DIB Innovators

Seaplane design hasn't changed since the 1950s. Jude Augustine, Co-Founder and CEO of Tidal Flight, is building Polaris, a hybrid electric amphibious aircraft designed to turn a four-hour coastal trip into two hours door to door while giving the military runway independence in the Pacific. Polaris is the launchpad for Tidal to grow into a next-generation aircraft manufacturer with a vision for aircraft across categories. Before even raising a seed round, Jude and his Georgia Tech co-founders secured 10 letters of intent from seaplane and commuter airlines worldwide. Their dual use approach pairs commercial coastal mobility with contested logistics capability, backed by a supplier model that keeps capital needs low and risk focused on the novel systems that matter most. Topics discussed: - Why seaplane operating costs stayed high for decades and what changes now - Choosing a supplier model over vertical integration after seeing Beta Technologies - Securing 10 airline letters of intent before raising a seed round - Building a series hybrid powertrain using the DeltaHawk compression ignition engine - Flying three 1:6 scale prototypes to prove hull hydrodynamics - Dual use strategy pairing commercial coastal mobility with Pacific defense missions - Saying no to defense funding that pulls away from the core aircraft program - Designing for autonomy readiness without building an autonomy suite Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website

James Crowell is an expert in extreme environment robotics who spent the first decade of his career developing and deploying polar, volcanic, and space systems at NASA, JPL, and research laboratories before founding Crow Industries in 2018. His team designs Fenris, a family of intelligent UGVs built for defense, mining, and eventually lunar and Martian surface operations, all from the premise that designing for environments with no GPS, limited comms, and no human access produces systems that outperform on the battlefield. James breaks down why the U.S. Army is shifting toward smaller, distributed ground platforms, how Operation Jailbreak pushed Crow Industries to open its interfaces for interoperability, and why underground operations remain the unsolved frontier in ground robotics. Topics discussed: - Why Group 2 UGVs outperform larger platforms in distributed warfare - Designing for zero GPS and limited comms from planetary constraints - Opening interfaces through Operation Jailbreak for C2 interoperability - Building America's robotic infantry through modular capability swapping - The forward line of robots concept for keeping humans out of harm's way - Underground operations as the unsolved frontier in ground robotics - Mining oxygen from lunar regolith to build space transportation infrastructure - Army acquisition overhauls accelerating procurement for small defense startups Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website

Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes drilled the first unconventional wells in Argentina for ExxonMobil, built a nickel mining company in Western Australia, then served as DOE Deputy Director for Batteries and Critical Materials. Today she advises on critical mineral policy as a Nonresident Fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute and invests across the critical supply chain through her family office, Smoketree Resources. Ashley lays out a three-step framework for breaking Western dependence on adversarial-controlled supply chains, starting with an allied definition of adversarial capital and ending with import controls on finished goods in defense and semiconductor applications. Topics discussed: How China weaponized copper smelting economics through zero TCRCs Why 99% of global crude gallium production sits in China A three-step framework for bifurcating critical mineral markets Why public markets are rewarding supply chain security stories The difference between critical minerals and rare earths Why government backstopping alone cannot scale to 60 minerals Reimagining smelter revenue models through capacity-based agreements Building a mining company from scratch in Western Australia Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website

Gary Calnan, CEO and Co-Founder of CisLunar Industries, built power electronics to melt metal in orbit. A research partner noticed the same hardware could reshape electric propulsion. That pivot turned a space debris recycling startup into a power electronics company with a test platform on a NASA mission and Lockheed Martin and Safran serving as subcontractors on its Space Force program. Gary tells Dave Graff how a finance career, nine weeks at the International Space University, and $4.7 million in total funding built a 20-person team now chasing dominance across the space power stack. Topics discussed: Pivoting from in-space metal processing to power electronics Building modular, scalable power processing units for diverse space applications Using SBIR contracts to bring primes in as subcontractors Why non-space backgrounds created an advantage in architecture design Capital efficiency with $4.7M raised and $8M in contracts Dual-use potential in directed energy and drone defense Recruiting from Maxar, Blue Origin, Blue Canyon, Tesla, and Lucid Preparing to scale manufacturing for an accelerating customer pipeline Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website

Phil Duong, CEO and Co-Founder of NODA AI, is building the mission command layer for autonomous forces that nobody else is focused on. His company orchestrates multi-vendor platforms into coordinated effects the way a JTAC pairs aircraft with targets. A Marine Corps naval aviator and JTAC turned defense tech founder, Phil earned NODA AI a $100 million Department of War award to scale mission command for autonomous forces after years refining a thesis on software-defined effects. Topics discussed: - Building a mission command orchestrator for multi-vendor autonomous forces - Flying drones point to point as table stakes - Software-defined effects and working backward from desired end states - Adaptive recomposition when assets go down mid-mission - Operating autonomous systems in disconnected, denied environments - Navigating the triad of warfighter, Pentagon, and Capitol Hill - Why software will overtake hardware in future conflict - Finding investors who truly back founders at the earliest stage Listen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTube Website