Defense venture capital has entered a new era. In this episode, Steve Simoni speaks with Vardan Gattani, Partner at 645 Ventures, about why investors are increasingly focused on national security, how defense startups are evaluated, and what founders need to build enduring companies. Vardan on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vardangattani/ 645 Ventures: https://645ventures.com/ Steve on X: https://x.com/StevenSimoni Steve on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevensimoni/ Follow the show! Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3F1sc8yzQIF9WcdHQ3w7kf Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-drone-ultimatum/id1770994541 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to our Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://thedroneultimatum.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://x.com/DroneUltimatum ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-drone-ultimatum/ Our website: https://www.thedroneultimatum.com/ The conversation covers the rise of defense investing, lessons from Shield AI, manufacturing and supply chains, defense procurement, and why the next generation of defense companies will need to excel across both software and hardware. Whether you’re a founder, investor, or simply interested in the future of defense technology, this episode provides an inside look at how one of the industry’s leading venture firms thinks about building category-defining companies.

 Building the Future of Defense: Investing in Founders, Factories, and Autonomy | Vardan Gattani, 645 Ventures

The Drone Ultimatum

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Drone Ultimatum

## Participants

- **Steve Simoni** (Allen Control Systems)
- **Vardan Gattani** (645 Ventures)

## Transcript

My theory is that they think World War III is coming. Defense tech startups shatter funding records as $14.6 billion floods into sectors in 2025. Over a 50% hike in US defense budget to $1.5 trillion in defense spending for the upcoming financial year. There is real exuberance right now on the BC side. It's simultaneously a great time to be in defense tech, especially if you already are, and also an interesting time to build in defense tech if you're starting new.

Because money is available more than ever before. Money is available. Why do you think it's available? I think, um... Vardan Gattani is an investment partner at 645 Ventures, an early stage venture firm backing exceptional founders building category defining technology companies. Typically speaking, once you've validated your demand curve, your problem becomes a manufacturing problem. And so if manufacturing is core to your origin story, it's a huge advantage.

Yeah, so how do you evaluate, like, if they're gonna be good at it? You can often tell when someone's really never thought about it before by just asking. That's true. Have you followed much Ukraine war? Ukraine's been a textbook, like an entire college education of warfare. Everything's a war of attrition now. Yeah. You know, when it's systems on systems, it's really hard. Which then becomes who can make the most, basically. That's kind of scary because Shenzhen makes the most. That is definitely what I think keeps up a lot of people at night.

We're here with Vardan Gattani. Did I say your last name right? You did. Fuck yeah. We're here with Vardan and we are about to talk defense tech in depth. So Vardan, you have been investing in the space for how many years now? Shield was 2019, so seven. Okay, let's start with Shield because obviously we have shared friend there, Steve Simoni. Shout out. Expat, I went to the product launch. Yeah. I missed you at the Axios event. Where were you? I was there actually. What, you were there? I was there for the earlier parts of the day.

Oh, okay. But I did see the form factor, yeah. Okay. They had like the big curtain over it and they brought it down. It was pretty hype. It was cool. Okay, so do you know, I mean obviously you're on the investor side, so you're not day-to-day operating there, but do you know like the genesis of the Expat? I would love to hear it. No, actually. So my involvement with Shield is pretty truncated. So I was fortunate to join a firm called Raya Ventures. Again, shout out to Steve and Will.

And about two or so months into my tenure is when we started to look at Shield and we did a bunch of work, a bunch of homework. And at the time there was no real roadmap for the VBAT or the Expat. It was really around hive mind and you know, quad coppers. Yeah, like AI, like autonomous pilot stuff. Exactly. For like ...

Building the Future of Defense: Investing in Founders, Factories, and Autonomy | Vardan Gattani, 645 Ventures

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Building the Future of Defense: Investing in Founders, Factories, and Autonomy | Vardan Gattani, 645 Ventures

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.