Minimum Viable Podcast (MVP)

Join us as DEF's Executive Director sits with Dr. Marina Theodotou, Lolita Horne and Eric Farraro of DAU!

Using industry and academic research, and insights from the workforce, the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) created the Innovation Competencies and Skills Model. The model includes a self-assessment and personalized learning recommendations based on assessment results. This video introduces viewers to several members of the Innovate to Win (Phase I ) team,  describes the Innovate to Win initiative, as well as provides an overview of the Innovation Competencies and Skills model,  self-assessment, and curated learning pathways. It concludes with an invitation for viewers to participate.

The Masked Innovator is a new take on Podcasts from the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum! Take a listen and see if you can figure out who the guests are before the end!

No self promotions, no sales pitches, just honest opinions on the topic of innovation within the Department of Defense!

Come learn how to navigate the challenging world of SBIR's and STTR's!

DEF's executive director Trish Martinelli talks with Heath Murray, the Indiana Agora lead, about the recent DEF Drink and Think and the importance of local Agoras in the national DEF ecosystem. Trish and Heath also discussed the unique nature of the DEF community and how it connects and empowers innovative thinkers in the national security space.

DEF's executive director Trish Martinelli talks with Nicholas Marchand, the lead for the 757 Agora. Nick hosted one of many DEF events on November 10, 2022, now unofficially known as National DEF Day.  Trish and Nick discussed the 757 Agora, its unique position in the national security ecosystem, and the value local Agoras add to DEF's mission to inspire, connect, and empower.

DEF's executive director Trish Martinelli talks with Alex Gorsuch, the Chicago Agora lead, about his recent DEFx event, the Chicago entrepreneurial ecosystem, and his company Ascent. Trish and Alex also discuss future plans for the Chicago Agora and for DEF overall, and why individuals interested in the national security innovation space should get involved.

DEF's executive director Trish Martinelli talks with Alexis Bonnell about her time as a facilitator at I Am Remarkable, a Google project seeking to inspire and empower working people to take pride in their achievements. This kind of empowerment is a critical component to true success and fulfillment in both the defense and innovation spheres. 

The National Security Innovation Network (NSIN “Esign”) runs a program called “Foundry” that matches DOD technology with Entrepreneurs with the goal of creating private entities to sell the DOD technology to both the commercial and public/DoD sector.  

Featuring:

Mark Anholt – Program Manager of Foundry, can speak to program, selection critea, historical successes, and goals to increase women’s participation

Trish Martinelli – Executive Director of DEF, Regional Director at NSIN

Ellen Chang – BMNT “Hacking For” Executive

Emily Harman – Senior Executive (retired) from Department of the Navy, expert in small business with the DoD

VR Small – Founder and CEO of Veterans Women’s Enterprise Center

Heather Jo Richman – BMNT VP, DoD and IC Innovation lead

Emily McMahan – Academy Investor Network, Supporting Dual Use entrepreneurs

Tai Sunnan – NSIN University of Southern California (USC) University Program Manager and

Harvard Instructor of leadership development and PhD in Social Entrepreneurship

This episode of DEF's Tech Leader series helps national security innovators apply data science and AI to achieve mission outcomes. 

COL Benigni, a chief data scientist at US Special Operations Command, guides DEF listeners towards that goal by sharing insights from applying these capabilities at the tactical edge. COL Benigni offers a models for applying data science to tactical challenges, explains areas of opportunity for emerging leaders, and imparts best practices for operational commanders.

This Cornerstones Workshop looked at the two parties of a startup transaction: the investor and entrepreneurs. Raising capital for most startup founders is a tricky, potentially stressful undertaking. Knowing some common practices – and insider’s tips – can make the journey much less painful.

We will give a brief overview of how angel investing works.

On the entrepreneurs side, we will discuss key strategies for obtaining angel investments and developing positive relationships with angel investors.

On the investor side, we’ll go inside the angel investors' mind to highlight what they commonly look for when investing in startups and how angels can improve their odds of having successful outcomes.

Jeremy Bauman is Managing Partner of New Dominion Angels, a Washington DC based investors group that has invested ~$12M into 25+ early stage tech startups. He is also a Lead Consultant in the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Practice at the World Bank Group, where his work focuses on developing early stage capital markets. In addition to his local investing, he has worked with entrepreneurs and investors in the Caribbean, Central/Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Peter Dolch is a member of the New York Angels and MIT Alumni Angels. He is the President and co-Founder of Thaumaturgix, Inc. (Tgix), a pioneering web development and infrastructure company, which was twice ranked in the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies list. He is also the Founder and Managing Partner at AEON Foundry — an early-stage venture fund and advisory services company — and more recently the Founder and ex-CTO of Biospectal, a Swiss-basedMedtech company. He has more than 25 years of experience in both enterprise technology and in launching and guiding technology-based startups across the worlds of Media & Entertainment, Fintech, Medtech, eCommerce, Social Media, and more. An M.I.T. graduate with a degree in Management Information Systems and additional academic experience at Harvard, Peter is no stranger to the hard work, innovation, and outside-of-the-box-thinking that it takes to turn ‘ideas on a napkin’ into industry-leading, globally recognized companies, both public and private. He put the 1st US Stock Exchange on the web (AMEX) and has been integral in the development of eCommerce solutions for some of the most globally recognized brands like B&H Photo. He has worked closely with AWS from the very start and has managed global application development for various Fortune-level companies, including building a Global Information Warehouse for Hewlett Packard, a Global Pricing & Reimbursement System for Pfizer, and a Content Management and Publishing System for AT&T Research Labs. His strategy, advisory and operational work with numerous startups (over 30) has led to successful exits including sales and IPOs.

