Cinnamon: Apex reports suspicious applicants and fake machine shops to FBI
Ian Cinnamon · From Palantir to Space Defense: Building a $100 Billion Company · Joe Lonsdale · Aug 13, 2025 · at 40:33
Ian Cinnamon is the founder and CEO of satellite bus manufacturer Apex. He discusses defending American aerospace startups against Chinese corporate espionage and infiltration attempts.
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“We've had some very interesting job applicants come by that we haven't interviewed. We due to the nature of our work, we can only hire US persons, but that doesn't mean people still don't try to sneak in, or we catch some things that are not quite adding up. And then we've had suppliers reach out about, oh, I'm a great machine shop, I do this, and we dig in a little bit, and we're like, you are not who you say you are. And I can't go into too many details, because we actually, we report all those things. We actually work very closely both with the State Department, FBI, and others on all of this.”
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