Joshua Marcuse

Obsessive foodie, sarcastic New Yorker, defense geek, commenting on leadership, innovation, tech, prosciutto, scotch, & YPFP. Retweet ≠ endorsement.

[Adam Butler @GestaltU]

Fun fact: The 1998 paper that introduced Google and PageRank to the world ends with this acknowledgment:

"Supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement IRI-9411306. Funding also provided by DARPA and NASA."

Sergey Brin was on an NSF Graduate Fellowship. Larry Page was a PhD student on the grant.

Google—now worth $2 trillion—exists because American taxpayers funded "the Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project."

Not a startup garage myth. A government grant.

Every time someone says public research funding "picks winners and losers" or "crowds out private innovation," remember: the most dominant technology company of the 21st century was incubated entirely with public money, inside a public university, by researchers on federal fellowships and grants.

The private sector didn't see it coming. VCs passed. The government funded it anyway—not because it would become Google, but because fundamental research into information retrieval seemed worth understanding.

That's the point. You can't predict which grants will change the world. You fund the science and let researchers explore.

The internet (DARPA). GPS (DoD). Touchscreens (CIA/NSF). mRNA vaccines (NIH). Google (NSF/DARPA/NASA).

Public investment in basic research isn't wasteful spending. It's the seed corn of the entire modern economy.

[Andy Kim @AndyKimNJ]

Today was my final vote in the House. As I walk out of the chamber for last time, I wanted to share something almost no one notices. The center aisle, the one the President walks down for SOTU, the aisle that divides the R and D sides, ends at an inscription of “Tolerance.”THREAD

[Joshua Marcuse @joshuamarcuse]

@benkohlmann Gives me chills my friend. Thanks for sharing.

[Joshua Marcuse @joshuamarcuse]

What an honor to represent @Google Public Sector at such a fantastic event, sharing the mic with incredible leaders!

[Tech Week @Techweek_]

✨throwback to an incredible evening at #SFTechWeek! @googlecloud transformed Oracle Park into an innovation hub with @michellevolz, Howard Wright (@NVIDIA), @larjo280 & @joshuamarcuse tackling public sector transformation. Packed house, powerful insights! #AmericanDynamism

[Acyn @Acyn]

Buttigieg: Being a teacher, a coach, a senior noncommissioned officer. What they all have in common is supporting other people. The Trump Campaign can’t figure out what to do with this ticket. They can’t fathom a campaign, or any leaders, who are not about themselves.

[Thomas Kurian @ThomasOrTK]

We’re announcing the GA of Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped appliance, an integrated hardware and software solution that unlocks real-time local data processing for AI use cases with stringent security requirements. https://t.co/H8WDkVs4dp

[Joshua Marcuse @joshuamarcuse]

@influencer_seo @sxsw @USArmy @CapitalFactory @JoshuaBaer My first message was a little vague. @CapitalFactory hosts robust programming focused on dual use tech, fedtech, and especially national security. I’m not qualified to judge how CF stacks up to all the SXSW Interactive programming, but for those topics, CF is the nexus.

[Joshua Marcuse @joshuamarcuse]

I know many people are seriously bent out of shape — understandably — by @sxsw decision to kick out the @USArmy and several companies. The truth is the real action has always been at @CapitalFactory. Here is what CF founder @JoshuaBaer has to say. #defenseInnovation #startups

[Joshua Baer ⚙️ @JoshuaBaer]

1/20 In light of the recent decision by #SXSW2025 to exclude the US Military and the supporting industrial base from its sponsored programming…

[Jeff Dean @JeffDean]

I strongly believe that the U.S. is at its best when it brings in talented scientists and engineers from all over the world to study, to be hired into companies to push forward our most advanced science and engineering efforts, and to start new U.S.-based companies. We should continue to expand this approach, not diminish it!

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Google launched G-mail 20 years ago on April Fool’s day with this press release.

Many thought it was a joke because it offered 1G of free storage (~100x more than competitors).

