The Merge

What does it actually take to get new technology into thehands of warfighters—and why is it still so hard?
In this episode, Mike sits down with the co-founders ofDcode, Meagan Metzger and Meg Vorland, to unpack the reality behind defense innovation, acquisition reform, and the flow of capital into the sector.
Dcode operates at a unique intersection—working withstartups, investors, and the Pentagon—giving them a rare, inside-out view of how the system really works.
We break down why most acquisition reform efforts fallshort, whether recent policy changes are hitting the right targets, and what conventional wisdom in defense innovation is simply wrong.
If you’re trying to understand how defense actually getsbuilt, funded, and fielded—this is the inside baseball.

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• Dcode website
• Dcode Capital portfolio
• Dcode LinkedIn
• Meagan Metzger LinkedIn
• Meg Vorland LinkedIn
• CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE podcast

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00:00
00:44 intro
01:19 Dcode origin story
04:55 founders, funders, and fighters
09:27 acquisition reform
12:32 risk vs the no-monster
15:58 buying speed vs rigor
16:44 contracting officer shortage
17:55 bigger worse contracts
21:04 defense catalyst
21:57 leadership and training
23:05 the bigger picture
25:33 budget line-item consolidation
28:16 pass a budget
30:41 investing in companies
36:05 misconceptions
38:28 colors and fallout
39:33 conflicts of interest
41:03 RAIC
41:30 300
42:12 pilot programs
46:42 fielding
47:29 magic wand
48:49 crystal ball
50:19 outro

All modern hardware depends on good software, but in theU.S. military, most software sucks.

Rob Slaughter, co-founder and CEO of Defense Unicorns, joins the show to unpack why this is happening and what they are doing to fix it.

We dive into the rise of “software as a weapon system,” therole of open-source software in national security, and how Defense Unicorns is building an air-gapped, platform-agnostic software delivery model designed for real-world military environments.

This episode is a must for anyone in defense. You’ll learn a ton about software—we guarantee!
 
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• Sign up for the newsletter⁠!
• Support us on ⁠Patreon⁠!
• Rob LinkedIn
• Defense Unicorns website
• Defense Unicorns LinkedIn
• Defense Unicorns X
• Defense Unicorns YouTube
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00:00
00:43 intro
01:09 Defense Unicorns name
04:28 origin story
06:38 the 3 I's
08:46 software sustainment burden
09:13 wrong incentive structure
12:31 software as a weapon system
14:39 rising tech debt
16:18 open source
18:46 open is more secure?
20:43 SBOM
22:24 solutions
23:05 fighter jet software updates
24:43 submarine software
25:52 UDS
27:05 disconnected software
28:34 Chinese software underneath US systems
30:48 competition
33:43 crystal ball
35:15 $136M fundraise
37:56 magic wand - fixed price contracts
40:14 McDonald's ice cream
 
#AI #Technology #Tech #Innovation #Cybersecurity #youtube #Military #DefenseTech #MilitaryTech #Startup #Software #Business

This is the untold origin story of the Fury CollaborativeCombat Aircraft (CCA), as told by those who lived it.

Scott Bledsoe and Joe Murray join Mike to talk about Fury’s very beginning—way back to 2016.

Now known as Anduril’s YFQ-44, Fury originated as an SBIR project from Blue Force Technologies and may go on to become a poster child of SBIR success stories. But it’s not all good news.

The experience—and the decision to sell to Anduril—motivated Scott and Joe to start a new type of investment fund called the DoD Accelerator.

DoD Accelerator bridges the gap between venture capital and private equity, addressing the ‘funding valley of death’ they faced and the factors that led to the decision to sell their company—and Fury—to Anduril.

This is packed with never-before-revealed details and serves as the backdrop for a broader conversation about the realities of having a company in the defense industry.
 
Links
• Sign up for the newsletter⁠!
• Support us on ⁠Patreon⁠!
• Scott Bledsoe
• Joe Murray
• WOTR High-Low Mix Part I
• WOTR High-Low Mix Part II
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00:00
00:26 intro
01:50 Scott and Joe
07:21 DoD Accelerator
09:51 Fury origin story
11:24 SBIR
16:28 the high-low mix
17:11 writing to understand
18:29 F-117
19:04 no part 3
19:41 red air use-case
24:29 Bandit and ADAIR-UX
25:10 funding and the valley of death
28:04 the capital void
31:11 programs consolidate
32:28 Anduril acquisition
33:37 the small business divide
34:14 DoD Accelerator fit
36:12 Baxter Aerospace example
41:19 the cheat code
44:26 crystal ball
45:17 the prime cartel?
46:32 magic wand - IR&D policy change
49:10 policy hurts start-ups
52:51 DoD Accelerator focus areas

There is a strange set of organizations that live betweenindustry and government called Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs).

They play an important—but largely misunderstood role—in national security.

What better way to understand it all than with a guest who’sone of the most famous pop-culture examples: Christine Fox.

She was the real person who was portrayed as ‘Charlie’,Maverick’s civilian love interest, in Top Gun! She spent 40+ years working as an analyst in UARCs and a civilian leader at the Pentagon, culminating in serving as the acting Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Today, she continues to serve as a Fellow at Johns HopkinsUniversity’s Applied Physics Lab (JHU APL), which is the nation’s largest UARC.

This interview has a ton of inside baseball that you won’t find anywhere else!
 
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00:00 intro
00:35 Top Gun
01:33 Christine Fox
02:53 origin of FFRFC & UARC
05:36 access to classified info
08:30 tech transfer
11:33 independence
14:42 threat analysis story
16:35 misunderstandings
20:29 software and competition
24:32 fix the gray
27:11 what if they disappear?
27:39 Navy Red Sea support
28:29 hypersonics
30:08 Golden Dome
31:01 whole of nation approach
38:20 2026 resolutions
39:42 closing remarks

Mike sits down with Matt Hawkins and Nick LaRovere,co-founders of Pryzm.

Pryzm is building an Operating System for defense innovation—software that uses AI to generate capture intel to make sense of Pentagon budgets, Congressional legislation, program offices, and much more.

It’s AI to understand the Pentagon.

They help connect the dots between missions, markets, andpeople to power the future of national security.
 
Links
• Sign up for the newsletter⁠!
• Support us on ⁠Patreon⁠!
• Pryzm homepage https://pryzm.io  
 
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00:00
01:43 intro
02:30 origin story
05:57 disclosure
07:07 2 PMs
08:47 Air Force tanker program
21:47 Golden Dome
28:12 sales vs business development
33:04 proactive vs reactive
34:59 intel to flip the script
37:56 a bubble?
41:18 flat toplines
43:05 requested vs executed
46:38 fundraise
48:27 DIU project
50:58 2026 outlook
55:29 outro