mission Matters Podcast, Maggie and David explain why the President’s Budget Request, the Pentagon POM process, and the DoD “J-books” are key public roadmaps of priorities and funding signals, while emphasizing the request is not law and Congress controls appropriat...

In this episode, Shield Capital's Maggie and Akhil sit down with Dan Wright (Co-Founder & CEO) and Pradeep Nair (Founding CTO) of Armada — the company building distributed AI infrastructure for the world's most remote and mission-critical environments. They cover why the cloud breaks at the edge, how Armada is deploying sovereign AI infrastructure across defense, energy, and mining, an...

After a 6 month lapse, the SBIR program is officially back following Congressional reauthorization. In this episode of the Mission Matters podcast, we sit down with Chris Benson, the CTO of Istari Digital and an Air Force acquisition pioneer who was one of the architects behind the modernization of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program during his time at AFWERX. We discuss: • How S...

Former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen David Goldfein (Ret.) and former CIA Middle East expert Norm Roule break down recent U.S.-Israeli military operations in Iran

Drones are re-defining modern warfare – and the U.S. is behind. On the latest Mission Matters episode, we sat down with Andy Yakulis, CEO & Co-Founder of Vector Defense, to discuss what it will actually take to achieve American Drone Dominance. Vector isn’t just building drones. They describe their business model as “Modern Warfare as a Service.” Instead of waiting years to push hardware throu...

Space is a contested domain. Russian and Chinese satellites are conducting proximity operations near American satellites. Critical U.S. and allied infrastructure depends on space-based assets that can be inspected, approached — or interfered with. On the latest Mission Matters episode, we sat down with Austin Link, CEO of Starfish Space, to discuss why rendezvous & proximity operations (RPO) a...

After a brief government shutdown, Congress finally passed the $839B Defense Appropriations bill! What does this new budget mean for startups? In our newest Techquisition Edition of the Mission Matters podcast, David and I sit down with fmr. HAC-D staff director Johnnie Kaberle to discuss how startups can best take advantage of the opportunities presented new FY26 Approps bill. We cover: 🔴 How th...

🚨EMERGENCY POD! The DoW has officially released a new AI strategy, and along with it a whole slew of new reforms to the Defense Innovation Ecosystem. In the newest episode of the Techquisition Edition of the Mission Matters podcast (link below), David and I break down the DoW’s new AI strategy, the major changes to the defense innovation ecosystem, and what all these new initiatives mean for star...

This episode of the Mission Matters podcast features a conversation between Shield Capital Managing Partner Philip Bilden and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster (ret.) on recent U.S. strikes on Venezuela. This episode covers everything from: The operational complexity of modern joint warfare and the role of commercial technology Why Venezuela has become a strategic linchpin in the Western Hemisphere What the...

What does it take to build a serious profitable, sustainable, scaled defense tech startup? In the newest episode of the Mission Matters podcast David and I sit down with John Serafini , the CEO and founder of HawkEye 360 and a partner at Shield Capital , to discuss what it took to grow HawkEye into a profitable company with: 🛰️ 30+ satellites on orbit 💰 Nine-figures of ARR 🤝 Customers across the...

What does the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) mean for tech startups? Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 2026 NDAA, and the United States Senate is set to vote later this week. 🎧 Introducing the Techquisition Edition — a new sub-series of the Mission Matters Podcast, where David and I break down major defense acquisition news and explain what it means for techn...

In this episode of the Mission Matters podcast, Akhil and Maggie sit down with Andrew Puryear, the CTO of L3Harris, the 6th largest U.S. defense prime, to discuss L3Harris's "trusted disruptor strategy." As part of this strategy, L3Harris partners with startups to bring cutting edge capabilities to the warfighter. We cover: - How startups should approach working with large primes - W...

Last week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth released a memo outlining a series of reforms to the defense acquisition system. In this episode of the Mission Matters podcast, David Rothzeid and Mike Brown break down what these reforms are and what impact they will have on the defense startup community. We cover: The details of the reforms themselves (abolishing JCIDS, changing PEOs to PAEs, MOSA, and m...

There’s a lot of buzz these days around missile defense, but not much discussion around how missile defense actually works. In this episode of the Mission Matters podcast, Matt and I sit down with Shield Capital Operating Partner and former Director of the Missile Defense Agency, Ltg. (ret.) Pat O’Reilly, to discuss the current state of missile defense. We cover: How missile defense actually works...

What will it take to actually bring manufacturing back to America? In this episode of the Mission Matters podcast, Akhil and I sit down with Cameron Schiller and Aeden Gasser-Brennan , the founders of Rangeview , to discuss the current state manufacturing in the U.S. We discuss: What investment casting actually is and how Rangeview is revolutionizing the ancient manufacturing process Why China dom...

In this episode, we speak with Mike Flanigan, the CEO of Seasats, a startup building the future of maritime autonomy.

This month on the Mission Matters podcast, we sat down with Justin Fanelli, the CTO of the U.S. Department of the Navy, and Artem Sherbinin, the CTO of the U.S. Surface Navy to discuss the future software-defined Navy. We cover everything from computer vision deployment in the maritime domain to why technology will matter in a conflict with China to what “software defined warfare” actually means....

What does this new trillion-dollar defense budget and "Big Beautiful Bill" mean for national security startups? This week on the Mission Matters podcast, I sat down with my teammates Michael A. Brown and David Rothzeid , two former leaders at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) , to unpack what the trillion-dollar defense budget really means for startups . With only $150B officially approp...

This episode of the Mission Matters podcast features a conversation between Shield Capital Managing Partner Philip Bilden and Vice Admiral Kevin “Kid” Donegan. This episode covers everything from: The role of cutting edge technology like cybersecurity, drones, and AI in the conflict The current state of Iranian proxy forces in the Middle East How the conflict in the Middle East compares to Ukraine...

In this episode of the Mission Matters podcast, David and I speak with Brendan Karp, the CEO of Obviant , a startup building a government market intelligence platform. In this episode, we discuss: How Obviant is building the “source of truth” for DoD budget, contract, and program data—replacing PDFs and spreadsheets with structured, searchable intelligence and providing its customers with a decisi...

In this episode of the Mission Matters podcast, Akhil and Maggie speak with Brian Raymond, the CEO of Unstructured , a startup building the future of data tooling for generative AI, transforming unstructured data into structured data that can be used by AI models. Episode overview: Brian Raymond’s journey from the CIA and National Security Council to building Unstructured, an AI infrastructure sta...

In this episode, Patrick O'Brien and Bohdan Volyanyuk, the founders of Autonomous Cyber discuss the evolution of cyber operations, the integration of AI in cybersecurity, and the challenges faced in modern warfare. They explore the concept of dual-use technology, the significance of the fifth domain in conflict, and the impact of generative AI on both offensive and defensive strategies. The conver...