The Exchanges

Q What would lead to a Cold War becoming a hot war?

A A few things that could happen. I think you could see, um, North Korea get spicier. I think you could see a, uh, invasion of Taiwan that would get very spicy. I think you could see, uh, Russian expansionism vis-a-vis Ukraine kind of keep pushing into Eastern Europe. And I think it's a pretty hot topic in Europe these days that would get pretty spicy and escalate. Uh, and then I also think, um, freedom of movement of ships and commercial traffic through the South China Sea, like a massive amount of our life livelihood depends On ships moving in and out of the Chinese, uh, South China Sea. So I think if you started to see like freedom of navigation get compromised, that could pretty quickly escalate into a, into a hot war. But like vis-a-vis and all, like what, what we see is we see that deterrence of long-term hot war conflict ultimately comes through strength and that there is a, a, a weakness begets hot wars. So from our perspective, we view it as we want to equip Our military, the military is the UK, the West, our allies, Australia, et cetera, uh, with the best possible technology to make the cost of escalating into a hot war, uh, for our enemies, for our opponents, uh, prohibitively expensive. Uh, that's kind of the idea. That's kind of the vision. That's what we started the company to do. And it's what we're, what we're building towards.

AI assessment note: “freedom of navigation get compromised, that could pretty quickly escalate into a, into a hot war”

Q As a venture investor contemplating investing in the market, what, what should I know that I don't know?

A Well, you should, you should know that the andrel of X is going to be andrel, uh, and that you're Your best bet is probably buying as many andrel shares as you can. Beyond that, uh, I think what you should know is that execution and delivery and actually winning these contracts, winning these long-term programs of record is incredibly complicated and fraught with incredibly complex regulations, uh, compliance, kind of, uh, accreditation. Like there's this whole world of, of, of very messy kind of back office stuff That is admittedly not sexy. It admittedly doesn't make great headlines, but, uh, saying, like, we've got a new missile, and it's gonna be great, like, cool, does not a successful missile program make, and there's a, a huge gap there. So as a, uh, as, as a new investor to the segment, first of all, I would say, uh, you know, you're unlikely to drive venture-style returns by being kind of consensus, but, like, beyond that, uh, I would say, uh, Truly spend the time to appreciate the complexities of the appropriations process, the budget process, the, the, the awarding and winning and supporting and delivering of these, of these.

AI assessment note: “appreciate the complexities of the appropriations process, the budget process”

Q What have you changed your mind on in the last 12 months?

A I have changed my mind on the importance of business systems. And the kind of nitty gritty weeds of business systems integrating together, uh, leading to an effective manufacturing process. And happy to go into as much incredibly boring detail. Your stats on the podcast listening, this is when people are going to turn it off. Right, right, right, right here. Um, but there's a, uh, there's a lot of very important kind of guts that go into Like, when Tommy Technician comes to work and he beeps his badge in at his workstation, what is he seeing? Like, what is he building today? And, like, the guts behind that are incredibly complicated and, uh, incredibly complex and matter a lot. And over the last, uh, 12 months, I mean, I mentioned my kind of bad decision eighteen-ish months ago to, to kind of starve the G&A functions of the company a little bit. Uh, over the last 12 months I've seen Like, oh man, that stuff matters way more than I thought it would have, and, uh, and, and we've since corrected, like, we're working on it. Um, we've got some pretty interesting stuff cooking, like, we're about to announce a pretty exciting partnership in the next, uh, in the next few weeks here, but.

AI assessment note: “I have changed my mind on the importance of business systems.”

Q What specifically has Andrel done to be the breakout success that it is? I asked, um, Trey the same question, and he gave me a great answer. Which I'll reveal to you after.

A Yeah, you can't tell me ahead of time. That would, that would, that would ruin, ruin the, the surprise. Um, my answer would be Twofold. Uh, I think first we have, uh, and they're very related. I think first we have unlocked what was a kind of a latent patriotism within the technology and defense sector. I say latent because if you look at the momentum through the kind of the early 2000 into the, into the 20 teens, The momentum in the tech sector, uh, amongst kind of the zeitgeist, amongst the employee kind of mindset was not one of patriotism. And to your question, you know, a half hour ago, whatever, like, are the best and brightest going to work at Lockheed, et cetera, like, that, like, no, no, there was not an interest in working in the defense sector. And I think, like, Andrel has unlocked that kind of latent talent to wake up and come work on problems that we view. As the most important problems in, in, in facing the world right now. Uh, so we, we've unlocked that. And then the other half of that kind of, kind of card there is also by unlocking a incredible amount of, of funding and investment into the sector that had also been historically, uh, kind of, kind of lacking for this kind of segment. Uh, and to your point about like, well, isn't this a bad customer? Like I'm used to winner take all. Like, yeah, that's a lot of, that's a lot of investors, and that's a lot of kin…

