NEW: Ian Cinnamon (@IanCinnamon) on Building a $2.3B Satellite Manufacturing Campus, @PalantirTech Alumni & The Apex Space Thesis Ian is the Cofounder and CEO of Apex Space. He was previously at @zynga and Palantir (after selling his company). He joined Palantir after selling his weapon detection company to them which had gotten impacted by covid since all live events came to a halt for ~1 year. Interestingly, my final year project in electrical engineering was also weapon detection using Computer Vision - which I take no credit for since my teammates did the work, I even back then thought I could just support on the BD/research side since my dad was working in the security administration function. He is the second member of the Palantir founder mafia on the show to have started a billion dollar company. The first was @CobiBGantz. Both backed by friends of the show at @xyz_vc. The company was valued at $2.3 billion as of their most recent fundraise which was led by Glade Brook and Washington Harbor. Their early investors include @a16z, XYZ Ventures and @p72vc, all friends of the show. We talked about his idea maze and choosing the right thing to work on in the middle of the crypto-craze in 2022, in that time he joined @villageglobal as an EIR to figure out what he wanted to pursue. I am a big fan of exploration and taking your time to decide what you want to go all-in on. Recently discussed the importance of this on the show with @alitamaseb (GP at @DCVC and author of SuperFounders) as well, he conducted thorough research on billion dollar founders and companies and one of the things that is common is the fact that billion dollar founders take time to decide what they want to pursue. Another example that comes to mind is @qasar of @AppliedInt who took ~2 years before he locked in the idea for Applied Intuition. Matt Angle at Paradromics was in his PhD and was thinking about it for ~4 years or more before starting the company. Brandon Sorbom at Commonwealth Fusion Systems also spent an ample amount of time working on the idea including at first starting a nonprofit dedicated to research before doing it as a startup. Special edition of our show from @RonaldReagan National Economic Forum. @danrothschild @ImChauncey @davidu @markpinc @BaijuBhatt @8vc @CRV @saarsaar @morgangress @pronounced_kyle Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction 01:22 - Moving from software and AI to the space industry 02:12 - Using computer vision to protect public safety 04:37 - Learning from the flat, fast-moving culture at Palantir 07:54 - Deciding to build the last company I would ever start 09:59 - How SpaceX made rocket launch reliable and frequent 12:10 - Stepping away to incubate a new kind of satellite business 13:56 - Building the Ford Model T of the satellite world 15:15 - What is a satellite platform? 16:43 - Partnering with Northrop Grumman for missile defense 19:12 - Understanding how much room is actually left up in space 21:19 - Choosing the right altitude based on what a satellite does 24:13 - Shifting space tech from custom crafts to a volume game 27:25 - How factory automation helps America win the current space race 29:46 - Closing

I got to sit down with David Ulevitch (@davidu) for E31 of We The Builders (@WeThe_Builders). He is a General Partner at @a16z where he cofounded the $1.776 billion American Dynamism practice with @KTmBoyle about 4 years ago. Since then, it has taken over the timeline and become the language many use to describe frontier, deep or hard tech. Friend of the show @lochhead calls this Category Design, where you don’t necessarily have to be the first to become a category leader, you need to frame the problem and do it better than everyone else. We talk about investing strategy, founding story of American Dynamism and what made it a sticky brand, what he has learnt about how the world works from his anthropology background, surveillance concerns with public safety technologies, his best mentor who is not @pmarca and more. American Dynamism focuses on investing in areas such as public safety, aerospace, logistics, national security, defense, manufacturing, industrialization, logistics. Some of the companies in their portfolio include @anduriltech , Amca, @AppliedInt , Apex Space, @AstroMechanica , @Astranis , @basepowerco , @CAForever , @Castelion , @HadrianInc , @NorthwoodSpace , @RadiantNuclear and of course @SpaceX. Founders of many of these will be featured in upcoming episodes or are friends of the show. David was previously the founder and CEO of OpenDNS, a cloud-delivered security service that was acquired by Cisco in 2015 for $635 million. While at @Cisco , David was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Security — a $2.4 billion annual revenue business with more than 5,000 team members — where he oversaw the company’s global cybersecurity strategy, product portfolio, and business (via A16Z). Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 01:57 - Defining American Dynamism 05:43 - Project Maven and Rebuilding the Arsenal of Democracy 07:24 - Competing with General Catalyst for Anduril 08:49 - Category creation and defining the market 10:57 - The marketing engine of “The American Dream” 15:20 - Replicating Silicon Valley 18:22 - Robot Dogs and General Catalyst 19:47 - 1776 Million: Building the American Dynamism Practice 20:59 - Why Hardware Outperforms Software Over Time 22:38 - Coupling Defense, Energy, and Space 26:28 - Investing in Public Safety 33:01 - Investment Committees are “stupid” 35:39 - Long-term partners over short-term bets 39:23 - Policy, Regulations, and navigating relationships in DC 43:11 - How regulations are slowing us down 46:54 - The Industrial Supply Chain Divergence 51:29 - Global Maritime Dominance and Expanding TAM 53:39 - Venture-Backable Bets in Critical Industrial Infrastructure 1:00:24 - Applying Anthropology: Study of People, Culture, and Political Power 1:04:08 - What Drives Innovation Across Nations? 1:11:49 - Regional Talent and State Incentives 1:15:48 - Moving from Benevolent Dictator to Minority Investor 1:20:42 - Life is Checkers, Not Chess: Agency and Knowing When to Sell 1:26:57 - OpenDNS and the Pivot to Enterprise: Letting Markets Dictate Your Revenue 1:30:13 - The High Bar for Talent: Grittiness, Grind, and Magnetic Leadership 1:33:09 - Attracting Capital via Narrative: Storytelling vs. Lying 1:35:07 - Toastmasters and Single-Topic Debates: Sharpening Communication 1:37:20 - Modern Credentials: Domain Expertise and Sourcing True Signals 1:44:23 - Government Sales 101: Enterprise Sales on Steroids 1:46:34 - Closing