Cameron McCord’s Post

Thank you Nathan P. Diller! Means a lot coming from you. This concept of Digital Material Management is becoming increasingly important - how do we more efficiently test, validate, and field reliable next-generation capability? Some trends that are driving this critical need: 1) The evolving Joint All-Domain nature of the fight means more sensors, more telemetry, and more individual test parameters from diverse data sources than ever before (test beds, vehicles, test ranges and instrumentation, simulations, operational exercises, etc.) 2) Modern software advancements, while sometimes slow, are indeed steady across the Department, which means access to an evolving number of test and telemetry data sets, files, data lakes, and organizational schemas. 3) Speed to field future systems (that are validated) is increasingly becoming a measure of operational relevance. If it takes us 10 years, and our adversary 5, we are losing the future fight. Nominal is tackling this challenge head on!

A few of my favorite humans (who happen to be some of the smartest I know) have built Nominal to handle and make useful all the data generated during prototyping, testing, manufacturing, and operation of complex real-world systems. If you want an introduction to this awesome team, reach out to me!

Since 2016, SpaceX has launched ~300 Falcon 9 rockets into space. Every single one has been successful. The consistency is remarkable, but how did they achieve this across different weather conditions, payloads, and rocket designs? The answer is testing… and lots of it. On the surface, testing hardware is relatively simple. Build it, test it, see what breaks. Rinse and repeat until you have a robust product. This works great in theory, but it’s much harder when software is antiquated and the data volumes are overwhelming. As the number of variables increases, the number of trials needed increases exponentially. Let's do some quick math assuming we want to isolate different numbers of variables… 5 variables → 120 trials 10 variables → 3,628,800 trials 20 variables → 2,432,902,008,176,640,000 trials (2.4 quintillion) You get the idea. For complex hardware (like Falcon 9), it’s incredibly difficult and expensive to test all aspects of a system. Yet there are significant real-world consequences when mission-critical hardware fails. This is why Nominal is so critical. Nominal’s software platform streamlines testing and deployment of complex hardware so engineering teams can speed up innovation cycles and lower costs (and angst) in the process. It’s a godsend for industrial companies and is going to play a key role in enabling America’s manufacturing future. Overmatch is excited to be part of Nominal’s Series A and support Cameron McCord, Bryce Strauss, and Jason Hoch as they build the modern industrial data stack. We invested alongside Paul Kwan and Alexa Liautaud at General Catalyst; Bilal Zuberi and Josh Wolfe at Lux Capital; Delian Asparouhov and Trae Stephens at Founders Fund; Ross Fubini at XYZ Venture Capital; Semil Shah and Aashay Sanghvi at Haystack; and Matthew Colford and Baris Akis at HUMAN CAPITAL.

There is so much that is so damn impressive about Nominal's execution. The team identified a truly needed product in the world. More than that... They serve their customers. Sometimes Nominal is saving days of work for an engineer detangling the performance of new hardware in an autonomous fixed wing drone. Other times, helping implement a transformational change for engineering orgs, delivering iteration speed from simulation to range to unlock an RFP goal and contract win. They are building dual use -- powering the best of commercial and public sector teams. Whether a government contractor delivering on a $12b contract. A scaled public company, integrating AI into your roadmap on to your existing HW platform. A startup which is willing a first product into existence. Nominal is there for all the dual use hardware builders who live real time, live in physical world time. The real world runs real time. The real world runs Nominal and so excited to be on the journey. Also, hiring, https://www.nominal.io/, kind of a lot. If you are awesome, they want to talk to you.

Where is Sam Altman #investing ? Since becoming the CEO of OpenAI in 2019, Sam Altman has made over 60 investments as an #angelinvestor and as the founder of several #venture and #investment funds. Given the caliber of companies and founders that Altman has access to, it's safe to say that this is a powerful portfolio. It's worth noting that from 2014 to 2019, he was the head of the top #accelerator Finance YCombinator, and the total number of his personal investments over time exceeds 100. In November 2021, Sam Altman contributed $375M to nuclear fusion #startup Helion’s $500M Series E raise — his largest personal investment to date. In May 2023, OpenAI-backer Microsoft signed an agreement to buy electricity from Helion later this decade.     Altman’s other major bet is anti-aging startup Retro Biosciences. He’s invested a total of $180M in the company, which aims to extend life spans via cellular reprogramming. #news #investing #vc #investment #ai #startups  

