In today’s episode, Julie Willis chats with Prescott Paulin, founding member of Defense Innovation Network and President of 300 Below, Inc an award-winning defense innovation company. 

Jack Ryan, CEO of Catrock Services, joins the podcast to take the conversation beyond the 20.3 AFWERX Open Topic cycle. He shares advice and insight into the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum (www.def.org) which Jack describes as the glue between academic programs, laboratories, and tech companies that can facilitate relationships within the DOD.

Jack also shares an upcoming event - Joint Military Pitch Day with America’s Future Series (www.americas-fs.org) where tech companies seeking investment opportunities will have the chance to present their capabilities to the military, DOD, prime defense contractors, and investors.

How can the SBIR/STTR process be extremely difficult but also extremely rewarding given what it can do for the future of women in the armed forces?

In this episode of innovator >< operator, host Julie Willis welcomes Ms. Pat Dillon; the Director of the Minnesota SBIR/STTR Assistance Office. Pat has assisted more than 500 firms seeking federal funding for their technological innovations with commercial potential.

If you need SBIR support for your startup tech businesses, or just interested in the process in general, you’ve come to the right Podcast!

In this episode, Julie Willis and Katheryn Basso sit down with Russ Long and Noelle Tuss of Long Capture who share their pro tips and best practices to get your military technology business in front of the right people.

Whether you’re writing your first proposal or are refining your approach, this episode will give you insights not found anywhere else. We learn about common pitfalls to avoid and tips to shape our SBIR proposal from Zaheer Ali. Zaheer’s background includes writing SBIR solicitations on the government side, responding them as an entrepreneur, and evaluating them on SBIR review boards.

We are applying for the AFWERX Open Topic SBIR 20.3 cycle on the podcast. In this episode we learn what three steps to take first in order to build a winning proposal. Listen in to hear how we're approaching the 20.3 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) cycle to make the necessary leaps in research and development our female warfighters need.

The AFWERX Open Topic SBIR cycle for 20.3 has begun! We believe we can increase military readiness and effectiveness on the battlefield by improving body armor for women. Listen in to hear how we're approaching the 20.3 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) cycle to make the necessary leaps in research and development our female warfighters need.

DEFIANT, the company that brings you Innovator >< operator, will be competing on the 20.3 SBIR open topic along with a great team of partners. I’m excited, nervous, and overwhelmed - so this should at least be entertaining!

Scott Hastings, CEO of ZPEG, shares with us how they are rethinking video compression. In our video heavy world, from Netflix to Youtube, it’s critical to be able to send files without compromising quality. Scott also gives us insight into the Austin defense ecosystem and how ZPEG began working with CACI, a big name in the defense industry.

This is the dream: leveraging research and development dollars to create something innovative. Airgility’s CEO, Pramod Raheja, tells us how they grew from academia to one of ten startups chosen in the inaugural cohort at U.S. Air Force Labs (in conjunction with MassChallenge). Along the way we learn their business development approach and what Airgility looks for in a partnership.