Shows
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerNetworking the quantum internet, featuring Noel Goddard of QunnectUnder New York City lies a patchwork of long-dormant dark fibers that are now illuminating with entangled rubidium atoms.In our conversation with Noel Goddard, CEO of Qunnect, we learn about the tough tech testbed named GothamQ. Qunnect is pioneering the future of the telecom industry by transforming existing fiber optics into quantum networks, providing a robust, secure communication channel for the next evolution of the digital age.Qunnect’s rubidium-based networking devices promise to safeguard communications against eavesdropping by ensuring that any attempts at interception destroy the transmitted message. This makes digital communications that ar...2024-08-3051 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerCultivating billion-dollar narwhals, featuring Adam de Sola PoolWhere is the money in oceanographic research? Fundamental understanding of the watery parts of our planet (i.e. most of it) is woefully under pursued. However, just as it seems some ocean systems are almost falling apart – coral bleaching, rising tides, species extinctions – we are beginning to see more attention paid to exploring the depths. "There will be unicorns of the ocean, very successful companies which we call ‘narwhals’,” Adam de Sala Pool told us. A Special Advisor to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, de Sala Pool has seen a similar situation before: he was an early i...2024-05-0743 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerReimagining coastal transportation, featuring Billy Thalheimer of REGENT CraftIt’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… technically a flying boat! When challenged to imagine how to electrify aviation, Billy Thalheimer, CEO and co-founder of REGENT Craft, and his team set to work looking at what has been done with hydroplanes before – and what emerging technologies are available today that change the equation for what is possible and economically achievable.“Building with atoms is harder than building with bits. You can’t just revert to your last code push,” Mr. Thalheimer told us. “Early on, it was really just finding those investors that ‘got’ tough tech.” And...2024-03-1430 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerDeploying undersea explorers, featuring Jeff Smith of SaabThe blue parts of our planet are beautiful yet stunningly punishing for even our toughest of technologies.Dark, crushing, unexplored, and unknown – the depths of the seas are where an explorer like Jeff Smith has devoted his career to understanding. As the Vice President and General Manager of Autonomous and Undersea Systems at Saab, Inc., Smith has experience developing submersibles of nearly every shape and size, including some of the most advanced systems for remotely-operated and autonomous research vessels. A distinguished figure in the undersea robotics realm, Smith brings a wealth of experience fro...2024-02-1354 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerFusing atoms with lasers, featuring Thomas Forner and Pravesh Patel of Focused EnergyIf this company perfectly combines lasers and atoms, the reaction could be worth trillions of dollars.Focused Energy’s Thomas Forner, CEO, and Pravesh Patel, CTO, join us to talk about making lasers. Lots and lots of lasers. But for what aim? They are pointing hundreds of directed beams at a tiny target: a millimeter-sized plastic capsule of deuterium and tritium, about the size of a peppercorn. These experiments may reveal a commercial pathway to grid-scale fusion energy. In contrast to other pursuits for nearly limitless clean energy such as stellarators and tokamaks, our third installment of th...2023-12-1250 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerThe Star Machine: How Proxima Fusion is Powering the Sustainable Grid! Featuring Francesco SciortinoHow do we harness the power of the stars to deliver clean energy on Earth?It has been a collective goal – and, perhaps, an impending imperative – for human civilization to secure renewable energy sources for its present and future needs. The team at Proxima Fusion (https://www.proximafusion.com/about), led by co-founder and CEO Francesco Sciortino (https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesco-sciortino-aa340180/), is focused on one approach to build a fusion power plant. Their use of a “stellarator”, a wildly complex machine that until recently has been literally impossible to build, could prove the econ...2023-10-1059 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerMastering Billion-Dollar Tech Investments & Galactic Defense 💸🛰️👾 featuring Preston DunlapStanding up a space force within the world’s largest bureaucracy is not for the faint of heart.Preston Dunlap – former (and first) Chief Architect / Chief Technology Officer of the United States Air Force and Space Force and present CEO of Arkenstone Ventures – has developed a privileged view into the government machinations necessary to design, develop, and buy the right mix