Excellent read! Look forward to the rest of this series.
This playbook reminded me of the space tech stories on "When the Heavens Went on Sale". How NASA became overly bureaucratic, its technologies falling behind even consumer tech. How scrappy entrepreneurs focused on making launches fast and cheap, building teams with unconventional talent. Highly recommend if you haven’t read it.
Since the Russians weren't capable of matching US electronic processors etc. to maximize what they had they were forced to develop eloquent algorithms to accomplish similar results without brute force - something silicon valley learned after the wall fell when these guys came west.
There is always something to criticize but to ignore the Israel's clever use of technology to disable and identify the leadership structure of HAMAS and Hezbollah through their communication devices suggests you have some serious blind spots - the Israelis eventually address their mistakes despite bureaucratic resistance and innovation continues
Very compelling recommendation. Ukraine is a good case study. For example, a common American view is that China controls battery supply. If a war broke out, drones would be inaccessible without Chinese supply. Noahpinion has argued this point often. However, Ukraine has been able to source drones—and batteries—successfully.
Second point: Confluence.VC posted today an interview with Zoe Weinberg, managing partner of ex/ante, which invests in agentic AI: "I noticed that traditional defense investors were overly focused on hardware. The biggest challenges I saw were in software, security, and privacy—and nobody was investing with that focus. I couldn’t find a firm investing in this space—so I decided to build one. Being a thesis-driven investor means I spend more time talking to practitioners, researchers, and academics—not just founders. If you have a strong thesis, you don’t just react to inbound—you proactively map out opportunities years ahead of time."
This type of VC is indeed a new niche.
While ex/ante takes the long horizon, creating a quick prototyping VC in Europe to provide solutions for Ukraine could be a fast way to test this approach. Finding the people, and overcoming mindsets are the obstacles I see.
Excellent read! Look forward to the rest of this series.
This playbook reminded me of the space tech stories on "When the Heavens Went on Sale". How NASA became overly bureaucratic, its technologies falling behind even consumer tech. How scrappy entrepreneurs focused on making launches fast and cheap, building teams with unconventional talent. Highly recommend if you haven’t read it.
You don't give the Russians the credit they are due for US stealth, see: https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB443/docs/area51_10a.PDF the seminal document discovered in open source
Since the Russians weren't capable of matching US electronic processors etc. to maximize what they had they were forced to develop eloquent algorithms to accomplish similar results without brute force - something silicon valley learned after the wall fell when these guys came west.
There is always something to criticize but to ignore the Israel's clever use of technology to disable and identify the leadership structure of HAMAS and Hezbollah through their communication devices suggests you have some serious blind spots - the Israelis eventually address their mistakes despite bureaucratic resistance and innovation continues
Very compelling recommendation. Ukraine is a good case study. For example, a common American view is that China controls battery supply. If a war broke out, drones would be inaccessible without Chinese supply. Noahpinion has argued this point often. However, Ukraine has been able to source drones—and batteries—successfully.
Second point: Confluence.VC posted today an interview with Zoe Weinberg, managing partner of ex/ante, which invests in agentic AI: "I noticed that traditional defense investors were overly focused on hardware. The biggest challenges I saw were in software, security, and privacy—and nobody was investing with that focus. I couldn’t find a firm investing in this space—so I decided to build one. Being a thesis-driven investor means I spend more time talking to practitioners, researchers, and academics—not just founders. If you have a strong thesis, you don’t just react to inbound—you proactively map out opportunities years ahead of time."
This type of VC is indeed a new niche.
While ex/ante takes the long horizon, creating a quick prototyping VC in Europe to provide solutions for Ukraine could be a fast way to test this approach. Finding the people, and overcoming mindsets are the obstacles I see.