Mission Matters Podcast

Techquisition: $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget Request Explained

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 appropriations. Joined by Matt MacGregor of Creative Defense and the Defense Tech and Acquisition News newsletter, they break down today’s defense spending picture (base budget, reconciliation, and a possible Iran-related supplemental), explain “colors of money” (O&M vs RDT&E vs procurement) and shifts toward procurement, and describe how companies can mine J-books via keywords, major thrusts, and contract follow-through. They discuss notable FY27 signals including AI infrastructure/compute, CDAO changes, Maven, DIU funding dynamics, Golden Dome linkages, service-level priorities (counter-UAS, shipbuilding, EW, hypersonics), Air Force autonomy vs legacy platforms, and what happens next in Congressional markups. Visit Creative Defense [https://www.creativedef.net/] and check out Matt's substack to learn more:  Defense Tech and Acquisition News [https://defenseacquisition.substack.com/]As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:36 Why Budget Docs Matter 01:41 PBR vs Appropriations 02:28 Meet Matt McGregor 05:12 Three Budget Pieces 07:56 Colors of Money 13:15 How to Use J Books 18:40 AI Funding Highlights 23:44 DIU and Golden Dome 33:13 PAEs and Autonomy 35:13 Air Force Tradeoffs 40:08 What Happens Next 44:20 Wrap Up and Next Episode

Armada: Building American Edge AI Dominance

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, and why winning the AI race is just as much about infrastructure as it is models. As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Listen on: Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/armada-building-american-edge-ai-dominance/id1807120572?i=1000762419857] YouTube [https://youtu.be/vhdlEEARI5g] Shield Capital [shieldcap.com/episodes/armada] Visit Armada's [https://www.armada.ai/]website to learn more! As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security. Timestamps: 0:00 - Armada Introduction 3:30 - What does the DOW's current AI adoption look like? 5:25 - Technical challenges for AI adoption in mission critical organizations 10:50 - Working with start-ups 15:49 - Non-military AI applications 18:49 - DOE's New Genesis Mission 26:26 - Problems with current AI infrastructure 29:47 - Customer education and trust 40:52 - What is it going to take to build US AI Dominance? 47:39 - Advice for founders

Techquisition: SBIR Reauthorization Explained — What the New Bill Means for Startups

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 SBIR evolved from a slow, lab-driven R&D program into a real commercialization pathway • Why Open Topic and TACFI/STRATFI changed the game for venture-backed defense startups • What the new Strategic Breakthrough Awards mean for scaling to production • Why founders need to think about Phase III and production contracts from day one • How proposal caps, foreign due diligence, and other new rules could reshape the program going forward As always, please let us know what you think. And please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security.

Geopolitical Briefing: U.S-Israel Military Strikes on Iran w/Gen. David Goldfein and Norm Roule

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

Vector Defense: Building American Drone Dominance

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 through traditional procurement pathways, they deliver integrated capability — technology, tactics, training, and battlefield feedback loops — under service contracts that tap into O&M funding. We discuss:- Why the Pentagon’s $1B Drone Dominance initiative is the clearest USG demand signal for attritable systems yet - How “Drone as a Service” business model unlocks O&M funding (the largest color of money) - Lessons from Ukraine & Israel (and why it’s not copy-paste for the U.S.) - Building a China-free supply chain and re-industrializing American drone manufacturing