David Ulevitch 🇺🇸

GP @a16z — Building American Dynamism 🇺🇸 — Anthropologist — Formerly Founder/CEO @OpenDNS — Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

Desiderata:
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.

🌅 Make today a good one!

[Navin Girishankar @NGirishankar]

I thank @pmarca for joining me on the Betting on America podcast to push past the p(doom) vs. acceleration debate.

The question isn’t whether AI will transform our economy and society—it already is.

The question is how we can ensure that the gains from AI are broadly shared, the risks managed, and American leadership secured.

I think of that as #AccelerationforAll Americans.

#AccelerationForAll #AmericanAI #USChina

Listen here: https://t.co/fP06iyIOjM

[Radiant @RadiantNuclear]

Always energizing to talk with @SecretaryWright about what it actually takes to scale advanced nuclear in the U.S. At Radiant, this is exactly the work we're doing — building microreactors that can deployed anywhere power is needed. @RitaB66

[Met Samuel @MetSamuel]

David Ulevitch (@davidu), who leads a16z’s American Dynamism (which invested in ASI), pretty much summed up the benefits ASI (@AirSpaceIntel) provides to airlines for scheduling and routing flights. $JOBY will enjoy those same benefits internally.

And externally, beyond helping controllers de-conflict, @SecDuffy even talked about how ASI’s platform can optimize scheduling to spread out the capacity in an airspace to further reduce delays/cancellations.

ASI’s $875M award is a massive victory for startups competing against the big primes, massive victory for Joby Aviation and a victory for private capital taking the R&D risk in a really tough industry like civil aviation.

The FAA is basically buying a the finished product with ASI.

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

@adamcohenhillel ❤️💪

[Doug Bernauer @DougBernauer]

Great discussions with Secretary Wright about Radiant's testing and commercial plans. He's so full of energy!! Also he knows his tech and wanted to know all the numbers for our unique fuel design, transportability, and above grade concrete shield(pictured)

[Suffiyan Malik @suffiyanmalikk]

I got to sit down with David Ulevitch (@davidu) for E31 of We The Builders (@WeThe_Builders). He is a General Partner at @a16z where he cofounded the $1.776 billion American Dynamism practice with @KTmBoyle about 4 years ago. Since then, it has taken over the timeline and become the language many use to describe frontier, deep or hard tech. Friend of the show @lochhead calls this Category Design, where you don’t necessarily have to be the first to become a category leader, you need to frame the problem and do it better than everyone else.

We talk about investing strategy, founding story of American Dynamism and what made it a sticky brand, what he has learnt about how the world works from his anthropology background, surveillance concerns with public safety technologies, his best mentor who is not @pmarca and more.

American Dynamism focuses on investing in areas such as public safety, aerospace, logistics, national security, defense, manufacturing, industrialization, logistics. Some of the companies in their portfolio include @anduriltech , Amca, @AppliedInt , Apex Space, @AstroMechanica , @Astranis , @basepowerco , @CAForever , @Castelion , @HadrianInc , @NorthwoodSpace , @RadiantNuclear and of course @SpaceX. Founders of many of these will be featured in upcoming episodes or are friends of the show.

David was previously the founder and CEO of OpenDNS, a cloud-delivered security service that was acquired by Cisco in 2015 for $635 million. While at @Cisco , David was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Security — a $2.4 billion annual revenue business with more than 5,000 team members — where he oversaw the company’s global cybersecurity strategy, product portfolio, and business (via A16Z).

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction
01:57 - Defining American Dynamism
05:43 - Project Maven and Rebuilding the Arsenal of Democracy
07:24 - Competing with General Catalyst for Anduril
08:49 - Category creation and defining the market
10:57 - The marketing engine of “The American Dream”
15:20 - Replicating Silicon Valley
18:22 - Robot Dogs and General Catalyst
19:47 - 1776 Million: Building the American Dynamism Practice
20:59 - Why Hardware Outperforms Software Over Time
22:38 - Coupling Defense, Energy, and Space
26:28 - Investing in Public Safety
33:01 - Investment Committees are “stupid”
35:39 - Long-term partners over short-term bets
39:23 - Policy, Regulations, and navigating relationships in DC
43:11 - How regulations are slowing us down
46:54 - The Industrial Supply Chain Divergence
51:29 - Global Maritime Dominance and Expanding TAM
53:39 - Venture-Backable Bets in Critical Industrial Infrastructure
1:00:24 - Applying Anthropology: Study of People, Culture, and Political Power
1:04:08 - What Drives Innovation Across Nations?
1:11:49 - Regional Talent and State Incentives
1:15:48 - Moving from Benevolent Dictator to Minority Investor
1:20:42 - Life is Checkers, Not Chess: Agency and Knowing When to Sell
1:26:57 - OpenDNS and the Pivot to Enterprise: Letting Markets Dictate Your Revenue
1:30:13 - The High Bar for Talent: Grittiness, Grind, and Magnetic Leadership
1:33:09 - Attracting Capital via Narrative: Storytelling vs. Lying
1:35:07 - Toastmasters and Single-Topic Debates: Sharpening Communication
1:37:20 - Modern Credentials: Domain Expertise and Sourcing True Signals
1:44:23 - Government Sales 101: Enterprise Sales on Steroids
1:46:34 - Closing

