Startups 🤝 DoD (Special Guest Lt. Gen. Clint Hinote) – The Hermeus Podcast 19

Lieutenant General Clint Hinote's 35-year career in the Air Force has taken him from inside the cockpit of an F-117 to inside the Pentagon. He has most recently been focused on how to best leverage innovative technology to fortify national security. Freshly retired, we were honored to have him join us for a chat about how startups and the Department of Defense can better work together. 00:51 – Lt. Gen. Clint “Q” Hinote introduction 09:14 – The Future Force 17:11 – What startups wanting to work with the DoD should know 27:23 – Relationship with Venture Capital, entrepreneurs, and the DoD 29:27 – How can the DoD signal to Venture Capital what they need? 38:25 – aligning timelines between the startup, the VCs, and the customer 41:27 – Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution 44:33 – The Defense Department is not a market, it’s a customer 47:37 – Building relationships and trust while working with the government 50:12 – Learning, iterating, risk-taking 54:55 – NASA getting contracting right with COTS program 01:07:18 – Balancing what we’re asking the military to do now and what we’re asking them to do in the future 01:11:07 – “Purple thinking”: branches of the military working together