DIB Innovators

RADICL
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The DIB Innovators podcast celebrates the brilliant minds behind innovation within the Defense Industrial Base. In each episode, host and co-founder of RADICL, David Graff will speak with DIB leaders who are driving technological advancements, championing our nation’s security, and shaping the future of defense technology. Brought to you by RADICL — Cybersecurity-as-a-Service purpose-built for small and mid-sized businesses in the Defense Industrial Base. Starting your CMMC journey? RADICL guides and accelerates your compliance—while reducing ransomware and other cyber risks—with a transparent, turn-key solution. www.radicl.com/cmmc_solved

  1. EP 96 — Patriot Group's David Dickey on When Defense Tech Startups Can't Hire Fast Enough to Scale

    2일 전

    EP 96 — Patriot Group's David Dickey on When Defense Tech Startups Can't Hire Fast Enough to Scale

    David Dickey, CEO, Founder, & Executive Search Consultant of Patriot Group, has seen it happen: an executive placed into a PE-backed defense company and a year later, the firm was contracting operations and pushing to sell. It wasn’t because of the market, but because the hire who looked great on paper couldn't actually lead. David has founded and exited aerospace and defense companies before starting Patriot Group, and watched that pattern repeat enough times that he built his entire process around preventing it.  He walks through the Patriot Method, which focuses on the “p” being for “planning.” He also reflects on how most job descriptions are laundry lists that have to be torn apart before a search can even begin, how a scorecard keeps hiring teams from getting charmed by a good talker, and why running the same questions through the candidate, the brief, and the reference check is the only way to build real signal on something as hard to fake as leadership under pressure.  Topics discussed: Using scorecards and structured job description reviews to eliminate "laundry list" hiring and focus searches on actual requirements Navigating the talent gap facing defense tech startups competing for the same senior candidates from high-logo companies Screening executive candidates for AI fluency through scenario questions, written questionnaires, and reference checks Identifying what separates high-impact defense executives from candidates who perform well in interviews but fail in the seat Why senior military operators face a harder transition into defense tech executive roles than technical veterans How the Patriot Method (planning, scorecards, submission packages, and communication) reduces offer-stage surprises and failed placements How competitive comp, defined growth path, and a differentiated story drives top defense tech talent to leave established companies Why founders cannot delegate accountability for culture to a head of people and what happens to companies that do

    45분
  2. EP 95 — Sagittarius Logistics' Jonathan Slavik on Payload Handoffs in Hours, Not Months

    4월 23일

    EP 95 — Sagittarius Logistics' Jonathan Slavik on Payload Handoffs in Hours, Not Months

    Coastal launch infrastructure is a strategic chokepoint that is one EW disruption off the Cape grounds US space ops, and bespoke responsive launch systems top out at a magazine depth of three. Jonathan Slavik, Co-Founder & CEO of Sagittarius Logistics, is building the orbital launch company incumbents structurally cannot become: designed from day one for payload handoffs measured in hours, non-destructive abort capability that unlocks inland and distributed launch, and an airline-model operations stack that gives the DOD unlimited reconstitution depth by stepping directly into a commercial flow already running at daily cadence. Jonathan walks through the technical architecture and the FAA regulatory roadmap for over-land launch.  Topics discussed: Why commercially-driven space companies require market-responsive launch timelines that existing providers structurally cannot offer How non-destructive abort capability eliminates months-long payload acceptance testing and enables FAA approval for inland over-land launch routes The airline model for launch operations: swapping vehicles without delaying payloads and scheduling days or weeks out instead of years Why incumbent launch providers are locked out of this market by prior design decisions and an incompatible business model National security case for distributed inland launch: eliminating coastal single points of failure and replacing bespoke warehouse-stored rockets  Revenue-first company building strategy: subscale hovering rocket vehicles generating early revenue Human-on-the-loop ML architecture: 30-40 simultaneous sensor data streams used to detect anomalies before they require vehicle recovery How a commercial procurement mindset benefits DOD by matching real mission requirements to available commercial capabilities

    44분
  3. EP 94 — Silent Ventures' Jackson Moses on Why Dual Use Is a Dirty Word in Defense Tech

    4월 16일

    EP 94 — Silent Ventures' Jackson Moses on Why Dual Use Is a Dirty Word in Defense Tech

    Jackson Moses, Founder and Managing Partner at Silent Ventures, spent a decade building companies before he started backing them. He founded Silent Ventures to invest exclusively at the pre-seed and seed stage in aerospace, defense, and national security, specifically because he believed most early-stage investors didn't understand what it actually took to survive inside the defense contracting system. Jackson makes the case that most defense tech companies fail on go to market, not technology, and that a program of record is the only outcome that turns a defense tech startup into a real business. He also gives a direct take on why dual use is a hedge word, why SBIR dollars prolong the valley of death instead of crossing it, and why diversification is the wrong thesis for anyone investing seriously in this space. Topics discussed: Why SBIRs prolong the valley of death instead of solving it Dual use as a hedge word, not a strategy Program of record as the only real success metric for defense tech What Silent Ventures looks for in a founding team at pre-seed Go-to-market as the primary failure point in defense tech Why diversification kills alpha in defense tech investing Biggest funding gaps: electronic warfare and affordable drone mass The case against building a defense tech company around non-dilutive funding