Jordan Levine, a Partner at Dynamic Ideas, discusses analytics for national security at a DEF Washington DC event. In addition to his depth of knowledge, Jordan developed an analytics training product that is being piloted under an AFWERX SBIR contract for the entire DoD. Here's a description of that course:

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You can't look an algorithm in the eye. Because you can't look an algorithm in the eye, leaders must know how to inspect and audit algorithms. We have developed our course with three areas of focus: 

1. Learn from real case studies - We demonstrate the state of the art of analytics capabilities to your organization by investigating actual implemented use cases. 
2. Rely on a proven framework for analytics success - We equip you to translate these proven implementations to your own day jobs by reinforcing a common accessible framework. 
3. Present strategies for avoiding common pitfalls

We enable you to identify and mitigate the common failure modes encountered by organizations in the implementation of these techniques. Ultimately, we equip you with the skills to successfully run and manage an analytics endeavor. No coding required. Anyone in the National Security sector who wants to understand algorithms and how to inspect and audit them to understand at a deeper level what they can provide especially as it relates to analytics. 

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Jordan Levine is a partner at Dynamic Ideas, an organization committed to spreading powerful ideas in the areas of analytics, operations research, and their applications. He focuses his energy on creating digitally accessible training and education products that make analytics accessible to leaders. After serving as a communications officer in the United States Marine Corps, Jordan spent seven years at McKinsey & Company. 

The latter half of his time, he served as the global learning and development lead for analytics. There, he architected a strategy and oversaw a learning team that engaged ~4,000 McKinsey colleagues per year at the executive, manager, and technical talent levels. Key milestones included the creation of a cohort of 1,000+ ‘Analytics Translators’ and the development of novel approaches to on-board and integrate analytics technical talent as well as assess their technical competence in a business environment. 

Prior to leading analytics learning, he was an engagement manager in the operations practice with a focus in supply chain management. Jordan holds a master’s in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and mathematics degree from the United States Naval Academy.

This epsisode is exciting  for startups and emerging companies focused on defense and national security to learn from an expert in pricing. Finding dual-use viability or an appropriate market approach when working with government is challenging, and government employees working with emerging companies will also benefit from learning about their experiences and pain points.

Ed Lee is a pricing expert and CEO of HelloAdvisr, a growth consultancy working with startup leadership teams to design high-impact pricing strategies. HelloAdvisrworks with startups on pricing across growth stages and draws on experience from industries including eCommerce/retail, software, and consumer goods.

Previously, Ed held leadership roles with LG Electronics and Simon-Kucher& Partners, a global management consulting firm, where he advised leading global companies and brands on pricing strategy. Ed is regularly invited to teach and speak at leading academic institutions including UCLA and Oxford University. He serves as a mentor and advisor to startup accelerators including Techstars and Backstage Capital, and is a resident expert at the Oxford Foundry (the venture accelerator of Oxford University).

Ed received his MBA from Oxford University, two Masters (MSc) from the London School of Economics, and BA from UCSD.

The Cornerstones Series brings in speakers to address issues for emerging companies and investors as part of DEF's mission to promote a culture of innovation in the national security community.

Although the series is designed for entrepreneurs and investors interested in national security, intrapreneurs in government will also benefit from the opportunity to learn from those developing capabilities and working on projects that impact and support government employees.

This episode features another monthly gathering of the the Federal DevSecOps Community of Practice, featuring Adam Furtado, founder and key leader of Kessel Run.  There are few people on planet earth who have founded a DoD software factory, led it through multiple metamorphoses, shepherded countless products into operational adoption, and cultivated a culture of learning at scale. 

Adam is handing off his famed Air Operations Center portfolio in order to steward the All Domain Common Platform team at Kessel Run. 

Adam share shis journey over the past three years at Kessel Run, focusing on failures and learnings, and taking extended time for an AMA.

BE SURE TO LISTEN TO PART 1 OF THIS INTERVIEW BEFORE YOU LISTEN TO PART 2

Karen Petty Hold is a real superhero in the Design Thinking world. She is the Director of Design Thinking DC, Visiting Executive Lecturer at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and other academic institutions, a trainer at The Design Gym, Founder of Experience Labs, and an all-around wonderful person to talk to.  In this episode, Karen and Daniel continue their conversation about "The Innovator's Journey", diving into concepts covered in a recent paper that Karen wrote and a book she helped author which will be published in Spring of 2021. 