AI assessment note: “my answer would be Twofold. Uh, I think first we have”

Q You are the biggest insurance premium to governments. I totally understand that. You mentioned, hey, we want to bring the latest technology and we want to equip the Western governments to feel that they have this power and that they can leverage it if needed. How is software an autonomy transforming defense?

A Oh man, uh, we could talk for this, uh, talk about this for hours here. The, uh, I think it's a totally transformative, I mean, you spend a lot of time on your podcast talking about AI as it applies to enterprise companies, as it applies to SaaS companies, as it applies to, uh, you know, customer service, like all of these different verticals, all these different areas, and defense is no different. I think the future around AI is incredibly bright. Uh, I think there's a lot of opportunity to optimize everything from production to, uh, From field support, to, to maintenance, to, uh, understanding the landscape of what the battlefield looks like. That's really what we're doing with our, uh, lattice operating system that's at the core of all of our products, is trying to bring together and fuse all of this different data that's coming from individual soldiers, from individual planes, from satellites, from submarines, from missiles, from every kind of sensor that you might have out there in, uh, in, in the battle space. Fuse that into one picture so that the, uh, the, the soldiers and the commanders who are ultimately, uh, you know, controlling, controlling the battle space have a live real time view of what's happening out there. I think there's a tremendous amount of, of impact that this is going to have. So when we think about new products, we look at like, what is it currently …

AI assessment note: “trying to bring together and fuse all of this different data”

Q So you, I'm putting you now in charge of the MOD, the DOD, you name your Department of Defense style. What would you do to create a structure of incentives that creates risk-taking mindsets for the people buying?

A Yeah, a few things, man. Um, first of all, uh, Would appreciate the urgency of the problem, and I think that over the last, call it decade, I think, ah, the, the, the governments of the West have largely gotten complacent to what we view as the, kind of, the major geopolitical strategic problems facing, ah, facing the West, especially vis-a-vis China and to a slightly lesser extent Russia. So appreciating the urgency, I think, is point, point number one. Point number two, I would say, Is bringing capitalism back to the defense sector? Uh, my, my former boss and now friend and mentor, Sham, who you've had, Sham Sankar at Palantir, who you've had on the show, uh, he's been on a tear lately talking about this, and he had this, uh, this tweet that I think perfectly encapsulates it, where he said that, uh, everyone, including Russia and China, uh, have given up on communism, except Cuba and the DoD. And it's like, that's kind of the mentality, right? It's like a mentality of a, of a cost Plus style contracting. We'll get to that in a second. Where, uh, like, ultimately, a competitive win, a better technology, a better approach, doesn't always necessarily win out. And, like, oftentimes there are different incentives at play, uh, that, that, that lead to a little bit more of a kind of communistic or socialistic approach to, to the defense sector that I think is fundamentally bad and i…

AI assessment note: “Moving many more things to firm fixed price”

Q What have you changed your mind on in the last 12 months?

A I have changed my mind on the importance of business systems. And the kind of nitty gritty weeds of business systems integrating together, uh, leading to an effective manufacturing process. And happy to go into as much incredibly boring detail. Your stats on the podcast listening, this is when people are going to turn it off. Right, right, right, right here. Um, but there's a, uh, there's a lot of very important kind of guts that go into Like, when Tommy Technician comes to work and he beeps his badge in at his workstation, what is he seeing? Like, what is he building today? And, like, the guts behind that are incredibly complicated and, uh, incredibly complex and matter a lot. And over the last, uh, 12 months, I mean, I mentioned my kind of bad decision eighteen-ish months ago to, to kind of starve the G&A functions of the company a little bit. Uh, over the last 12 months I've seen Like, oh man, that stuff matters way more than I thought it would have, and, uh, and, and we've since corrected, like, we're working on it. Um, we've got some pretty interesting stuff cooking, like, we're about to announce a pretty exciting partnership in the next, uh, in the next few weeks here, but.

AI assessment note: “I have changed my mind on the importance of business systems.”

Q Can you share an anecdote of when they have done a ride or die for you?

