Stanford and SV have always had deep defense ties. Palmer Luckey and Palantir etc are just the latest iteration of this.
> Department of War Directory – This year the students had access to a Department of War Directory – essentially a phonebook of ~5,700 names of “Who buys in the Dept of War?” The directory includes a tutorial on how the DoW buys and the various acquisition and funding processes and programs that exist for startups. It provides details on how to sell to the DoW and where the Program Acquistion Officers (PAEs) fit into that process.
Literally teaching people how to make money selling misery and violence. No mention of how the tech involved can be used to constrain states, stop wars, establish justice, identify war crimes and restore victims, nothing. I thought we were beyond this in 2026.
The DoD doesn't get to neglect relationships with a community for decades and then talk of how much in common they have with each other. It's nonsense and transparently manipulative.
Have you been asleep for the last 4–8 years? We aren't even 'beyond this' compared to where we were 15 years ago. In case you haven't noticed, the US has been going backward for years: Americans fundamentally don't give a shit about anything except maximizing GDP, regardless of cost - and in fact, some sectors thrive on that externalized 'cost.' I've noticed your sentiment a few times on HN lately and I'm befuddled every time, like what in your life makes you think we are beyond this kind of thing?
War is where the money is. The government of this country has decided that you make money by going to war and you don't make money by not going to war. It's also decided that having money is mandatory. So if you want to succeed you'll go to war.
You must be new to tech.
Nope, hard pass. I’ll use the real names and people can understand me just fine.
If they insist, I have little desire to continue the conversation.
you may not even appreciate how accurate this is because it seems so simple but it’s exactly true
The moment you say “I’m not going to spend my time doing war” (in my case anymore) you are persona non grata to capitalism
Feel free to peruse my profile and websites to get a sense of my contributions and career trajectory over the past few decades, in software and in bluegrass music, if you for whatever reason seriously think that's germane to the discussion.
But this program appears to just treat war like it's some perfectly normal thing, rather than the most undesirable aspect of humanity which we're hoping to finally bring to an end so can we enjoy an age of peace amidst the internet.
This page literally presents war as if it's a profit vector rather than a societal ill - something that antiwar activists have been claiming is the actual impetus for most conflicts in the world, only to be called conspiracy theorists in response.
It's just totally nauseating.
So while, in the abstract, preventing people from being killed by drone swarms is a great idea, it's tainted from the get-go if the solution is just to make more money by having bigger killing machines, rather than preventing people from wanting/needing to drone swarm other people from the outset.
Yes, Hack for Defense is a decade old now. But the DoD famously had not done much business with area startups for many decades outside of very specific success stories like the CIA's In-Q-Tel.
Turns out that start-ups can't wait several years for a contract award. They tend to die in that time if they have no funding.
Additionally - talk of electrical engineering work done for world war II / cold war radar technology has been a oft-repeated tagline by members of military leadership as well as Palantir representatives when talking amongst themselves about Silicon Valley or in their appeals to SV itself.
"We have so much in common! Here, why don't you open your history book and I'll show you!" - that's what the appeal comes off like.
I maintain that primarily relying on those examples is a poor choice in trying to establish cultural similarities.
It's less convenient to indulge that opinion without the protection of the most powerful military in the world.
War has existed for all of human history.
Why do you think humans today are special and will eliminate war?
The only acceptable answer is: you want hope.
This isn’t true. They literally do this all the time. They just need funding. This is also true for biotech.
> They tend to die in that time if they have no funding.
Right. So they raise funding.
Your argument boils down to “the DoD won’t work with startups that don’t have funding,” which is both true and, frankly, as it should be, in my opinion.
Come back to me after you serve in combat. The dod doesn’t protect anything but investors’ returns.
I’ll have two time Medal of Honor winner explain it to you:
Isn't this _the entire point_ of the internet? To evolve beyond states and boundaries and warfare as a way of making decisions about resource allocation?
It strikes me as very short-sighted to decline to act as a generation on this matter. Humans today (or lets say, in these next few centuries) _are_ special; we have arrived at an evolutionary milestone with the birth of a new organism that does seem capable of lasting peace.
Thus the sentence I immediately followed the one this was made in response to where I said "They tend to die in that time if they have no funding."
