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PODCAST

DIB Innovators

The DIB Innovators podcast celebrates the brilliant minds behind innovation within the Defense Industrial Base. In each episode, host and co-founder of RADICL, David Graff will speak with DIB leaders who are driving technological advancements, championing our nation’s security, and shaping the future of defense technology. Brought to you by RADICL — Cybersecurity-as-a-Service purpose-built for small and mid-sized businesses in the Defense Industrial Base. Starting your CMMC journey? RADICL guides

technology

All Episodes

40:09

EP 73 — Ethos's Sasha Seymore on Training Warfighters...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/10/17

Sasha Seymore, Co-founder & President at Ethos, walked onto the UNC basketball team as a senior, struggled with outdated playbook training, and turned that frustration into a company that cuts military schoolhouse failure rates by two-thirds while saving millions per location. His co-founder Andrew was student body president studying active learning pedagogy, and together they built a platform that measures knowledge gaps impacting performance rather than just tracking completion. The

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40:53

EP 72 — Zone 5's Thomas Akers on Why...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/10/02

Zone 5 Technologies cut cruise missile costs from $1.5 million to $200,000 by rethinking not just the engineering, but how you build the supply chain and factory floor around cost targets from day one. Thomas Akers, CEO, shares how his team goes from contract award to weapon flight in 4 months by keeping engineers right next to the production line, writing all their own software, and doing machining in-house. When a problem hits the shop floor, an engineer can be there in a minute.The real

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49:29

EP 71 — Skydio’s Mark Valentine on How Sanctions...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/08/26

What happens when China sanctions your drone company? For Skydio, it became the catalyst for complete supply chain independence and battle-tested technology that now guides Ukrainian artillery strikes. Mark Valentine, Global Head of National Security Strategy, breaks down the story for Dave: when their drones in Ukraine failed due to single-band radios and GPS dependence, his team made 36 field visits over two years, embedded Ukrainian engineers, and developed Asimov software enabling complete

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42:45

EP 70 — A-LIGN's Matt Bruggeman on External Service...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/07/03

Defense contractors assume they understand CMMC assessments, but Matt Bruggeman, Director of GTM Federal at A-LIGN, has a harsh reality check for them: organizations consistently arrive for certification without basic documentation like authorization boundaries or data flow diagrams. The gap between CMMC perception and assessment reality is creating a compliance crisis, he tells Dave.A-LIGN operates as a top-3 FedRAMP assessor and C3PAO, giving Matt unique visibility into federal compliance

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32:55

EP 69 — Venus Aerospace's Sassie Duggleby on Mach 5...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/06/26

Venus Aerospace achieved the first flight of a high-thrust rotating detonation rocket engine, proving that decades of theoretical research can translate into breakthrough propulsion technology. Sassie Duggleby, CEO & Co-founder, tells Dave about conducting eight engine tests per day while maintaining manufacturing, mission control, and testing in the same facility compressed development timelines from decades into four years.The breakthrough enables rockets to operate with 67% propellant

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40:59

EP 68 — Nooks' Sean Blackman on Classified...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/06/19

America's defense innovation pipeline has a massive bottleneck that most people don't even realize exists: the infrastructure access problem that prevents our best technology companies and cleared talent from working on classified programs. Sean Blackman, Co-founder & CEO at Nooks, experienced this firsthand as a Navy F-18 pilot trying to get non-traditional companies onto classified contracts, only to discover the catch-22 that has plagued defense innovation for decades. His solution is

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39:25

EP 67 — Vatn’s Nelson Mills on the Three Pillars...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/06/12

The underwater domain has become central to great power competition, yet existing autonomous underwater vehicles cost $500,000+ and require teams of specialists to operate single units. Nelson Mills, CEO & Founder of Vatn Systems, and his team have flipped this equation, building vehicles that travel 30+ knots underwater while enabling one operator to deploy hundreds of units with minimal training. Nelson's experience as an investor proved invaluable not just for fundraising connections, but

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43:19

EP 66 — Albers Aerospace’s John Albers on Vertical...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/06/05

The defense industrial base faces a manufacturing crisis that goes far deeper than workforce shortages, and John Albers, President/CEO of Albers Aerospace has positioned his company at the center of solving it. He grew Albers Aerospace from solo systems engineering to a $10 million vertically integrated manufacturer through 12 strategic acquisitions, all funded internally without outside investment until late 2024. His approach reveals how speed, strategic diversification, and long-term thinking can

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39:28

EP 65 — Scientific Systems' Kunal Mehra on Affordable...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/05/29

The Ukrainian conflict revealed a stark reality that should light a fire under American defense planners: modern warfare consumes weapons at rates that would exhaust our entire arsenal in months, not years. In his conversation with Dave on the latest DIB Innovators, Kunal Mehra, President of Scientific Systems, brings a unique perspective to solving this crisis, shaped by his family's experience fleeing partition-era India and his father's determination to strengthen democratic nations through

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39:30

EP 64 — HAVOCai’s Paul Lwin on Winning Through...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/05/22