A They went to, they have gone to bat for us in numerous times with VCs who were either, uh, uncomfortable with the, and these are, these are in the early days, you know, post Ukraine, all of this has changed. You didn't ask me those questions by the way, but like, Hey, you know, that's fine. Um, like, Uh, in the early days when people were very uncomfortable with the ethics of defense, especially in a Trump administration, if you remember at the time, like Trump had just won. It was very controversial in the Valley, at least. Uh, and there was this like, can we trust them? What about defense? We don't know. There's like this ethical kind of, kind of quandary that a lot of VCs are struggling with. And, um, Singerman himself personally, uh, like multiple times went to bat for us and said, you're absolutely insane. These are, you know, good folks with good ethics and good morals, and this is absolutely technology the world needs. You, you have to get involved. Um, and has like personally gone too bad for us and helped us. So like that, that means a lot to us to stand by us. And, uh, any, any list of, you know, top tier VCs, et cetera, you know, people that publish the list that doesn't include founders fund at the top is a laughable list.

AI assessment note: “Singerman himself personally, uh, like multiple times went to bat for us”

Q What's the secret to a happy marriage and being incredibly busy?

A Is two things. First is, uh, I mean, both of them are gonna sound, sound pretty cheesy. Um, first is choosing your life partner very, very, very, very carefully. And I think having a, um, it goes to point to Very clear communication about expectations, about responsibilities, about, ah, timelines, about goals, and if, ah, you know, fundamentally relationships fall apart when some of those things don't happen. So if I'm consistently making promises to my wife and she's amazing and great, ah, if I'm consistently making promises about where I'll be or I'll take the kids here or I'll get this thing done or I'll handle this problem and then I'm consistently not, then she will Understandably get frustrated, and the reverse is also true, and I find that, uh, supplies to business as well, without clear communication about, yes, I will, I will take care of that, actually doing it, and doing it to a, a high level, uh, frustration just builds over time, and over time that can turn in from minor frustration into major frustration into this isn't working for me, kind of, uh, kind of breaks.

AI assessment note: “first is choosing your life partner very, very, very, very carefully. And I think having”

Q Do you agree never go to sleep angry?

A No, actually. I actually don't. I actually don't. I think also applies to business, but especially for me, and you talked to enough of my friends, you'll, this has surely been, surely been said, like I can have a very, uh, I can take things personally that aren't necessarily intended personally, and I can have an emotional reaction, an overly emotional reaction to things that may, may not deserve such an emotional reaction with the benefit of time, a little bit of benefit of, uh, self-reflection, um, I think it puts you in a position to have a more thoughtful, clearer communication that isn't so fueled by emotion, and I think having an, an, an argument at dinner that turns into a argument after bedtime, that turns into a let's stay up all night and argue about it, I actually think is like not, not actually that healthy. Just getting to a place where you say like, look, we're both frustrated, let's talk through this tomorrow. Actually, I think it's totally fine. Provided you actually do. I think what the point of the saying is, is it's like, don't let it, don't let things fester.

AI assessment note: “No, actually. I actually don't.”

Q Can you share an anecdote of when they have done a ride or die for you?

A They went to, they have gone to bat for us in numerous times with VCs who were either, uh, uncomfortable with the, and these are, these are in the early days, you know, post Ukraine, all of this has changed. You didn't ask me those questions by the way, but like, Hey, you know, that's fine. Um, like, Uh, in the early days when people were very uncomfortable with the ethics of defense, especially in a Trump administration, if you remember at the time, like Trump had just won. It was very controversial in the Valley, at least. Uh, and there was this like, can we trust them? What about defense? We don't know. There's like this ethical kind of, kind of quandary that a lot of VCs are struggling with. And, um, Singerman himself personally, uh, like multiple times went to bat for us and said, you're absolutely insane. These are, you know, good folks with good ethics and good morals, and this is absolutely technology the world needs. You, you have to get involved. Um, and has like personally gone too bad for us and helped us. So like that, that means a lot to us to stand by us. And, uh, any, any list of, you know, top tier VCs, et cetera, you know, people that publish the list that doesn't include founders fund at the top is a laughable list.

AI assessment note: “Singerman himself personally, uh, like multiple times went to bat for us”

Q Um, what percent of Angela's women, respectfully, does it matter? Yep. And I, I'm kind of just tying everything together here, and like, you know, Sean McGuire said, yeah, woke mind virus is the worst thing in society, and actually we're here to build amazing companies.

