Gordian Knot Center Roundtable w/Depty SecDef

Kathleen Hicks - Deputy secretary of defense- visit to the Stanford Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation

1. Stanford University April 5, 2022  

2. Policy Impact & Outreach Hacking 4 Defense CONOPS Development Defense Innovation Scholars Program Internships & Professional Workforce Development National Security Education penitus cogitare , cito agere , think deeply, act quickly

3. Policy Impact & Outreach Hacking 4 Defense CONOPS Development Defense Innovation Scholars Program Internships & Professional Workforce Development National Security Education Classes

4. Military Mentors Katharine Beamer (DOS) CAPT Lushan Hannah (USCG) Col Jennifer Branigan (USAF) COL Drew Conover (USA) LtCol Michael Feuquay (USMC) LCDR Brian Harrington (USN) Lt Col Oliver Lause (USAF) LTC Keith Miller (USA) COL Carol Stauffer (USA) Lt Col Brandon Shroyer (USAF)

5. After H4D - first product was NLP system for foreign docs for counterterrorism ops No product-mission fit – no longer a “top 3 problem” for DOD Relying on H4D’s build-test-learn - pivoted to apply same tech to peer competitor data Instant user demand to analyze foreign information for competition / deterrence Growing Vannevar Labs from Hacking4Defense Product Pivot (2020 ) Two Stanford MBA founders - fmr DoD intel analyst and fmr In-Q-Tel investor - with goal to build defense AI company Raised $4.5M seed round in early 2019 from top Silicon Valley VCs Formed a H4D team around AI analytics for intel data sponsored by ODNI - with 3 comp sci students Identified challenges with DOD data pipelines and network of DOD ‘intrapreneurs’ driving change Hacking4Defense (2019) Vannevar Labs (2022) Launched first China pilot with 5 users at INDOPACOM in January 2021 By May - deployed with 60+ more users in INDOPACOM and SOCOM Raised a $12M Series A led by Silicon Valley VCs based on pilot revenue Now deployed across 15+ DOD groups with hundreds of users Current goal is to grow pilots into larger projects with DoD PMs

6. Where we started one year ago… Jeff Jang MBA Jordi Vila MBA Jack Hochschild MS AA, PhD CEE Dilan Nana BSc/MS CS “Air Force Fleet Management and Analysis (FM&A) personnel need a way to quickly and easily ascertain the functionality of vehicles across their fleet in order to better prioritize resources and manage maintenance workflows .” 150 Interviews 14 Survey Responses Across 20 USAF bases Hours of manual work Limited insights No planning capabilities Reactive not predictive Outdated data and reports Prone to human error Problem Statement: “DPAS stores the data, but doesn’t serve us to conduct our mission. That’s why everyone has these spreadsheets.” - LRS Commander “Digesting these spreadsheets is hell.” - Vehicle Management Superintendent

7. What was the H4D experience like? 4. MVPs: Fail Fast, and iterate, iterate, iterate 1. Deep focus on Problem and Customer discovery 2. Get out of the classroom 3. When designing a solution, validate it with your end-users “This tool would save us over 40 hours a week generating reports and insights” - Lead Mechanic “This is exactly what we’ve been looking for. How can we help?” - LRS Commander

8. Where we are today Status quo H4X accelerator - $20k grant from BMNT and Office of Naval Research Deployed platform to 4th LRS at Seymour Johnson AFB Received signed letters of interest from 29 different USAF bases across the world. Awaiting results on $1.25M AFWERX Direct to Phase II SBIR grant (MOU endorsed by Maj Gen. Linda Hurry ) Won the DoD Chief Information Officer (CIO) award at the 15th Air Force Level; nominated to ACC (MAJCOM) level Won the 2021 Logistics Officer Association Trailblazer Award for Small Business Team Export and share reports Identify trends in maintenance issues View statuses of all vehicle repairs Real-time, at a glance metrics Streamline critical vehicle repairs Order parts ahead of breakdowns Predictive maintenance Align staffing to maintenance jobs Utilization of full life of vehicles Time intensive, manual reporting Lack of maintenance insights Limited vehicle repair tracking Static metrics Inconsistent repair prioritizations No parts forecasting (long backlog) Reactive / Preventative maintenance Manual staffing assignments Underutilization of vehicles

9. We are building a wedge to become the Logistics Hub for Fleet Maintenance across the DoD 10 Our Wedge within the Air Force Databases Fleet Dashboards Workforce Planning Supply Chain integration Dynamic Scheduling Predictive Maintenance AF Network Compliant DoD-wide Fleet Overview Predictive vehicle and workforce planning Reach out at [email protected]

