El Segundo Defense Tech Hackathon Review Apollo is proud to have hosted the defense technology event that facilitated: 1) Defense technology companies hiring dozens of engineers 2) Representation of billions of dollars of capital from venture capital firms 3) Multiple defense startups being formed and funded 4) Technology transfer and funding of multiple products to Ukrainian mission partners 5) Tens of millions of impressions on X This event was a microcosm of a new era of American primacy – one where patriotism in technology is normalized and encouraged. It was a privilege to bring together military partners, defense technology startups, students, prospective founders, Ukrainian partners, and venture capital firms to build for the national interest – this is how wars are won. A timeline: 2 PM @catbuchatskiy opened the event by grounding participants in the import of their work - ‘The Patron Saint of Ukraine today is the roaring gospel of Javelins, Stingers, and HIMARS’ 2 PM @ADoricko & @isaiah_p_taylor encouraged a return to a new American Gilded Age, where optimism permeates every aspect of a free society. 5 PM @johncoogan reflected on Peter Thiel’s Zero to One and explained that the next large defense technology startup might be orthogonal to the industry. 5 PM - 2 PM Teams consisting of existing founders, undergraduates from engineering schools across the country, military personnel, and representatives from defense technology startups built solutions immediately relevant to the warfighter 12 AM - Our engineers consulted directly with personnel from the Ukrainian military to tweak their solutions to the gaps in the frontline Apollo is proud to announce that we are facilitating a technology transfer and follow-up funding for multiple prototypes developed at the hackathon to directly make an impact on the front 11 AM - Nathan Mintz reviewed his lessons learned after scaling defense unicorn Epirus and now Spartan Radar 2 PM - We selected our winner, Cloud, a group of young engineers from MIT that built non-interceptable laser communication systems for drone swarms, technology that will save lives on the frontlines by keeping operators far away from danger Apollo is especially grateful to @8vc, @join_ef, and @NSIN_us for co-hosting this event. We wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without their experience and relentless advocacy. We would also like to thank all our fantastic sponsors, @foundersfund, @hello_valhalla, @RainmakerCorp, @trueventures, @elsegundocity, @GundersonLaw, @chapterone, @ShinkeiSystems As conflict stirs worldwide, this hackathon was a respite from the standard institutional pessimism.
