The last few decades have been a period of transition for defense. An increasing number of startups have begun to rival large defense primes, the industry has gradually become a calculus of both hardware and software, and exponential technologies have forced the DoD to rethink how it has traditionally done business.
These changing conditions were some of the inputs to resulting in the DIU – Defense Innovation Unit – starting in 2015 within the Department of Defense, focused on accelerating the adoption of technology.
In this episode recorded at a16z’s American Dynamism Summit in January, a16z General Partner Katherine Boyle is joined by the Director of the DIU, Doug Beck, plus two critical founders ushering in this new era of defense: Brian Schimpf, cofounder and CEO of Anduril and Brandon Tseng, cofounder of Shield AI.
So what does the next wave of defense innovation really look like? Let’s find out.
Katherine Boyle is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and cofounder of the firm’s American Dynamism practice.
Doug Beck is the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).
Brandon Tseng is the cofounder of ShieldAI.
Brian Schimpf is the cofounder and CEO of Anduril.
The a16z Podcast discusses the most important ideas within technology with the people building it. Each episode aims to put listeners ahead of the curve, covering topics like AI, energy, genomics, space, and more.