[RedmondWaPD @RedmondWaPD]

On June 22, at approximately 11:50 a.m., officers responded to a shoplifting call at Target in Redmond after a man was reported removing security tags and concealing merchandise in a stolen backpack.

As soon as the 911 call came in, a Drone as First Responder (DFR) was launched and arrived on scene before officers on the ground.

The DFR pilot quickly located the suspect leaving the store and maintained visuals as he fled to a nearby hotel, then boarded a bus at the park-and-ride.

Throughout the incident, the drone provided real-time updates that helped responding officers locate the suspect and coordinate a safe apprehension.

Officers coordinated with the bus driver and safely detained the suspect. The suspect reportedly stole approximately $330 in merchandise.

Watch the video to see how drone technology helped officers locate, track, and safely apprehend the suspect.

[Erin Maguire @Erinmaguire]

Incredibly excited for our client and friends at @AirSpaceIntel for bringing America a new air traffic control system — the absolute best in the world.

Huge credit to POTUS, Duffy, and Bedford for making this upgrade a reality.

[Julio Medina @JulioMedina]

@paulg Respectfully, the path to serious hardware, supersonic planes, fusion, real systems etc, matters a ton.

But that’s only half the story.

Defense tech got deliberately fragmented and pushed to the margins for years because of the cultural and capital chokehold: ESG mandates, climate bullshit, woke pressure, and that quiet fear of America actually getting strong again.

There were plenty of VCs and LPs that wouldn’t touch anything that smelled like defense or national interest.

And if you look back now you can see it wasn’t just “hardware is hard.” It was also “this is radioactive and you’ll get smeared for it.”

The real unlock wasn’t just technical feasibility. It was the permission and call to action to stop apologizing and start building again.

I remember the exact moment it crystallized - on my birthday in 2023. Nov 19th. The speech attached below was one of the clearest, hardest calls to action I’ve heard: America was on the cusp of a badly needed course correction.

Away from the weakness, the control, the fear and back toward hard-charging the hard problems, embracing technology, and being proud to be a patriot who can actually build strength and be proud and seek support.

American Dynamism is going to be spoken about in history for exactly that reason. It wasn’t just one speech. It was that speech landing at the same time guys like @PalmerLuckey and Dr. Karp refused to flinch under the media smear campaigns and kept standing tall anyway and still do even now as they are well deservedly thriving.

They showed it was okay again to want America to win.

That’s the shift. Not just who you sell the hardware to, but whether you’re even “allowed” to build it and without shame.

There is no doubt that Katherine Boyle and @davidu and the American Dynamism team led the charge to where we are today with defense tech.

I highly recommend everyone in tech that loves our nation, listen to this and bookmark it and revisit it from time to time and you will clearly see the massive strides we have made since.

God Bless America and American Dynamism.

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

Josh is a legend! 💪

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

1/ I’m thrilled to announce that I’m joining @a16z as a partner to help find and support building the next generation of great consumer companies. Let me talk a little about why.

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

@MarioNawfal Dude why would you post this trash? So much baloney. Flock is saving lives and solving crime.

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

@preston_holland Leaving Vista off the list is cold! Many will pick them. 😂

[will bitsky @willbitsky]

absolutely massive news for 1) @AirSpaceIntel, 2) @FAANews, and 3) literally every person that flies

huge congrats @pbuckendorf and team so well deserved

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

@nikitabier @levelsio Sorry @nikitabier, may her memory be a blessing. That photo is awesome.

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

Incredible news for pilots, passengers, operators, the FAA and @AirSpaceIntel! Time to modernize the skies! ✨✈️

[Secretary Sean Duffy @SecDuffy]

🚨BREAKING NEWS FOR THE FUTURE OF FLIGHT🚨

@AirSpaceIntel is working with the FAA to deploy two state-of-the-art technologies that will revolutionize air traffic management

Here’s how SMART and FMDS will work for YOU:
✅ Corrects scheduling conflicts before you pack your bags
✅ Anticipates storm patterns and other airspace congestion earlier
✅ Dynamically adjusts flight paths in advance to avoid those storms patterns and congestion
✅ Helps controllers and pilots with more precise information for more predictable flights

America’s skies deserve the highest standard of technology, and we are delivering it @FAANews ✈️