10. Rebecca Jacobson Angela Smith Alex Nielsen Osman Ghandour Chelsie Hall MBA 2022 MBA 2022 BA International Relations ‘22 MS MS&E ‘23 Stanford Venture Studios Management Consulting, Government, Campaigns US Army, Special Operations Civil Affairs Software Engineering, International Relations Strategy, Systems Optimization & Modeling Social Analytics and Narratives Expert PROBLEM : Social media disinformation identification, analysis, & prediction Lt. Col (R) Donnie Hasseltine COL (R) Brad Boyd Katie Tobin Defense Mentor Defense Mentor Business Mentor TEAM DISINFORMATIX MENTORS Lt. Col Steven Raymer SOCOM- Joint MISO WebOps Center SPONSOR

11. FORM TOPIC SENTIMENT VALIDITY INFLUENCER CULTURAL / LANGUAGE CONTEXT MESSAGE AUDIENCE PLATFORM MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT - ANATOMY OF SOCIAL MEDIA DISINFORMATION INFORMATION DOMAIN PHYSICAL DOMAIN INFO GOLDEN HOUR PROPAGATION TARGET

12. Policy Impact & Outreach Hacking 4 Defense CONOPS Development Defense Innovation Scholars Program Internships & Professional Workforce Development National Security Education Classes

13. 14 Problem Statement In order to redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted

14. Policy Impact & Outreach Hacking 4 Defense CONOPS Development Defense Innovation Scholars Program Internships & Professional Workforce Development National Security Education Classes

15. Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition INTLPOL 340; MS&E 296 Steve Blank, Joe Felter, Raj Shah, David Hoyt

16. Education - the missing link in the American semiconductor strategy? Team ShortCircuit’s Problem Statement: How should the US Government augment the domestic semiconductor workforce through education and innovation initiatives to increase its semiconductor sector competitiveness? April 5, 2022 Miku Yamada - MIP 23’ - BA Law and Political Science Mikk Raud - MIP 22’ - MA Economics & Mgmt - BA Law and Politics David Sprague MIP 22’ BS Systems Engineering Abeer Dahiya - BA Economics - BS Mathematical & Computational Science Youngjun Kwak - MS Management Science & Engineering - BSFS International Political Economy

17. 37 interviews across the ecosystem Academia Think tanks Investors Industry Government

18. Key stakeholders’ risks and priorities Lack of sufficient research funding Loss of high quality researchers Academia Better research funding & incentives to work at US universities & research orgs Lack of tax incentives Strict immigration policies Industry Talent & workforce development & retention Sparse deal flow High capex, low initial RoE, high B2E/strong IP Investors “Priming the pump”, believable success of VC model to hardware Heavy manufacturing dependence on East Asia China’s advances US Govt Build fabs & eventually build up manufacturing ecosystem Hardware coursework less accessible Fewer employment opportunities vs. software Students Develop hardware curricula encouraging entrepreneurship & innovation

19. Our Solution: Incentivize Hardware Education and Innovation K12-STEM initiatives to spur early interest Improving undergraduate access to industry Underwrite appropriate financial risk Design courses to establish link between hardware & software ‘Fab in the box’ for accessible innovation tools High school hackathons and competitions Leverage venture equity for hardware acceleration Modernize hardware curricula, across the board Launch fabternships with TSMC, Intel etc. Courses linking market insights with hardware innovation and ventures Expert-led fund, using public-private money to generate flow Experimental lab classes, like e-waste teardowns

20. All stakeholders validated our solution Academia Industry Investors YES But we need interesting classes to get hooked by hardware Students US Govt YES We need balanced curricula that target a diverse array of students YES We need a greater role for experts in the VC process; K-12 education will bring young talent YES We need co-location of industry and education to unlock EoS PENDING However, the principal author of the CHIPS Act supports our discovery

21. Guest Speakers TIGPC Fall 2021 Sec. Jim Mattis Matt Pottinger Amb. Mike McFaul Gen. John Raymond Space Force Sec. Condoleezza Rice Mike Brown DIU Mark McLaughlin Palo Alto Networks Tarun Chhabra NSC Michael Sulmeyer

22. Policy Impact & Outreach Hacking 4 Defense CONOPS Development Defense Innovation Scholars Program Internships & Professional Workforce Development National Security Education Classes

