Matthew Steckman is President and CBO of defense technology company Anduril. He explains how Anduril identifies and validates customer demand in defense procurement.
“All of these things can be characterized by Like a singular champion on the other side of the table that gets it, that believes in it, that wants to shepherd it. Actually you mentioned Shyam. He talks a lot about this kind of like heroism. Like it actually comes down to a single person in government. A lot of times, same experience for us.”
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More from Matthew Steckman
AssertionSupported
Steckman: Anduril builds cruise missile airframes like bathtubs using contract manufacturers
“The cruise missile we build, the actual airframe is built like you build a bathtub. And so we can take advantage of tons of contract manufacturers in the United States that can actually build a bathtub, right?”
Matthew SteckmanMar 23, 2026▶ 33:2399% of Drone Companies Will Die & Why Anduril’s Products Aren’t an Ethics Debate | Matthew Steckman · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Steckman: Defense founders must defer ethical rules to democratically elected governments
“If you work in defense, and if you start a defense company, your moral compass tends to be pretty clear on this question, which is, we have a democratically elected set of governments that represent the US, the Alliance, NATO, all of the countries participatin…”
Matthew SteckmanMar 23, 2026▶ 35:4699% of Drone Companies Will Die & Why Anduril’s Products Aren’t an Ethics Debate | Matthew Steckman · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Steckman: Legacy defense primes get paid to fix mistakes, unlike Anduril
“A lot of our competitors, the really big ones, if they make a mistake, They get paid to fix it. I think if we make a mistake, we lose money, and we lose contracts, so.”
Matthew SteckmanMar 23, 2026▶ 46:0299% of Drone Companies Will Die & Why Anduril’s Products Aren’t an Ethics Debate | Matthew Steckman · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Steckman: Defense tech companies require a large US presence to survive
“You basically can't have a defense company if you don't have a large US business.”
Matthew SteckmanMar 23, 2026▶ 9:0899% of Drone Companies Will Die & Why Anduril’s Products Aren’t an Ethics Debate | Matthew Steckman · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Steckman: Few military drone programs generate enough revenue for standalone businesses
“There are very few drone programs that would create a material enough amount of revenue to actually create a real business.”
Matthew SteckmanMar 23, 2026▶ 0:2799% of Drone Companies Will Die & Why Anduril’s Products Aren’t an Ethics Debate | Matthew Steckman · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
What-if
Steckman: Anduril missed offensive cyber warfare seven years ago but will enter
“We should have moved into that seven years ago and been the first in it. We weren't big enough probably to really even understand it seven years ago, but like in hindsight, it was kind of obvious. You know, we'll, we'll probably try and play some catch up here…”
Matthew SteckmanMar 23, 2026▶ 17:4599% of Drone Companies Will Die & Why Anduril’s Products Aren’t an Ethics Debate | Matthew Steckman · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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