[Secretary Sean Duffy @SecDuffy]

🚨BREAKING NEWS FOR THE FUTURE OF FLIGHT🚨

@AirSpaceIntel is working with the FAA to deploy two state-of-the-art technologies that will revolutionize air traffic management

Here’s how SMART and FMDS will work for YOU:
✅ Corrects scheduling conflicts before you pack your bags
✅ Anticipates storm patterns and other airspace congestion earlier
✅ Dynamically adjusts flight paths in advance to avoid those storms patterns and congestion
✅ Helps controllers and pilots with more precise information for more predictable flights

America’s skies deserve the highest standard of technology, and we are delivering it @FAANews ✈️

[Jen Kha @jkhamehl]

race day! @anduril 250

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

@pitdesi @antoniogm I stayed there once — super fun hotel just in the middle of nowhere. Was good stop on drive between Madrid and San Sebastián or Bilbao or Biarritz.

[Seth Cohen @OverReactor1776]

Now that I’m out of government, I can finally respond for myself: Get bent, soyboy. We didn’t do this for “Silicon Valley . . . companies.” We did this for you, for your family, your community, your state, your nation, and your species.

Nuclear energy provides the safest, highest density, reliable power available on our planet. My career colleagues at DOE and NRC inspired me to think about nuclear as a way to forge American steel and electrolyze aluminum without releasing particulate matter, to desalinate water in the Middle East and save humanity from resource wars. By rejecting the false narratives and Cold War hysteria, we can secure the next American century while raising whole countries out of poverty.

Do you really think I left an incredible career at Kirkland, paid out of pocket for an apartment in DC and dozens of cross-country trips, and left my family on the west coast because I wanted to enrich people I never met before taking this job? I came to D.C. to do something that mattered, to satisfy a driving curiosity (more on that later), and, most importantly, to serve.

As I learned more about nuclear energy and its history, I developed a conviction that one nuclear’s biggest issues was a culture of cynicism: nothing new or exciting could happen because it would end in disappointment, and that militated against rocking the boat even a tiny bit. The career staff in government and their industry counterparts lived through dark winters before and stopped believing that warm springs could bloom into summers.

I have two core philosophies. First, I believe in ruthless optimism. Rational decision making requires detached risk analysis. But we also cannot win if we believe we can lose. Merging the two requires orienting teams around driving missions. That way, when a real opportunity presents itself, you can take a huge swing.

If I take credit for anything—honestly, almost all of the success belongs to the incredible and dedicated people at @ENERGY and @NRCgov—it’s countering the cultural rot and morass that risked forfeiting American excellence. My colleagues and I gave cover to the scientists and engineers, which freed them up to focus on delivering safe power. And, as success materialized, they started to dream again. That’s why the pilot program succeeded, and why I feel confident about the future of NLICs and NRC reform. Nobody needs me anymore because they can innovate on their own.

My second core philosophy is to assume positive intent. Avi, I know that you heard about my real motivations from multiple people you interviewed when preparing your hit piece on me. Rather than telling that story, one which could help inspire another generation of people to use their talents for the greater good, you ignored them. Instead, you implied that Peter Thiel recruited me for nefarious purposes. (I’ve never met him, but, @peterthiel, if you’re reading this, I’m a huge fan!)

Nuclear regulation starts and ends with safety. I promised everyone I worked with that I would resign before doing or pushing for anything that could compromise public safety. But I also distinguished between real safety and performative bullshit. That’s what the careers came to embrace, too. We love nuclear, why would we do anything that could risk threatening its future?

America faces a crossroads. We can either trod a road of cultural decay or hike our way back to the peak of global innovation. Join me on the latter path. Correct the fear mongering and conspiracies and tell the story of America’s great reindustrialization. Tell the story of our public servants, our great entrepreneurs, our scientific dominance. Tell the real story about how DOGE went nuclear.

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

While 6mm miles sounds like a lot it’s only ~10,000 hours and that’s across two airframes, so maybe 5000 hours each, which is almost nothing for a commercial class airframe and engine set. Unless I did my math wrong?

[Nick Sortor @nicksortor]

President Trump just revealed some INCREDIBLE stats on the retiring VC-25A Air Force One:

"Over its lifetime, that aircraft traveled to 96 countries on 223 international trips and flew over 6 MILLION miles. It became the most famous airplane in the entire world."

"It's a plane that was authorized by President Ronald Reagan so many years ago. And it was flown by every president since George H.W. Bush. And it was a great plane. We had very little trouble with it."

There were actually two identical VC-25As service as Air Force One, but very few people knew that. SAM 28000 and SAM 29000

Even President Trump couldn't tell the difference until boarding.

"The only way I can tell is on the desk. The wood grain is slightly different. They're literally interchangeable."