The Drone Ultimatum

Nathan Mintz, founder and CEO of CX2 and former founding CEO of Epirus, joins the show to break down how electronic warfare is reshaping modern drone defense.

Nathan Mintz (LinkedIn)
CX2 Website

We cover the origin of Epirus, the moment the drone threat became impossible to ignore, and how soft kill systems fit into a layered approach to counter-UAS.

Nathan also explains what it actually looks like to build a defense company today, from working inside legacy primes to launching and scaling startups in a system that rewards access, alignment, and execution.

This episode is a practical look at electronic warfare, soft kill vs kinetic solutions, and how companies like CX2 are thinking about the future of drone defense.
• Electronic warfare and soft kill systems
• The rise of the drone threat
• Epirus origin story and lessons learned
• From legacy primes to startups
• Building CX2 and modern defense companies
• Counter-UAS strategy and layered defense

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Kurt Freshley, Chief Growth Officer of Valinor Enterprises, joins the show to break down the company's strategy and portfolio companies while sharing what it actually takes to scale in defense and advanced manufacturing.

Kurt Freshley on LinkedIn
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Valinor (Twitter/X)

From navigating procurement and aligning with real customer demand to building sustainable growth inside a complex ecosystem, this conversation gets into the operational reality behind the headlines.

We discuss how defense companies think about growth differently, where most startups get it wrong, and what separates companies that win programs from those that stall out.

Kurt also shares perspective on aligning incentives across government, primes, and startups, and what it takes to build something that actually gets fielded.

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Jamie Goettler (CRO, BTX Precision) breaks down what’s actually happening inside U.S. advanced manufacturing right now.

Demand across defense, aerospace, semiconductors, and medical devices is surging at the same time, but the real story is on the supply side. Can U.S. manufacturing actually scale to meet it?

We cover reshoring, tariffs, precision manufacturing constraints, and what it takes to rebuild the industrial base.

Topics include:

Why demand is rising across multiple industries at once

The real bottlenecks in U.S. manufacturing capacity

What reshoring looks like in practice

The role tariffs play in accelerating domestic production

Why precision manufacturing is uniquely difficult to scale

Questions answered in this episode:

Why is U.S. manufacturing demand increasing?

Can the U.S. reshore production at scale?

What are the biggest constraints in advanced manufacturing?

LINKS

Follow Jamie on LinkedIn

BTX Precision Website

Full episode transcript

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Rick Harlow, founder of NovaSpark Energy, joins the show to break down how his company turns water into hydrogen for military drones, backup power, and off-grid energy systems.

The conversation covers defense use cases, disaster response, critical infrastructure, data center demand, and why on-site hydrogen production could eliminate major supply chain bottlenecks. Rick also shares his path from telecom and early IoT into startups, defense, and energy entrepreneurship. This is a practical discussion about resilience, logistics, and where hydrogen may actually make sense in the real world.

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Patrick Blumenthal (Investor at Anomaly Fund) returns to break down how venture capital actually works in defense, what makes founders worth backing, and how geopolitical realities shape investment decisions.

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The conversation spans Iran, great power competition, and the second-order effects of U.S. strategy on global markets and startups. Patrick also shares how he evaluates companies, why certain founders consistently outperform, and where defense tech is still misunderstood by investors.

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