It ruined April Fool’s for me because G-mail now has 1.2B users and I have to take any of the ridiculous product “launches” today semi-seriously.

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

The US Space Force just canceled a multibillion-dollar program for a GEO communications satellite. And it was the right call.

The future is coming too fast to keep sending infinite, responsibility-free dollars to the old defense primes.

[Josh Wolfe @wolfejosh]

While we wait for government action

1) I have already banned TikTok in my household
(no votes needed, no lobbyists in my pocket)

2) Effective immediately for security reasons I will NOT hold any meetings with anyone in person with TikTok on their phone (can leave @ reception)

[Joshua Marcuse @joshuamarcuse]

Powerful, balanced commentary

[Christopher C. Cuomo @ChrisCuomo]

Today I was among the journalists who have attended a private screening of the raw footage of October 7th and I want to express to you what I saw since it’s not been made public. It’s been a very heavy day. A decision was made that Jews are less than human, and treated that way in words and deeds..I now know that’s exactly the message Hamas sent on purpose — at scale. I wasn’t aware of that before. I saw bodies were burned but I did not understand or appreciate how intentional the effort was - they did it methodically, you hear it in the voices, the commands the ease, the excitement of finding and mutilating victims.

[Christopher C. Cuomo @ChrisCuomo]

Today I was among the journalists who have attended a private screening of the raw footage of October 7th and I want to express to you what I saw since it’s not been made public. It’s been a very heavy day. A decision was made that Jews are less than human, and treated that way in words and deeds..I now know that’s exactly the message Hamas sent on purpose — at scale. I wasn’t aware of that before. I saw bodies were burned but I did not understand or appreciate how intentional the effort was - they did it methodically, you hear it in the voices, the commands the ease, the excitement of finding and mutilating victims.

[Mike Slagh @MikeSlagh]

Video #1 is @KTmBoyle call to arms. Nuff said https://t.co/eMA86adzra

[Mike Slagh @MikeSlagh]

The very same day American business leaders were in San Francisco “delivering China a propaganda coup” as stated in the WJS editorial, “U.S. CEOs on the Chinese menu,” there was an event on the other coast, in our nation’s capital, attended by the largest gathering of venture capitalists in Washington’s history rallying for continued American exceptionalism – particularly within our defense industrial base.

In contrast to the “bland platitudes” whereby attendees rewarded Xi with a standing ovation, speakers at the Defense Ventures Summit were unequivocal in their commitment to America and her allies.

Andreessen Horowitz’s Katherine Boyle stated, “Not only are we betting on America, but America and our allies are best off when we’re building technology companies that support the national interest.”

What a refreshing thing to hear.

Past decisions by leading technology companies to abandon their partnership with the U.S. military may have left Americans discouraged that our most dynamic companies were not willing to answer the call of service.

But the scene in Washington, DC last week offered hope that new technology companies are being built with a renewed sense of patriotism. Fortune 100 CEOs should take notice.

[joshua steinman (🇺🇸,🇺🇸) @JoshuaSteinman]

We're a few hours away from **the** definitive annual defense tech conference put on by @MikeSlagh, and that's as good a time as any to take a quick trip down memory lane - and cover some of the topics @benkohlmann et al and I will cover tomorrow, for those unable to attend

1/

[Institute for Security and Technology @IST_org]

This week, IST #StrategicBalancingInitiative team member @ktontwitr attended @Shift’s Defense Ventures Summit, an event that brought together members of the @DeptofDefense, startups, and venture capital firms to energize the connection between technologists and the DoD.

[Mike Slagh @MikeSlagh]

"Never bet against America."

Thank you for yesterday, everyone. Even a small group of people moving in the same direction can create profound change. For those following from afar, we’ll post the sessions and bring this network together again soon.

[Not Elon Musk @ElonMuskAOC]

@gdb Wait, you guys were using Google Meet?

Isn’t OpenAI partnered with Microsoft?

😂😂😂