The Defense Brief
The Defense Brief is a podcast that spotlights founders building companies in the defense and national security technology space. Each episode digs into the personal and business journeys of these entrepreneurs, exploring how they raise capital, land government contracts and navigate procurement. It aims to uncover what it takes to build the modern defense primes of tomorrow. The show is aimed at founders, investors and anyone following the growing defense-tech sector.
Episodes
Betting on Helsing in 2020 & Building Plural - Khaled, GP of Plural
Helsing, The Exploration Company, Hypersonica, Frankenburg, Augur, Proxima Fusion: Khaled Helioui and his partners at Plural are behind a good share of the European companies people now call obvious. He committed to Helsing in 2020, before the company was formally set up, after watching cheap drones make expensive equipment ineffective in Armenia.
Reindustrializing the West - with Alexander Fitzgerald (Isembard)
Anduril, Babcock, Tekever and ARX all have something in common: they buy their parts from Isembard. The company just opened the largest factory London has seen since the Second World War.I sat down with Alexander Fitzgerald to discuss why he is building the first software-first factory, why manufacturing is the rate limiter on everything, and what the modern franchisee looks like.
The Solo GP Behind the US Defense Boom — with Jackson Moses (Silent Ventures)
Castelion, Saronic, Impulse Space, Hadrian, Firestorm Labs — Jackson Moses backed all of them, solo, out of Dallas, starting when defense wasn't investable. Fund two closed this year at $85M.In this episode: what he screens founders on. What the first Castelion meeting felt like, when three SpaceX veterans said they could build hypersonics and every VC said no. Why program of record is the only th
Going all in on European defense — Alex Ferrara, Partner at Bessemer
For twenty years, Alex Ferrara bet on the winners of the internet economy. At Bessemer, he led Shopify's Series A and backed companies like Pipedrive. Then, a little over a year ago, he published a piece announcing he was going all in on European defense.In this episode, we get into what he saw coming: why European resilience is a generational shift and not another hype cycle. Where Europe has
Robotization of the Battlefield with Roman Tkachenko - Founder of Tencore
"We were dreamers from the very beginning — everyone told us it was a toy."Tencore is the leading UGV company in Ukraine. Their ground robots carry water, ammunition, and wounded soldiers across the most dangerous kilometers of the front line.I first met Ronan over a year ago, when Tencore was just starting. What struck me most in our conversation is how far the story has moved since.Ukraine now w
The Electronic Warfare Arms Race behind Ukraine's drones — with Andriy Chulyk (Sine Engineering)
“Ukraine will be a Silicon Valley for drones.”Sine Engineering is powering the comms backbone of Ukraine’s drone war — keeping hundreds of thousands of drones flying when GPS is jammed and the enemy is hunting every signal.Andriy Chulyk sat with me to discuss why electronic warfare (not firepower) is the real edge on the modern battlefield, how they’re scaling globally, and why they were just chos
The $150 million fund fueling Israel's defense-tech surge - with Aaron Applbaum, GP at Kinetica
"When global defense spend goes from two to three trillion, you don't get bigger militaries — you get a refresh of every platform."Aaron Applbaum, co-founder of Kinetica, sat with me to talk about building a new Israeli defense fund at the exact moment that refresh begins — backing founders before they've even left the army, in partnership with 8VC.We get into why October 2023 pu
Europe's Hypersonic Moment — with Philipp Kerth, Co-founder of Hypersonica
"Europe might be behind on a couple of core technologies, but let's make hypersonics ours."Philipp Kerth, co-founder and CEO of Hypersonica, sat with me to talk about what it takes to launch a hypersonic missile company at the end of a PhD, when defense was still an afterthought in most of Europe.We cover why maneuverability is the hardest problem in hypersonics, what the new generat
Inside the Pentagon's Innovation Engine - with Doug Beck, ex-Director Defense Innovation Unit
"We're more than 10 times further than where I hoped we'd be. And we're probably one-tenth of the way to where we need to go."I sat down with Doug Beck, former director of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). He steered billions of dollars into turning Anduril and Palantir from startups into primes, and driving the Replicator initiative, the first real signal of
Leading the French Air & Space Force with General Moralès (in English)
38 years of evolution in air combat — and what the future holdsTranslated by Eleven Labs
Général Moralès : aux commandes de l'Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace
38 ans d'évolution du combat aérien — et ce que l'avenir nous réserve.
