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

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

5. 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)

6. ● 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

7. Mission Readiness Driven by Data
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

8. Mission Readiness Driven by Data
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

9. Mission Readiness Driven by Data
Where we are today
Status quo
1. H4X accelerator - $20k grant
from BMNT and Office of Naval
Research
2. Deployed platform to 4th LRS at
Seymour Johnson AFB
3. Received signed letters of
interest from 29 different USAF
bases across the world.
4. Awaiting results on $1.25M
AFWERX Direct to Phase II SBIR
grant (MOU endorsed by Maj
Gen. Linda Hurry)
5. Won the DoD Chief Information
Officer (CIO) award at the 15th
Air Force Level; nominated to
ACC (MAJCOM) level
6. 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

10. Mission Readiness Driven by Data
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
info@goflip.ai

11. 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

12. FORM
TOPIC
SENTIMENT
VALIDITY
INFLUENCER
CULTURAL / LANGUAGE CONTEXT
MESSAGE
AUDIENCE
PLATFORM
MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT- ANATOMY OF SOCIAL MEDIA DISINFORMATION
INFORMATION
DOMAIN
PHYSICAL
DOMAIN
TARGE
T

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

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

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

17. 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

18. 37 interviews across the ecosystem
Academia Think tanks
Investors Industry
Government

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 26
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

27. 28
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. 29
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?