A Uh, so what I think matters, I genuinely, fundamentally do not believe the statistics matter. I think what matters is that I want, and I work very hard every day to make this so, I want every Andorillian to wake up in the morning, whether they're male, female, white, black, Latino, Asian, whatever. I want them to wake up every morning and feel excited to come to work. I want them to feel accepted. I want them to feel motivated. I want them to feel like this is a good career decision for them. I want them to feel financially rewarded, and I want them to ultimately believe in the long-term vision of what we're building here. And, uh, regardless of what they identify as, what boxes they check on a form, fundamentally, in my core, I don't give a shit. And I think that, like, a, a focus on-

AI assessment note: “I genuinely, fundamentally do not believe the statistics matter.”

Q And then it didn't? Yes. Was that a hard moment?

A Um. I'll tell you an anecdote. Growing up, I had this fascination, still do, with, uh, with fancy fast cars, and, um, I was one of those kids with the car posters on the walls, and, you know, my, my desktop background was a, you know, fancy Ferrari, et cetera, and, um, and I had this dream, and my, my, my dream car, and, and, and you'll, you'll chuckle, because it kind of sort of shows my ambition at the time, uh, my dream car was An M three coupe, this, you know, six speed, really cool, like BMW M three and it's kind of like road car, but kind of a race car and like, oh, I could, you know, use it, but also it's super fast, super cool. And I had this vision, uh, and then early in my Palantir career, uh, you know, saved up some money, um, you know, sold a little bit of secondary, had some good cash. And I was like, ah, yeah, I should, can I get that car? And then I got it. And it was like, Did this awesome experience at the European delivery, which I strongly encourage, by the way, it's really dope. And then got the car, went back, uh, went back home and I was like, okay, well, I guess I'm like, just back to work again, like going out to dinner with my friends, I guess. And it was like that kind of realization that to your point, like not quite cheated, disappointed maybe is like a better word where it was like, oh, this doesn't actually bring me happiness. This doesn't bring me…

AI assessment note: “disappointed maybe is like a better word where it was like”

Q And then it didn't? Yes. Was that a hard moment?

A Um. I'll tell you an anecdote. Growing up, I had this fascination, still do, with, uh, with fancy fast cars, and, um, I was one of those kids with the car posters on the walls, and, you know, my, my desktop background was a, you know, fancy Ferrari, et cetera, and, um, and I had this dream, and my, my, my dream car, and, and, and you'll, you'll chuckle, because it kind of sort of shows my ambition at the time, uh, my dream car was An M three coupe, this, you know, six speed, really cool, like BMW M three and it's kind of like road car, but kind of a race car and like, oh, I could, you know, use it, but also it's super fast, super cool. And I had this vision, uh, and then early in my Palantir career, uh, you know, saved up some money, um, you know, sold a little bit of secondary, had some good cash. And I was like, ah, yeah, I should, can I get that car? And then I got it. And it was like, Did this awesome experience at the European delivery, which I strongly encourage, by the way, it's really dope. And then got the car, went back, uh, went back home and I was like, okay, well, I guess I'm like, just back to work again, like going out to dinner with my friends, I guess. And it was like that kind of realization that to your point, like not quite cheated, disappointed maybe is like a better word where it was like, oh, this doesn't actually bring me happiness. This doesn't bring me…

AI assessment note: “disappointed maybe is like a better word where it was like, oh, this doesn't”

Q Meshing two things together, Dalian at Founders Fund and Europe. He said on the show, Europe is a third world country. Uh, and I mean, Keith, your boy's been like, you're what? What is that? Like, just this massive, like, You know, terribly underperforming countries. Yeah. Do you look at Europe honestly today and go, that's a bleak future.

A Yeah, I think there's a lot of interesting and very challenging structural issues facing Europe. And I think fundamentally, again, it's coming from a very, very American perspective. Uh, there's, there's an ambition. There is a, you know, seeking and working towards a better, brighter future that feels to be, you know, almost kind of complacently lacking from, uh, a, a large portion of, of Europe. I know you said it yourself here in the UK as well, and I think there's an, there's an element of, like, if we want a brighter future, we have to build it. And that spirit, that drive, uh, you know, I, I worry that Europe's kind of lost their, lost their spark on that front. I don't view it as bleakly as, as those guys do. Granted, it's like, you know, they're kind of in the business of-

AI assessment note: “I don't view it as bleakly as, as those guys do.”