of tough tech capabilities. Mission-focused and multidisciplinary, Dunlap and the organizations in which he engaged at the most senior levels have commanded hundreds of billions of dollars in defense acquisitions.A curious combination of comput...2023-09-1258 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerTracking weather from space, featuring Scarlett Koller of Mithril TechnologiesAn early-stage startup will offer unparalleled weather data when it unfolds its orbital sensors.Captivated by the stars and focused on improving life on Earth, Mithril Technologies founder and CEO, Scarlett Koller, is venturing into weather awareness and storm tracking by launching and commercializing a large space-based sensor. In this episode, we have the privilege of learning how Koller and her co-founder are translating a new technology out of the lab and into a space business.Aviation, shipping, insurance, and defense industries are each keen to get better clarity on Earth’s complex atmosphere at an...2023-08-0851 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerBetting on Space, featuring Chad Anderson of Space CapitalIn one sentence: The space economy is booming in more ways than one.Space-based assets are changing the way industries operate on Earth. Chad Anderson – Founder and Managing Partner at Space Capital – is one of those individuals who has a deep perspective on the what it is like backing the entrepreneurs who are launching the newest breed of space companies.An investor by profession and explorer by passion, Anderson relates to us how “the economy of the future” will be built on global positioning systems, geospatial intelligence, and communications.To paraphrase the title of a book by Ashle...2023-07-1159 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerOrchestrating microbes, featuring Cheri Ackerman of Concerto BiosciencesIn one sentence... The interactions of the microbial world within us has been incredibly difficult to see – until now.From the depths of our intestines to the surface of our skin, our bodies are host to trillions of microbial cells spanning thousands of species. While critical to helping us to fend off illnesses and digest complex foods, we know very little about the complex interactions among these microbes.The team at Concerto Biosciences, led by CEO and Cofounder Cheri Ackerman, has put in place a key step in advancing the understanding of ourselves: a system, th...2023-06-1355 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerUnveiling age-defying proteins, featuring Mark Allen of ElevianIn one sentence...Aging is malleable and there is a particular, mysterious protein of interest that may enable new therapies for age-related diseases such as stroke, diabetes, and obesity.Young blood in old bodies has been demonstrated in several studies to counteract some age-correlated ailments. Mark Allen, a medical doctor by training and an entrepreneur in practice, co-founded Elevian to understand and commercialize therapies using a recombinant growth differentiation factor known as GDF11, a ‘magic’ protein, as referenced by the New York Times. Dr. Allen describes how his t...2023-05-091h 02
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerCreating new and better medicines, featuring Virginia Burger of New Equilibrium BiosciencesIn one sentence...Computational biology is enhancing our understanding of intrinsically disordered proteins, leading to exciting new medical treatments.OverviewFrom videogames to protein discovery, high performance computing impacts how we understand and engage with each other and the world around us. Virginia Burger, CEO and Co-Founder of New Equilibrium Biosciences, epitomizes the value of interdisciplinary skills applied to a hunch that biology and computer modeling can lead to new medical discoveries. “[New Equilibrium is] taking a problem that a lot of people have looked at before and looking at it from a c...2023-04-1153 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerJMill & Forrest's Epic Reveal: New Tough Tech Today Season, Monthly Groove & Upcoming Themes! 🚀🧬🔋Join a tag-up among JMill and Forrest as we reveal something really exciting for what’s ahead: the launch of the newest season of Tough Tech Today! Plus, we mention work and babies.We set the stage for our new monthly cadence, with a new release occurring on the second Tuesday of each month. Each quarter (3 months), we focus on a theme. The next three themes are Biology (2023Q2), Space (2023Q3), and Energy (2023Q4). We really appreciate your support and enthusiasm for Tough Tech Today, and it is our honor to share with you our con...2023-04-0703 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerJmill goes glamping while Forrest lands on Mars and launches a new company.Just a quick Tough Tech Today update as we take a bye week and prepare for our guest in two weeks.2021-03-0207 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerA moon rover startup gears up for launch, featuring Justin Cyrus of Lunar OutpostIn one sentence...Living on the Moon requires infrastructure that Justin Cyrus of