    51분
  4. EP 93 — Atlas Cup's Philip Hover-Smoot on Building Capital Pathways Outside Government Funds

    4월 9일

    EP 93 — Atlas Cup's Philip Hover-Smoot on Building Capital Pathways Outside Government Funds

    There are roughly 438 companies building propulsion systems for space right now. Nobody knows which ones actually perform. Philip Hover Smoot, CEO of Atlas Cup, is building a model to fix that, one that creates a capital pathway outside traditional defense funding, a proving ground for real on-orbit performance, and a non-government revenue stream for companies that need to survive long enough to win. Atlas Cup's model doesn't ask anyone to build new hardware. It draws ruleset boundaries around satellites already in orbit at the end of their primary mission. These assets have propulsion still in the tank, licensing already paid, operators already covering TTNC and orbital maintenance. Those assets become a performance stage instead of a sunk cost. The data generated maps directly to what Space Systems Command is looking for, and for DIB contractors who need a credible commerciality plan, it may be one of the only honest answers available.  Topics discussed: Turning end-of-mission satellite assets into a competitive racing ecosystem Why over 400 propulsion companies exist but no one knows who's actually best The dual-use case for Atlas Cup within DOD acquisition and commerciality requirements Designing a league structure that externalizes every regulatory and licensing burden Building toward a 2028 Grand Prix with chemical propulsion and university class divisions How racing data, like maneuverability, pointing, and tracking maps directly to Space Force requirements Why SBIR-dependent space companies need non-government revenue to survive The fan experience challenge: visualizations, immersive venues, and short-format content distribution What professional racing did for automotive and why space needs the same forcing function Space domain awareness classification and why open competitive data changes the equation

    52분
  5. EP 92 — Rogue Space Systems' Brook Leonard on Building the Infrastructure Layer for Modular Space Operations

    4월 2일

    EP 92 — Rogue Space Systems' Brook Leonard on Building the Infrastructure Layer for Modular Space Operations

    Brook Leonard, CEO of Rogue Space Systems, spent 31 years in the Air Force, including as Chief of Staff of US Space Command. Today he is building the modular infrastructure layer that makes space operations faster, cheaper, and sustainable beyond a single mission. Brook breaks down why the current model (bespoke, fully integrated satellites that become debris) can't keep pace with the speed of modern competition, and how Rogue's approach of separating the satellite chassis from the payload changes what's possible on orbit. Rogue's pitch to commercial customers: five times faster, five times cheaper to space. They also get into edge AI and why ground-based processing isn't an option when communication is delayed and reaction windows are seconds, the national security implications of contested space and where the US is falling behind.  Topics discussed: Why the current model of bespoke, fully integrated satellites that die as debris is unsustainable for both commercial and military space How modular architecture separates the satellite chassis from the payload, like a truck is separate from the container it hauls What "space shipping containers" actually are and how they enable on-orbit payload swaps without relaunching Why edge compute and AI autonomy are non-negotiable in space: communication delay, incomplete tracking, and reaction time How persistent unmanned platform works as an on-orbit depot: hosting payloads, supplying power and compute, enabling refueling and mission changes Why the biggest growth opportunity in defense right now is infrastructure, not payloads What China is doing right that we aren't: getting technology into operational units fast and iterating off exercises Why human colonies in space are overhyped, and how autonomous systems will do the work instead

    40분
  6. EP 91 — IceNine's Jeff Crusey on the SaaS Playbook Mismatch That Takes Hard Tech Companies off the Rails

    3월 26일

    EP 91 — IceNine's Jeff Crusey on the SaaS Playbook Mismatch That Takes Hard Tech Companies off the Rails

    Jeff Crusey, General Partner at IceNine, has watched the same failure mode repeat across energy, defense, and deep tech: investors who don't understand the technology gain large ownership stakes and take companies off the rails. That pattern is what pushed him to launch IceNine, an early-stage venture firm built around first-principle technical depth and embedded government networks rather than a SaaS growth playbook.  Jeff breaks down what he actually underwrites before a product exists, why he tells every founder to start lobbying and appropriations on day one,and why compliance isn't an end-stage checkbox but the wall that stops great technology cold. He also makes the case that orbital defense is the most dangerous and underfunded gap in national security right now, and that the reason it stays that way is simple: the investors who could fix it don't understand it well enough to write the check.  Topics discussed: Why venture capital firms applying SaaS investment playbooks to hard tech consistently destroy value and derail defense companies Evaluating pre-product defense startups using technology thesis development, unit economics scrutiny, and team unfair advantage The day-one lobbying and appropriations pattern that separates defense companies hitting early revenue targets from those that stall Why compliance, not technology, failures are the most common wall that stops defense startups from scaling with government customers The case for orbital defense as the most underfunded gap in national security and why most investors aren't equipped to close it Why defense founders should treat speed of execution as more important than optimizing for investor value-add when raising capital