The new hot trend - #DefenseTech 💫 There are plenty of explanations why DefenseTech is here to stay, one of them lays in the headline Fortune provided: “War and rising nationalism is expected to spur a venture capital boom in a one-time Silicon Valley ‘taboo’ sector: defense tech” 💫 The Big Picture: Armed conflicts and geopolitical tensions around the globe 🌍 fuel the defense sector with money 💰 💫 The Big Secret: The defense industries have gaps in some technologies that could be fulfilled by #startups 💫 Why it Matters: #VCs and investors can enjoy from the wave of government demand, budgets and contracts by investing in the right startups. 💫 Is there a room for new #Defense giants? Definitely Yes 👍🏻 💫 Some interesting quotes and insights from Fortune’s #Brainstorm Tech conference: ⚡️ Jenny Xiao a partner at Leonis Capital: “Software is no longer going to be as good of a business in the next 20 or 30 years. Mostly because of AI—because AI makes it so easy to build software,” ⚡️ Marcus Ryu a partner at Battery Ventures: “There is a general awakening to the possibility that there is enterprise value creation in other areas besides SaaS software” ⚡️ Nate Poon, PhD cofounder and CEO of medical drone delivery service Avol Aerospace “What we’ll see is a lot of homegrown U.S.-based #drone companies become extremely profitable,” 💫 Dive deeper: https://lnkd.in/dM2CR2fr by Luisa Beltran Anduril Industries, SpaceX , Palantir Technologies , Shield AI #innovation #dualuse #hardtech #deeptech

"If we want to be bold, we could say that Spacetek is for mass spectrometry what SpaceX is for commercial space travel." In our latest #PortfolioSpotlight, we shift the focus to Spacetek Technology AG, a leader in bringing space technology to industrial applications. We interviewed Maximilian P. Rothenberger, CEO, and asked him to share their journey, groundbreaking products, and the impact of having the right investment partner. Here are a few key highlights from our conversation with Max: "A key challenge in the early days was to find the right market niche to tackle first." Finding the right market niche is crucial to effectively focus your early resources, establish a competitive advantage, penetrate the market more easily, and gain deep customer insights, leading to higher customer loyalty. "We took an established measurement principle and redesigned the instrument to be the most compact and robust, ready to scale in an industrial environment." Refining established concepts or products to meet modern demands efficiently can be a powerful strategy for creating successful business ventures. As Spacetek’s team prepares for two upcoming moon missions, we invite you to read more about their mission to revolutionize semiconductor manufacturing and their future developments. 🔗 Read the full interview at https://lnkd.in/dRm6u8Je #Semiconductor #SpaceTech #SwisscomVentures #Spacetek #IndustrialApplications #Startups #TechLeadership

📌 Meet Ed Roman, the driving force behind Hack VC, at the #GENAISummitSF2024 📌 Ed Roman, Managing Partner of Hack VC, is a visionary investor in the #web3 space, driving innovation and growth in the future of the Internet. As a leader in the venture capital firm, Ed Roman is at the forefront of identifying and supporting hackers building cutting-edge technologies on- and off-chain. Hack VC stands out in the competitive #venture #capital landscape with its unique focus on #web3 technologies, providing a competitive edge in identifying and investing in the most promising startups in this space. With a strong portfolio of investments and a team of experienced investors, Hack VC has established itself as a go-to partner for entrepreneurs building the future of the Internet. Ed Roman's leadership and expertise have been instrumental in shaping the firm's investment strategy and driving its success. #ai #artificialintelligence #airevolution #machinelearning #deeplearning #futureofai #techinvestment #technews #techstartup #techleaders #techtrend #technology #tech #SF #sanfrancisco

Nice to see funders of actual innovation recognized for their efforts, but more important to remember no VC can thrive without remarkable founders leading the way. For this, Silent Ventures is humbled to be part of Business Insider's top defense tech investors list 🇺🇸 #entrepreneurship #innovation #startups #technology #venturecapital

Defense tech has been fairly resilient given challenging market conditions for startups as well as the significant hurdles that exist for firms that aim to disrupt the industry's juggernauts. Bessemer Venture Partners has an interesting new report about the topic that I wrote about for Aviation Week Network. Excerpts below: The defense tech ecosystem is coming into its own as the Pentagon works to overcome the so-called “valley of death”—the long gap between when a technology is first developed and tested to the time it can be funded—and enhance its collaboration with emerging startups, Bessemer Venture Partners says in a new report. The Pentagon’s renewed sense of urgency comes amid the most fraught geopolitical environment since the Cold War. Last year saw Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drift toward stalemate, while conflict erupted in the Gaza Strip in October. Simmering tensions with Iran and its proxies threaten to involve Washington in a broader Middle East conflict. At the same time, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has described China as the “pacing threat” that America faces. In the report, Bessemer Partners references the Thucydides Trap theory that explains why conflict is likely between an established and rising power—a paradigm often used to describe the risks inherent in the tense U.S.-China relationship. Noting the difficulty of challenging entrenched defense primes, the venture capital (VC) firm offers a road map for success as a startup that draws heavily on harnessing the potential of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). “Internal DOD champions acknowledge that startups are not only driving the best innovations in the space, but are also the ones with the willingness and courage to disrupt the status quo in order to drive meaningful improvement,” the report says, adding that there are several successful use cases for AI and machine-learning applications within the Pentagon. These include Vannevar Labs for foreign text workflows, Dextral.ai for government procurement and sales automation, Axion Ray for automation of engineering and quality analytics, and Yurts.ai for enterprise AI in search and documentation. #aerospace #defense #venturecapital #startups #military #nationalsecurity #artificialintelligence #china #technology #supplychain #geopolitics https://lnkd.in/g-GerKKy