23. Defense Innovation Scholars Program Inaugural Cohort of Scholars Selected Over 25 students (graduate and undergraduate) selected across a range of academic programs e.g. Law, MBA, CS, ME, EE, Econ, MS&E, PoliSci Defense Innovation scholars learn to apply the Lean methodology in a multi-quarter Hacking 4 National Security project Expanding the program to Yale and Harvard this Spring

24. Army Venture Capital Initiative April 5th, 2022 Leopold van den Daele BA Product Design ‘24 Sophia Danielpour BA Economics ‘24 Joshua Vanderlip GSB MSx ‘21 Andy Yakulis, MAJ GSB MSx ‘22

25. DoD’s Innovation Ecosystem is Fatally Flawed Venture Capital firms do not want to invest in DoD-only companies: investment returns face speed and risk levels that are unacceptable. DoD attempts to spur innovation have merely created a system of innovation tourism , focused on early-stage ventures. The Defense Primes are best suited for the procurement of large material solutions, not innovative technology . 2002 NDAA attempted a unique solution: AVCI “1.0”received $48m from Congress over 10 years with ZERO transition technologies

26. Final Recommendation: Go All In on AVCI “2.0” Reaffirm and Improve Authorities Through Renewed Congressional Support Create a Competitive $750m AVCI Evergreen Fund Invest in Mid-Stage Companies Creating Dual-Use Technologies Empower and Incentivize the Management Team Encourage Creation of Dedicated Sidecar Fund and Co-investing From Large Firms Create a DoD Funded competitive $750m Venture Capital Evergreen Fund focused on investing in mid-staged dual use technologies. 1 2 3 4 5

27. After 54 Interviews, Our Team’s Recommendations: Fund and Leverage “ AVCI 2.0 ” managed by relevant firm via AFC 1 Encourage Larger Investments in Mid-Stage, Dual-Use Companies 2 Propose parallel 501(c)(3) Venture Capital Arms for Each Military Branch 3 Appropriately Fund and Encourage NSIC (DIU) to Use Existing Authorities (2019 NDAA) For Equity Investing 4 Create a DoD Funded competitive $750m Venture Capital Evergreen Fund focused on investing in mid-staged dual use technologies.

28. Our Team’s Next Steps… We are creating a curated database of crowdsourced information by defense tech companies for future defense tech companies.

29. Capt. Taylor Applegate JD/MIP Project: Exploring adversaries’ surveillance of Americans through use of digital spyware on personal electronics Defense Innovation Scholars Work on Pressing National Security Issues Malaina Kapoor B.A. Project: Understanding and disrupting terrorist recruitment pathways in South Asia Sally Egan B.A./B.S. Project: Understanding the PRC’s doctrine of Cognitive Warfare and devising potential U.S. counters Abeer Dahiya B.A./B.S. Project: Exploring India-U.S. military cooperation on countering PRC high altitude drones in the Himalayas

30. Policy Impact & Outreach Hacking 4 Defense CONOPS Development Defense Innovation Scholars Program Internships & Professional Workforce Development National Security Education Classes

31. Sunnylands IndoPacific Security Dialogue December ‘21 Policy Impact & Outreach - National Security Innovation Events Indonesian Army - Tech & National Security September ‘21 SOCPAC March ‘22 Hedge Strategy Roundtable March ‘22 Roundtable March ‘22 XXXX XXXX

32. Quad Emerging Technology Track 1.5 Conference Maya Guzdar B.A. OSD Intern Schwarzman Scholar GKC worked with NSC’s Tarun Chhabra and the Hoover Institution to organize and run Quad’s inaugural emerging technology track 1.5 conference Convened experts on Biotechnology, 5G, Semiconductors, Standard setting, etc. Event advanced the Quad’s agenda

33. Policy Impact & Outreach Hacking 4 Defense CONOPS Development Defense Innovation Scholars Program Internships & Professional Workforce Development National Security Education Classes

34. Innovation Workforce Story: Jared Dunnmon BSE (Duke), MSc (Oxford), MBA (Oxford), PhD (Stanford), Postdoc (Stanford) Experience in engineering, energy, & policy Currently Defense Innovation Unit - AI/ML (Technical Director) Soon to head to Office of the Secretary of Defense

35. Innovation Workforce: GKC INDOPACOM J5 Internship Kyle Duchynski (M.S.) interned at the INDOPACOM J5 working on a mixture of future strategic challenges Deputy J5 Brig Gen Short has advocated for him continuing his work INDOPACOM is now seeking future Stanford GKC Fellows

36. Stanford University April 5, 2022  

37. What can we do for the DoD?