Building the Base Podcast

“$984 million in available credit. We're pushing into the ecosystem to support the competitiveness of our US industrial base. This is the first direct credit program, not only from OSC, but from the Department of Defense. It includes a seismic shift in terms of how the department is engaging with our industrial capacity. The wonderful thing about today's release is it marks six months after receiving a very specific kind of appropriations, we have our own color of money. I'm sure many of the listeners to your podcast now understand after listening to your podcast what a color of money is. It is a very big deal inside of the DOD, and the fact that we have a unique color of funds focused on loans and loan guarantees, and we're able to act on that so quickly, has really made a meaningful impact, not only within the Department, but within the market. And we're starting to see the market shift in ways already, just by the announcement today, of folks responding with eagerness to be able to receive a loan to expand the production equipment that's required to grow industrial capacity in areas that they weren't able to grow prior to OSC’s existence.” The Director of the Office of Strategic Capital Jason Rathje’s episode of the Building the Base Podcast mini-series with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering is out! If you’re interested in OSC’s recent Notice of Funding Availability, Jason goes into the vision and process in this episode. Thanks for coming on, Jason! Honorable James Geurts

It was such a delight to speak about the great work happening in the Department’s Research and Engineering world with the amazing Lauren Bedula and Honorable James Geurts! Huge thanks to them both for hosting this miniseries with some of our great leaders in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and for inviting me to kick off the discussion. Check out our first episode of this R&E focused Building the Base podcast series - we’re proud of these many efforts we’re pushing forward with our partners across the Department, the interagency, and Congress. Heidi Shyu David Honey Peter Highnam Jason Rathje Office of Strategic Capital Wes Spurlock Tracy Frost Bindu Nair Aprille Ericsson Kate Sixt Thomas Browning Dev Shenoy Jason Lapadula Riya Patel Matt Padilla Rick Berger Kevin Gates Sarah Moxley Caroline Kehrli Michael Hermann Katherine Sutton Arun Seraphin Eric Snelgrove Joshua Marcuse James Mazol Gina Sims Joseph M. Courtney Barno Bill M. Michael Jucewicz Brandeanna Allen, Ph.D. Jagadeesh Pamulapati David Zikusoka Mela Louise Norman Benjamin Turpen Gwyneth B. Jared Adams Isaac Natter and so many more amazing government servants.

“What is it that you can do cheaper and better, and in a smarter way than what they've already done, and what can they not pay for in their budget to do that?… You’ve got to get after what this brings them that is a requirement for them… And so, if your thing can solve 12% of that problem, does that make the business case? You’ve got to close that business case for them, right? And I've heard other kind of business cases being made of like, ‘If you have a billion dollars for Replicator, you spend a billion dollars on my technology, I would be able to get you X amount of them’. And it's like, well, that's not going to solve that problem, right? But you can get at their business case problem by showing that you can take care of 30% of something that would normally be a much more expensive product.” Our first episode of the Building the Base Podcast series with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering is out! And if you know Bess Dopkeen, you know she had us laughing. Bess, Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for R&E, frames the vision for this series at the top of this episode, and then Hondo and I dig into her background and what she’s currently working on. Excited to roll this out - thanks, Bess and team for doing this project with us! Honorable James Geurts United States Department of Defense

Hondo and I are working on an exciting Building the Base Podcast mini- series with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. As part of it, we sat down with the Director of the Office of Strategic Capital Jason Rathje on Monday, which was an incredibly timely convo with this week’s Notice of Funding Availability release. For folks that are interested, all of the details are on OSC’s website, and standby for this episode! Fun fact: Jason was our first repeat guest and brought a ton of updates to our discussion since we first chatted 18 months ago. Great to highlight progress and wins, rather than just admire problems ! Honorable James Geurts

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“Building the Base” meets “Smart Women, Smart Power”. When I was home on maternity leave, I searched for podcasts with advice for new career-driven Moms for our daily walks, and couldn’t find anything. I’m so lucky to have been showered with advice from great mentors, but wanted to find a way to amplify it for others navigating pressures that women face - with or without children. Today, CSIS’s “Smart Women, Smart Power” lead Kathleen J. McInnis, Ph.D. (one of those Mom-mentors) and I recorded our first episode of our collaboration to do just that. As Hondo and I talk about on our podcast, a strong workforce is essential for national security. Kathleen and I hope to strengthen our base with this collab. We feature Laura Modi, Founder & CEO of the wildly successful, first U.S.-based organic infant formula company Bobbie … who just welcomed her fourth child ??. How does Laura define “Power”? “True, Radical Self-awareness”. We talked about the infant formula shortage, how you can do anything but not everything, and connections between “powdered milk” and National Security. Can’t wait to share this with you all! Building the Base Podcast Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Beacon Global Strategies James Geurts

It was so encouraging to chat with Priceline Co-Founder Paul Breitenbach about his passion for supporting the DoD in his latest endeavor. “It’s not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of grind, and a lot of patience, and a lot of perseverance, but we're doing some really, really amazing things. I like to think we're gonna help “out-tech” the adversary… To provide the life we get, we’ve got to do it the American way. We’ve got to do it the innovative way.” Check out the latest episode of the Building the Base Podcast to hear Paul’s advice to entrepreneurs - and the story about how he helped recruit William Shatner to Priceline ??. James Geurts and I had a lot of fun with this one!

Learn how priceline.com came up with the idea to hire William Shatner as their spokesman, propelling the company into one of the most successful IPOs in history. #buildingthebase

“So, what I've observed over the last few years is that the private sector and government are working more closely together on issues that they both care about deeply. And they're realizing how, at the most fundamental level, private sector has technology that's appropriate for national security capabilities and governments have authorities that private sector doesn't have. Where we're phenomenal and we can beat our adversaries is when those two things come together.” Niloofar Razi Howe Join Lauren Bedula and James Geurts on the Building the Base Podcast as they discuss the evolving landscape of national security, the importance of collaboration between government and the private sector, the critical role of technology in addressing modern threats, talent development, cultural shifts, and the future of innovation. #collaboration #togetherwearestronger #innovation #makingadifference