My first conversation with Bryon Hargis (@hargsb), Cofounder and CEO of @Castelion. This is a special edition of our show recorded at @reindsummit. Since then, Castelion has announced a $1 billion Series C funding valuing the company at $13 billion making it one of the most valuable defense technology companies in the ecosystem. What we cover: - Why Bryon sold his SpaceX stock to bootstrap Castelion and bet two-thirds of his savings on the mission. - Why affordable, mass-produced hypersonic missiles are central to his vision of American deterrence. - Building Blackbeard, winning the first Navy order, and scaling production to thousands of missiles a year. - The SpaceX lessons behind faster hardware development: rapid testing, questioning convention, and knowing when to change course. - Hiring for mission over money and why company culture is built one person at a time. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 01:00 Bootstrapping with SpaceX stock and crypto mining 07:00 Why Bryon started a defense company 11:00 Building deterrence and landing the first Navy order 14:00 Scaling missile manufacturing in New Mexico 18:00 Meet Blackbeard: Castelion’s hypersonic missile 20:00 Hypersonic vs. ballistic vs. cruise missiles 23:00 Golden Dome and the future of missile defense 25:00 How SpaceX enables America’s national security 27:00 Elon Musk, ambitious deadlines, and moving faster 30:00 Why rapid testing beats over-engineering 33:00 Lessons from SpaceX: Question convention, follow the data 38:00 Hiring for the mission and building company culture 45:00 Growing as a founder and being willing to be wrong Congrats to friends of the show @a16z @davidu @TheAmbitionCap @lacostejonathan and others including @lightspeedvp @AltimeterCap @generalcatalyst Special thanks to @falondonohue @austinbishop @aphysicist for hosting @WeThe_Builders in Detroit