> Right. So they raise funding.
In many, many cases when it comes to the DoD, their wants aren't seen as dual-purpose and start-ups struggle to find funding that isn't from some DoD-aligned and defense-focused investment firm - which haven't historically invested in large numbers of startups. At least not when I last checked several years ago.
And just to get ahead of this - a DoD want not being seen as dual purpose and the tech later being used for a dual purpose are two very different things.
> Your argument boils down to “the DoD won’t work with startups that don’t have funding,” which is both true and, frankly, as it should be, in my opinion.
My argument is that DoD contract law is poorly suited for funding meaningful sums of money to start-ups that do not have significant non-DoD sources of funding. I'm to understand relatively small sums of money can be awarded on a short time scale, but those sums of money are tiny compared to what's needed to execute on most contracts.
> Goals for Hacking for Defense
> A decade ago, our goal for the class was to teach students Lean Innovation methods while they engaged in national public service. We wanted to familiarize students with the military as a profession and help them better understand its expertise, and its role in society. We also hoped the class would show our sponsors a methodology that builds problem understanding before writing requirements.
> The class still does all this, but now that the DoW is buying from startups and defense venture capital is abundant, the class has turned into a national security incubator. Most of our teams form defense companies.
You expect that the whole point of something there not to boost the US military?
The majority of the Internet is geared towards feeding the hedonistic treadmill of porn, cat pictures, selling things, influencer chasing, faking happiness on Instagram and trolling political sides on X or Blue sky.
We aren't better people as a result.
The government is much more open to it today than ever before. Is it still hard? Yes. Does it require funding? Yes.
But unlike before, it’s much easier today.
We just wrapped up our Hacking for Defense class at Stanford.
This was the 11th year we’ve taught Hacking for Defense, and the impact of asymmetric warfare, (drones, off-the-shelf technologies, etc.,) disruptive technologies (AI, commercial access to space) and a startup friendly DoW acquisition system – make it feel like a much different class than the previous classes.
(I’ll summarize some of the learnings about the use of AI at the end of this post.)
Hacking for Defense is now in 70 universities, including 20+ in the UK – and this year in Poland and Germany – with teams of students working to understand and help solve national security problems.
This year’s problems came from the Navy, Air Force, Army Research Lab, Defense Innovation Unit, IQT, and NASA.
This quarter 9 teams of 42 students at Stanford collectively interviewed 1132 beneficiaries, stakeholders, requirements writers, program managers, industry partners, etc. – while simultaneously building a series of AI-driven minimal viable products and developing a path to deployment.
We opened this year’s final presentations session with a great talk about AI and defense – past, present and future – from (Ret) LTG Jack Shanahan. Jack was the Director of the DoD Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). Watching his talk is a worthwhile use of your time.
If you can’t see Jack Shanahan’s video click here
During the quarter guest speakers in the class included Owen West – director of the Defense Innovation Unit, Mike Brown – partner at Shield Capital, (Ret) LTG Joseph McGee recent head of the Joint Staff J5 (strategy, plans, and policy,) and Hon Marise Payne Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs.
**“Lessons Learned” Presentations
**Each of the eight teams gave a final “Lessons Learned” presentation along with a 2-minute video to provide context about their problem. Unlike traditional demo days where teams show off, “Here’s how smart I am, and isn’t this a great product, please give me money,” the Lessons Learned presentations tell the story of each team’s 10-week journey and hard-won learning and discovery. It’s a roller coaster narrative describing what happens when they discover that everything they thought they knew on day one was wrong and how they eventually got it right.
While all the teams used the Mission Model Canvas, Customer Development and AI tools to build Minimal Viable Products, each of their journeys was unique.
This year we had the teams add two new slides at the end of their presentation: 1) tell us which AI tools they used, and 2) their estimate of progress on the Technology Readiness Level and Investment Readiness Level.
Here’s how they did it and what they delivered.
Team Noctua – Started with a problem that said, “Special operators can’t detect drones passively, without exposing their position.” They ended up understanding that a larger problem was, “Dismounted troops and base defenders lack a passive means to provide early warning detection of all types of drones, including those that are RF silent.
