The Briefing Room

Rob Nioa shares the remarkable story of how his parents started the family business in the 1960s selling produce from a roadside trailer, before eventually building one of Australia's most important defence manufacturing companies.

Today, Nioa Group is Australia's largest privately owned supplier of weapons and munitions, operating across Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

Rob explains the company's ...

Kelly Hopkins leads Defence recruitment within one of the world's largest recruitment firms and works across the full spectrum of the industry, from global primes like Boeing and Northrop Grumman to fast-growing Australian defence SMEs.

Finding talent in defence is unlike any other industry. Much of the work is classified, the technology is highly specialised, and the people with the right skills often cannot publicly disclose what...

In this episode of The Briefing Room, Sean Singleton, US Venture Partner at Beaten Zone Venture Partners, breaks down what Australian founders really face when entering the United States Defense market. 

Sean’s role is simple but hard: to help portfolio companies open doors in the US and 'get on contract'. That means handling the nuance of how the US Department of Defense actually buys technology, not how founders assume it does. 

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In this episode of The Briefing Room, Dr Will Crowe, Co‐Founder and CEO of HEO, walks through a non‐linear founder journey that ends in orbit.

Will started as a researcher in astrodynamics, completed a PhD at UNSW, explored asteroid mining, and realised his work had immediate, practical value. That insight led to HEO.

Today, HEO enables commercial, resolved non‐Earth imaging by acquiring and analysing satellite data through propr...

Veteran and entrepreneur Warwick Penrose reflects on a career spanning CIED and CBRN Army specialisation through to founding EPE, a company trusted to protect soldiers and first responders. We cover capability delivery in counter‑IED, counter‑drone, ISR, and ECM, the pitfalls of selling to Defence, and lessons from building businesses across Asia Pacific and the U.S.

Warwick shares candid thoughts on leadership, culture, and legac...

Reservist officer and founder Ben Dullroy shares leadership lessons from leading 21 soldiers at 21, reflections from Iraq, and what end‑users actually need from startups. We discuss how to earn trust inside Defence, common mistakes founders make when pitching to the Army, and practical first steps for working with procurement pathways. Ben closes with candid thoughts on service, family, and the personal cost of a life lived between...

Strategist, author, and former Commander of the Australian Defence College, Mick Ryan distils 35 years of service into sharp lessons on leadership, modern warfare, and innovation. We examine the realities of Ukraine, where technology truly changes war — and where it doesn’t — and the cultural work required to connect founders with end‑users. A wide‑angle conversation on sovereign capability, Australia’s role in great‑power competit...

Q‑Branch founder Marc Cervantes dives into the realities of building dual‑use companies that sell to the government. We cover the origin story, the craft of becoming an ‘acquisition ninja,’ and lessons from engagements spanning DIU to state and federal partners.

For founders, Marc maps the path past innovation theatre toward programs with budget, users, and urgency — and shares straight talk on entering the U.S. market from Austra...

Policy veteran John Thomas outlines Station D.C.’s vision and how legal, regulatory, and policy strategies intersect with defence innovation.

We explore advising dual‑use companies, collaborating with DIU and IQT, and what Australians often misunderstand about entering the

Find out more:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmarkthomas04/

Website: https://beatenzone.vc

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeatenZoneVenturePartners/video...

Army veteran and social innovator Dylan Conway reveals how a simple idea — ‘just one book can change a life’ — became one of Australia’s largest book communities.

We discuss the mission of bibliotherapy in strengthening mental resilience for serving members and veterans, building a movement of 20,000+ readers, and why the World’s Coolest Readathon resonates. For innovators and transitioning veterans, Dylan shares candid lessons on...

Former Director of the Defense Digital Service and co‑founder of Rebellion Defence, Chris Lynch shares a rare end‑to‑end view of software, procurement, and venture in national security. We revisit why DDS was created, the enduring lessons from Rebellion, and how Arsenal evaluates dual‑use founders today. Practical guidance includes avoiding theatre, engaging the right PEOs and budget owners, and the timing of partnerships with prim...

Venrock investor and U.S. Navy Reservist, Morgan Hitzig, breaks down the U.S. defence‑tech landscape from a top‑tier VC perspective. We cover re‑industrialisation, public safety tech, and a survivability‑first lens for dual‑use capability.

Morgan shares operator lessons from Dataminr, practical guidance on selling into government, and red flags for ‘innovation theatre.’ Founders will take away a playbook for mapping the human terr...

Space is now a live attack surface. Zendir’s Chris Capon explains how digital twins and persistent rehearsal environments prepare warfighters for space‑cyber integrated missions.

We walk through the training → rehearsal → operations loop, real‑world scenarios (reaction‑wheel hacks, solar‑array spoofing, ground‑station backdoors), and the road to autonomous constellations.

From federated learning at LEO to software‑defined satelli...

From Army service to venture, Jake shares the human side of capability building. He unpacks his transition out of uniform, the hard‑won lessons from prototyping a training grenade inside Defence, and why that experience reshaped his view of how founders must engage as end‑users first.

We talk common pitfalls when pitching to the Army, the role of trust and culture, and where sovereign capability matters most in the next decade. A ...

 In this episode, the founding partners of Marque Ventures share how a veteran-led venture capital firm is backing defence, space, and critical technologies across the U.S. and allied markets. We unpack their dual-use investment thesis, lessons from collaborating with ManTech, and how active duty, Guard, and Reserve experience informs their approach to scaling companies. The team offers sharp insights on avoiding “innovation theatr...

Founder and lead investor at Beaten Zone Ventures, Steve Baxter sets the tone for the series: why BZV exists, what we invest in, and how ‘lethality and survivability’ guides our early‑stage defence thesis. We cover the state of the fund, portfolio highlights (HEO, Arkeus, Zendir, Zeromark, Tiberius), and why hackathons and events like Breach Point matter for capability. Steve shares pragmatic advice for Australian founders navigati...