Becoming the First French Defense Unicorn - with Martin de Gourcuff, CTO of Harmattan AI
"Age is a poor predictor of the quality of engineers. I'm looking more into curiosity, ownership, passion, motivation."Martin and I have known each other from the early days of Harmattan, France's first defense unicorn.Harmattan went from zero to 100+ people across Europe, the Middle East and the US.We discuss how they built a talent culture that compounds on itself, how Harmatta
AI Inside the French Armed Forces — Bertrand Rondepierre, Head of Ministerial Agency for AI in Defense
“I don’t believe AI is something that you can just buy.”I sat down with Bertrand Rondepierre, Director of AMIAD - the AI agency of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces - to discuss what it really takes to make AI operational in defense.Drawing on his experience at Google Brain, Bertrand goes deep on data, infrastructure, culture, and command - and how AI is reshaping the armed forces from the i
Inside Quantum Systems with Florian Seibel, CEO of Quantum Systems
“Those are the only drones from outside of Ukraine that are still procured. The rest doesn’t work, period.”This year, Quantum Systems tripled its valuation to over €3 billion. I sat down with Florian Seibel to dig into:How they actually won key contracts in the US and AustraliaWhat being truly involved in Ukraine looks like in practiceWill they IPO soon
Investing Through Europe’s Military Reset - with Eric Slesinger, GP of 201 Ventures
“Just because you’re not seeing it, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. It means you’re in the wrong room..”I sat down with Eric Slesinger, founder of 201 Ventures and investor in CX2, Delian and Polar Mist, to talk about spotting inflection points before they become consensus.We discuss:- Why the Baltics and Nordics are moving faster than the biggest defense budgets- Why “build first, explain lat
Inside Kyiv: How the Battlefield Is Rewriting Defense Tech with Eveline Buchatskiy - GP of D3
D3 is one of the only seed funds operating from inside a war zone. In just two years, they’ve backed 19 companies — all focused on one mandate: helping Ukraine win the war.At the center of that story is Eveline Buchatsky.She’s the investor founders call when they want to deploy next to the end user — not in theory, but in practice. She brings startups to brigades, into command centers, and into co
Biology - The Next Defence Frontier - With Max Breet, Gingko Bio
Biodefense has quietly moved from a public-health niche to a core national-security challenge — but most people still treat biology as healthcare, not infrastructure.This week, I sat down with Max Breet, who went from military → Anduril → now leading biosecurity work at Ginkgo Bio. Few people have seen the shift from kinetic defence to biological risk as clearly as he has.We talk about how cheap t
From Apple to Deterrence: The Rise of Delian Alliance Industries — With Dimitrios Kottas
A new class of European defense companies is emerging — full-stack, software-first, and ambitious enough to challenge the old order.Delian Alliance Industries, founded by former Apple engineer Dimitrios Kottas, recently announced a $14M Series A to accelerate production of its autonomous and affordable defense systems — spanning sensors, software, electronic warfare, and interception.What makes De
In-Q-Tel Unpacked: Scaling Tech for the Intelligence Community - with J.D. Englehart
A lot of people think they know what In-Q-Tel is. Very few understand what they actually do.In this episode, JD Englehart breaks it down in a way I haven’t heard before — from how they scout technologies on the edge, to how they pressure-test them against real intelligence problems, to what founders get wrong when they think about working with government.If you care about autonomy, sensing, C2, or
From Ukraine to Global Leader - With Pavlo Shevchuk, Skyeton
When people think of drones in Ukraine, they often picture cheap FPVs diving into targets.But there’s another story unfolding above them — one of endurance, precision, and scale.During my visit to Kyiv, I saw firsthand how Skyeton has built a completely different kind of company — one that flies at 10 kilometers altitude, survives dozens of missions, and is now nearing $100M in revenue. From a sma
Building the European Neo-Prime - With Philip Lockwood, Managing Director of STARK International
In Europe, a new generation of defense companies is emerging — vertically-integrated, software-first, and unapologetically ambitious.Few capture that shift better than STARK. Born in Germany, tested in Ukraine, and now expanding from air to sea, Stark is building the foundations of a new European defense industry.I spoke with Philip Lockwood, STARK’s Director and former Head of Innovation at N
From General to Startup: A New Era in Defense - with Sir Chris Deverell
Sir Chris Deverell is a retired four-star General who spent nearly 40 years in the British Army, culminating as Commander of the UK’s Joint Forces Command.A vocal advocate for defence modernisation, he pushed for digital innovation inside the MoD and founded its first Innovation Hub.Today, he advises and invests in cutting-ed ge startups like Helsing and Cambridge Aerospace, making him one of the
Poland’s Rise as a Defense Tech Hub — with Mikolaj, Co-founder and GP at Expeditions Fund
Mikolaj is the founder of Expeditions Fund, an early-stage VC firm focused on national security. What began in Poland has since expanded across Europe, backing companies like Alpine Eagle, Comand AI, Orasio, and Cambridge Aerospace.In our conversation, we discuss:🔹 Why Poland is emerging as a defense tech hub🔹 The categories he’s most excited about🔹 What it takes to win a pan-European go-to-market
Rivaling DJI: The European Path to Drone Sovereignty — with Srdjan Kovacevic l CEO of Orqa FPV
Srdjan is the cofounder and CEO of OrqaFPV, an European company that first made its mark building drone components and full-stack drones. Orqa designed what many consider the best FPV goggles on the market, competing head-to-head with Chinese giant DJI. After raising a Seed round with Lightspeed, the company has become one of Europe’s most compelling players—sitting at the intersection of reducing
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