Lunar Outpost knows can be helpful here on Earth.OverviewEarth’s moon is viewed as the upcoming base of operations for humanity’s further exploration of the cosmos. Justin Cyrus, founder of Lunar Outpost, shares what it is like building a suite of technologies that not only meet space objectives, but also address terrestrial challenges.Incredible initiatives are underway to develop our moon into a pied-à-terre for humans on their way to Mars. These initiatives requir...2020-12-0141 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerWhen tough tech and dual-use ventures collide, with the U.S. Air Force Banshee ProgramBanshees of the United States Air Force hunt for mission-enhancing technologies. The world's largest startup accelerator, MassChallenge, teamed up with the Air Force Labs to establish the Banshees training program. Members are U.S. Department of Defense acquisitions officers who are learning how to find tough tech and nurture dual-use ventures. Such startups are jointly serving the private commercial sector and the government as clients.Forrest and jmill discuss tech commercialization challenges and #protips from several stakeholders' points of view: as entrepreneurs, as investors, and as government liaisons. 2020-11-1734 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerBringing heroes home, featuring Caleb Carr of Vita InclinataIn one sentence...A helicopter rescue mission gone awry fuels this man’s mission to bring heroes home safely with drones built for aircraft load stabilization.OverviewAs a Black Hawk helicopter’s rotors whop-whop-whopped overhead in their fight for command of the winds amid a stormy – and ultimately failed – rescue mission, a teenage Caleb Carr had a life-shaping experience that led him, many years later, to launch Vita Inclinata, a mission-focused company pioneering aerial load stabilization.Whether for medical evacuation, construction, firefighting, or many other applications, tetherin...2020-11-0348 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerBootstrapping mass spectrometry, featuring Mazdak Taghioskoui of Trace MattersHe built a mass spectrometer from scratch and reinvented it in the process!Bearing a smile, Mazdak “Maz” Taghioskoui says he immigrated to the United States from Iran for a good education and same-day shipping, two key features that have supported his focus on building – from scratch – a sophisticated next-generation analytical tool: the Trace Matters SPion mass spectrometer.Maz is the Founder and CEO/CTO of Trace Matters, and we sat down with him for show-and-tell to discuss how he and his company is reinventing the mass spectrometer to save lives here on Earth and to advan...2020-10-2045 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerTough Tech Venture Capital and America's Innovation Engine with Orin HoffmanWhile aboard a plane nosediving into Baghdad, one may be forgiven for pondering how one’s life path could lead from vacuum cleaners to minesweeping robots. Yet, not only does Orin Hoffman, of MIT’s The Engine venture capital firm, share this humbling connection, but also how it advances an overarching narrative of the United States national industrial innovation base, VCs, and the crucial roles served by tough tech entrepreneurs. Public-private partnerships may not be what immediately comes to most people’s minds when asked about frontier tech, though government funding for basic scientific research has been commonp...2020-10-0651 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerVenturing into federal tech, featuring Will Dickson and Trinity Torres of FedTechWhat happens to the ideas generated across the United States federal government’s research initiatives? Will Dickson and Trinity Torres walk us through the pathways of taxpayer-funded technological advancements and opportunities for a diverse pool of private citizens-entrepreneurs to find commercial success licensing patents owned by the U.S. government.The United States government generates vast amounts of intellectual property across its many research organizations, national laboratories, and other technical divisions. Unbeknownst by many citizens, novel technologies are available for licensing and may be a boon to ‘proto companies’ (not-quite-yet-born startups). FedTech is an organization that conducts progra...2020-09-2253 min
Tough Tech Today with Meyen and MillerLaunching dual-use ventures, featuring Katy Person of the MIT Innovation InitiativeDual-use ventures – tough tech startups pursuing commercial relationships with the private sector and federal government, are a unique class of companies with whom Kathryn "Katy" Person, of the MIT Innovation Initiative, works daily."[Working with the United States government, such as the Department of Defense,] is not for everyone and not for every business. It depends on whether you come in mission-focused... and it depends on your business strategy," says Katy. As a military veteran with a background in U.S. Army acquisitions, Katy observes "the trough of disillusionment occurs between Phase II and Phase III" of go...2020-09-0841 min