Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders Joe Musselman, Founder & Managing Partner, BVVC — Building Deterrence: Bolstering national security by investing in defense tech
When it comes to defense tech, it's not enough to design the best weapons systems, you need to be able to actually build them. Today's company is investing in the infrastructure that will restore American arms manufacturing capabilities, and preserve our advantage in a world that's becoming more dangerous.
Our guest today is Joe Musselman, Founder and Managing Partner of Bravo Victor Venture Capital, a US-based early seed and series-A venture capital fund. Joe is accountable for the firm's strategic vision and day-to-day mission, and leads all teams at the firm, including capital, investment, portfolio, and fund operations.
Since 2019, Joe's invested in companies like Firestorm, Epsilon3, Havoc AI, and notable early breakouts like Anduril, and Figure AI. And importantly for our conversation today, he recently led investments into Union, a new energetics prime where he is Co-Founder and Chairman.
Today, Joe discusses his fascinating journey as a founder, how BVVC is enabling national security start-ups to scale effectively, and why winning the AI race will be crucial for the future of our country.
Highlights:
- Joe's journey (2:17)
- Why defense tech? (6:01)
- Fund in the field (8:26)
- Scaling national security startups (13:18)
- Union and the manufacturing advantage (19:01)
- The importance of AI (23:25)
- Why defense tech investments are crucial (27:29)
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If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, joe@lowerstreet.co