You can read the original paper "The Innovator's Journey: How Design Shapes Us As We Shape Designs" at https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/3071166/The%20Innovator%E2%80%99s%20Journey_How%20Design%20Shapes%20Us%20as%20We%20Shape%20Designs.pdf   

At Agitare, we seek to normalize facilitated discovery and design frameworks in policy and workforce decisions in National Security by providing a venue for these once isolated innovators and enablers to build a community of practice, find and share support and motivation, and improve their craft.  

~Website: http://agitare.org/ 

~LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agitare/

Hosted by Adam Beal and DEF Boston, this discussion with Michael Kanaan dives into the details of his new book, “T-Minus AI: Humanity’s Countdown to Artificial Intelligence and the New Pursuit of Global Power”. 

Modern security is making the shift from reacting to breaking events to managing deteriorating situations and preventing disruptions. The key to success in security is to move from an industrial age human-heavy driven process to a post industrial age process driven by machines, leveraged by human expertise, and change the value proposition from reactive incident management to proactive advice and incident avoidance.

Cory Bowman is the first ever career Product Manager in the Air Force. Cory’s journey started as an E-4 Urdu linguist, a career trajectory that allowed his engagement with Pivotal Labs and the 480th ISR Wing on team Narwhal. His experience returning to Langley AFB, where he missed the support needed to continue building Narwhal and his software team, to then joining Kessel Run and leading two software teams to adoption in KR’s Air C2 KRADOS portfolio, is inspiring. 

This episode is for anyone in government, junior to senior, and will help listeners understand the culture of great software organizations, the heart that so many like Cory bring to the equation, and how real leadership transcends rank.

Finding dual-use viability or an appropriate market approach when working with government is challenging, and government employees working with emerging companies will also benefit from learning about their experiences and pain points. 

Michael Gawley is an Audit Partner at EisnerAmper LLP with more than 20 years of experience in providing accounting, auditing, tax, and consulting services for clients in a range of industries. Michael is a leader in the firm’s Employee Benefits and Technology Groups. He also provides technical support to the Private Business Services Group. 

The Cornerstones Series brings in speakers to address issues for emerging companies and investors as part of DEF's mission to promote a culture of innovation in the national security community.

Although the series is designed for entrepreneurs and investors interested in national security, intrapreneurs in government will also benefit from the opportunity to learn from those developing capabilities and working on projects that impact and support government employees.

This episode, hosted by DEF Washington DC, features Nick Setterberg discussing objectives and key results (OKRs) from his experience at Kessel Run. 

The objective of the discussion helping people in the national security community understand ways those tools can help enable execution (even in one of the world's largest bureaucracies). 

You will definitely enjoy it! Feel free to engage with Nick in Slack, or join him on Twitter or LinkedIn!

DEF member Frank Reyes discusses the TechCongress experience with Katherine Pratt and Nate Wilkins, digging into their work on The Hill, the upcoming cohort, and how it all overlaps with DEF's mission to promote a culture of innovation in the national security community. 

TechCongress is a startup non-profit, incubated at the Open Technology Institute at New America. They are nonpartisan and work with a diverse set of political voices, and do not take positions on issues. 

TechCongress focuses on building a new generation of technology leaders, and supporting fellows with professional development, networking, and freedom to tinker and test new ideas. TechCongress places computer scientists, engineers, and other technologists to serve as technology policy advisors to Members of Congress through one-year Congressional Innovation Fellowship. They bridge the divide of knowledge and experience between DC and Silicon Valley for better outcomes for both.

In this episode, Daniel Hulter has a wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Ben Zweibelson and Nathan Schwagler about theory and practices to foster creativity  and help people think more expansively about problem-solving, designing strategy, and adapting to complexity.

Agitare is a community built of facilitators from across the national security and defense sectors who employ facilitated discovery, problem-solving, team-building and design frameworks to enhance the mission, innovation, and transformation efforts of their units, offices, and organizations.

We seek to normalize facilitated discovery and design frameworks in policy and workforce decisions in National Security by providing a venue for these once isolated innovators and enablers to build a community of practice, find and share support and motivation, and improve their craft. ~Website: http://agitare.org/

In this episode, John Deschner shares insights about brands, digital marketing, and content marketing to drive growth from his experiences at places such as Conde Nast, Ogilvy, and AKQA. 

Not just for startups in the DEF community, this is a worthwhile listen for members of the military and other parts of the national security community who want their voices to be heard and their projects to be recognized. 

Reach out to John with questions via email: deschner@hey.com.

The Cornerstones Series brings in speakers to address issues for emerging companies and investors as part of DEF's mission to promote a culture of innovation in the national security community.

Although the series is designed for entrepreneurs and investors interested in national security, intrapreneurs in government will also benefit from the opportunity to learn from those developing capabilities and working on projects that impact and support government employees.