When America's adversaries can outbuild us in ships, what's our strategic advantage? Paul Lwin, CEO & Co-founder of HAVOCai, shares how his company is revolutionizing maritime operations by creating affordable autonomous vessels that can operate in swarms. As a Myanmar refugee who first saw American uniforms during his evacuation at age 10, Paul brings a unique perspective to defense innovation, combining his military experience with Silicon Valley approaches to solving national security

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35:02

EP 63 — Method MFG’s Rhys Andersen on Bootstrapping a...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/05/15

When Rhys Andersen, Founder & CEO at Method MFG, moved to Texas with an architecture degree, he never imagined he'd end up machining components for spacesuits and rockets. Yet his journey from welding to founding his company exemplifies the untapped potential in American manufacturing. By combining cutting-edge technology with a focus on upskilling his entire team, Rhys has created a manufacturing environment that more closely resembles a tech company than a traditional machine shop — with white

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38:33

EP 62 — Graham Manufacturing’s Matthew Malone on Why...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/05/08

President & COO Matthew Malone's journey from solving locomotive failures in Indonesia to leading Graham Manufacturing offers rare insight into how technical expertise transforms into business leadership. In this episode of DIB Innovators, Matthew tells Dave how Graham bridges the innovation gap between rapid-iteration space technology and methodical defense requirements while manufacturing critical components for Columbia-class submarines and Ford-class carriers. His perspective challenges

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39:25

EP 61 — Agile’s Chris Pearson on Mastering Space...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/05/01

The race to protect America's orbital assets is accelerating, and Agile Space Industries is providing the engines needed for rapid spacecraft maneuverability. In this episode of DIB Innovators, CEO Chris Pearson walks Dave through how decades-old chemical propulsion technology is finding new relevance as Space Force openly prepares for potential conflict in space. Through vertical integration combining additive manufacturing and in-house test facilities, Agile has achieved 50% annual growth, turning

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31:17

EP 60 — Bazze’s Samuel Semwangu on How Commercial...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/04/29

Samuel Semwangu, CEO of Bazze, provides his insider perspective on the revolution happening in defense intelligence collection that most Americans aren't seeing. Bazze federates queries across dozens of commercial data vendors, delivering intelligence insights in seconds that previously took days. He also explains why the Ukraine war has become the ultimate proof point for commercial intelligence adoption and why our allies are moving faster than the US in embracing these technologies.Samuel

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50:28

EP 59 — Lt. Gen. Nahom (USAF, ret) Commander David...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/04/24

In a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape, Lt. Gen. Nahom, (USAF, ret), brings invaluable perspective on how Arctic security, budget realities, and emerging technologies are reshaping military strategy. In this episode of DIB Innovators, Lt. Gen. Nahom offers Dave unique insights into why the Arctic has become a critical frontier for national security while climate change creates new opportunities for competition between major powers. His experience as the Air Force A8 provides a candid look

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38:03

EP 58 — Advanced Space’s Bradley Cheetham on Using...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/04/17

Advanced Space CEO & President Bradley Cheetham's journey from a PhD student at CU Boulder to successfully putting a satellite around the moon demonstrates how small, innovative companies can lead space exploration with minimal capital. In this episode of DIB Innovators, Bradley shares with Dave how his 14-year journey began with a purpose to enable the sustainable exploration, development, and settlement of space. Rather than building hardware, his team focused on creating technologies,

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48:34

EP 57 — Cyber Resilience at the Crossroads [Webinar]

DIB Innovators ·

2025/04/10

The security landscape has radically transformed from counter-terrorism to strategic competition with nation states who are actively positioning cyber assets to disable American infrastructure during potential conflicts. In this vital discussion examining National Security Memorandum 22 (NSM-22), Gen. VanHerck, former Commander of United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, shares that 80% of force projection in any global crisis flows from homeland facilities

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27:28

EP 56 — SkyRunner’s Stewart Hamel on How Their...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/04/04

Stewart Hamel, CEO, took an eccentric side project for his ranch and transformed it into SkyRunner, a revolutionary air utility transport vehicle that's changing the future of defense sector mobility. In this episode of DIB Innovators, Stewart tells Dave how a viral CNN Money video caught military attention, leading to design input from special operations teams that transformed his vehicle into a tactical platform with dual-engine redundancy, field-serviceable components, and the ability to operate

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34:01

EP 55 — Piasecki Aircraft’s John Piasecki on Their...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/03/27

Vertical lift aviation is on the cusp of its biggest revolution since the helicopter itself, and John Piasecki, President & CEO of Piasecki Aircraft, is at the forefront with game-changing technologies that could cut operational costs in half while meeting complex military requirements. In this episode of DIB Innovators John walks Dave through how his family's aerospace legacy is evolving from the iconic tandem rotor helicopter (now the Chinook) to hydrogen-powered compound helicopters and

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39:01

EP 54 — Slingshot Aerospace’s Erik Ekwurzel on...

DIB Innovators ·

2025/03/20

In Dave’s latest conversation on DIB Innovators, he uncovers how Slingshot Aerospace has become one of the few major entities globally collecting space data at scale, alongside superpowers like the US, China, and Russia. Erik Ekwurzel, CDIO, explains how their patented optical sensor technology, which is deployed across 22 global sites, can detect objects as small as CubeSats while collecting critical photometric data that radar systems can't capture. As space becomes increasingly contested and

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94 results

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