Every week, former fighter pilots and current entrepreneurs Neal Rickner & Mike Smith provide unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in startups, energy, and national security.
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Every week, former fighter pilots and current entrepreneurs Neal Rickner & Mike Smith provide unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in startups, energy, and national security.
Neal lands a lead investor—unlocking insider commitments and government matching funds—buying his company ~18 months of runway and hard-won momentum. Mike talks small-team turbulence and a parenting weekend that went sideways (bee sting + campout sushi). From there, the guys dive into the energy-policy whiplash hitting wind projects and what it signals for U.S. energy security and AI-driven load growth. Then they zoom out: memes, militarization, and a six-point “authoritarian playbook” (undermining norms, information control, polarization/scapegoating, weakening rule of law, cult of personality, and crisis exploitation). They wrestle with the legality of domestic Guard deployments, whether institutions will hold through 2026, and the real-world burden on officers asked to refuse illegal orders.
Hardpoints
Every week, former fighter pilots and current entrepreneurs Neal Rickner & Mike Smith provide unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in startups, energy, and national security.