    31분
  7. EP 90 — Grid Aero's James Gherdovich on Why Autonomous Logistics Must Self-Heal, Not Just Deliver

    3월 19일

    EP 90 — Grid Aero's James Gherdovich on Why Autonomous Logistics Must Self-Heal, Not Just Deliver

    Removing the pilot from an exquisite manned airframe doesn't make it expendable; it actually makes it more expensive to lose. James Gherdovich, Chief Strategy Officer at Grid Aero, argues that strapping a high-end autonomy suite onto a platform already limited by constrained supply chains only increases economic risk to the force in a kinetic environment.  Grid Aero's answer is a 40x40-foot autonomous cargo aircraft built from scratch: thousands of pounds for thousands of miles, GPS- and comms-denied capability, with two separate in-house AI stacks, all designed to be mass-produced and replaced in the field. James also lays out why logistics isn't just a support function in the next fight, it's the prerequisite: until beans and bullets reach distributed forces at the edge, ISR, EW, and CASEVAC don't get prioritized. And what a self-healing global logistics layer looks like not as a vision, but as a design principle baked into how Grid Aero builds.  Topics discussed: Building autonomous cargo aircraft from scratch using COTS components to achieve mass-producibility and replaceability at scale Designing GPS- and comms-denied operation as a foundational premise rather than an added feature for contested environments Separating flight execution AI from mission parameter AI into two distinct in-house software stacks for operational flexibility How unmanning exquisite manned platforms compounds economic risk to the force given constrained rare earth and parts supply chains Establishing assured logistics as the prerequisite warfighting function before ISR, EW, and CASEVAC can be prioritized at the edge Reducing cognitive and physical load on exhausted edge warfighters through simplified ground interfaces requiring no specialized training Transitioning from military logistics command to defense startup and the mindset shift required to operate without institutional process structures Framing self-healing global logistics as a design principle for autonomous resupply systems operating under degraded conditions

    37분
  8. EP 89 — Anduril's Shane Arnott on Eliminating Design Review Theater through Equal Financial Risk

    3월 12일

    EP 89 — Anduril's Shane Arnott on Eliminating Design Review Theater through Equal Financial Risk

    Australia and Anduril each put $50 million into Ghost Shark. That 50/50 split eliminated the customer-contractor power imbalance and got the vehicle in the water in 12 months, whereas the US Navy's ORCA program took nearly a decade to reach the same milestone. When Anduril couldn't solve biofouling on control surfaces, they walked into a design review and said it. The Australian government's science organization brought research from facilities across the Asia-Pacific to fix it. No grading. No theater. Shared risk created actual partnership. Shane Arnott, SVP of Programs & Engineering, details how the $100 million development program transitioned to a $1.7 billion program of record in under three years, making the Royal Australian Navy the world's largest subsea robot operator. Pick technologies that scale to automotive production volumes, design for "evergreening" with 12-18 month hardware refresh cycles, and structure partnerships where both sides have enough skin in the game to solve problems together instead of pointing fingers.  Topics discussed: Structuring 50/50 cost-sharing partnerships that eliminate customer-contractor power dynamics Compressing Ghost Shark timeline from decade-long ORCA equivalent to 12 months in water through equal financial risk allocation Applying automotive production methodologies to achieve orders of magnitude scale increases beyond aerospace norms Implementing "evergreening" programs that refresh submarine hardware every 12-18 months instead of decade-long cycles  Navigating subsea autonomy requirements where communications denial and positioning uncertainty force true autonomous operation  Rejecting innovation theater driven by venture capital video culture in favor of replicable manufacturing processes for field deployment

    46분
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소개

The DIB Innovators podcast celebrates the brilliant minds behind innovation within the Defense Industrial Base. In each episode, host and co-founder of RADICL, David Graff will speak with DIB leaders who are driving technological advancements, championing our nation’s security, and shaping the future of defense technology. Brought to you by RADICL — Cybersecurity-as-a-Service purpose-built for small and mid-sized businesses in the Defense Industrial Base. Starting your CMMC journey? RADICL guides and accelerates your compliance—while reducing ransomware and other cyber risks—with a transparent, turn-key solution. www.radicl.com/cmmc_solved

정보

  • 제작진
    RADICL
  • 방송 연도
    2025년 - 2026년
  • 에피소드
    97
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    © RADICL
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    DIB Innovators