If you can’t see the Noctura video click here
If you can’t see the Noctura presentation click here
**These are “Wicked” Problems
**Wicked problems refer to really complex problems, ones with multiple moving parts, where the solution isn’t obvious and lacks a definitive formula. Most problems our Hacking For Defense students work on fall into this category. They are often ambiguous. They start with a problem from a sponsor, and not only is the solution unclear but figuring out how to acquire and deploy it is also complex. Most often students find that in hindsight the problem was a symptom of a more interesting and complex problem – and that Acquisition in the Dept of War is unlike anything in the commercial world. 
Instead of admiring problems from inside a classroom our students get of the building and learn, discovery and iterate.
The figure shows the types of problems Hacking for Defense students encounter, with the most common ones shaded.
Team SwarmShield – The initial problem was framed as, the cost of using expensive interceptors to shoot down cheap drones. By the end of the class the Team realized the problem was building terminal guidance that lets a cheap, throwaway drone find and hit an attacker at night.
If you can’t see the SwarmShield summary video click here.
If you can’t see the SwarmShield presentation click here
Department of War Directory – This year the students had access to a Department of War Directory – essentially a phonebook of ~5,700 names of “Who buys in the Dept of War?”
The directory includes a tutorial on how the DoW buys and the various acquisition and funding processes and programs that exist for startups. It provides details on how to sell to the DoW and where the Program Acquistion Officers (PAEs) fit into that process.
Team Weapons Without Wait – The initial problem for this team was “Retool and scale defense manufacturing capacity to replenish critical munitions at the pace required by sustained, high-intensity conflicts.” This is what I call a “boil the ocean” problem” – big and vast – and vague. By class end the team realized what was rapidly achievable (and needed) was affordable, certified munitions for small drones produced at the point-of-need.
If you can’t see the Weapons Without Wait video click here
If you can’t see the Weapons Without Wait presentation click here
**It Started With An Idea
**Hacking for Defense is built on the same methodology as Lean LaunchPad class I created at Stanford in 2011. It was adopted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the NSF I-Corps (Innovation Corps) to train Principal Investigators who wanted an SBIR grant. Now in its second decade and in 100+ universities, I-Corps has become a standard for science commercialization at the NSF, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy – training 3,251 teams and launching 1,400+ startups to date.
Team IonX – IonX also started with a “boil the ocean” problem – The US needs a secure rare earth supply chain. They ended up with a problem more tangible and deliverable – Mineral processors across markets can’t identify and test better chemical reagent schemes.
If you can’t see the IonX video click here
If you can’t see the IonX presentation click here
**Origins Of Hacking For Defense
**In 2016, brainstorming with Pete Newell of BMNT and Joe Felter at Stanford, we observed that students in our research universities had little connection to the problems their government was trying to solve. We realized the same Lean LaunchPad/I-Corps class would provide a framework to do so. That year we launched both Hacking for Defense and Hacking for Diplomacy (with Professor Jeremy Weinstein and the State Department) at Stanford.
Team Cheese on the Moon – Started with a mandate to search for mineral deposits on the moon. By class end they realized that to do that lunar missions need to know what’s on and under the moon not only to mine, but to land.
If you can’t see the Cheese on the Moon video click here
If you can’t see the Cheese on the Moon presentation click here
**Goals for Hacking for Defense
**A decade ago, our goal for the class was to teach students Lean Innovation methods while they engaged in national public service. We wanted to familiarize students with the military as a profession and help them better understand its expertise, and its role in society. We also hoped the class would show our sponsors a methodology that builds problem understanding before writing requirements.
The class still does all this, but now that the DoW is buying from startups and defense venture capital is abundant, the class has turned into a national security incubator. Most of our teams form defense companies.
Team Fuel Forge started with the problem that combat units need to generate power and fuel locally. They ended with a more interesting observation that they could build networked, on-site hydrogen nodes to fuel drones in forward, contested environments where resupply is at risk,
If you can’t see the Fuel Forge video click here
If you can’t see the Fuel Forge presentation click here
**Go-to-Market/Deployment Strategies
**The initial goal of the teams is to ensure they understand the problem. The next step is to see if they can find mission/solution fit (the DoW equivalent of commercial product/market fit.) But most importantly, the class teaches the teams about the difficult and complex path of getting a solution in the hands of a warfighter/beneficiary. While the DoW has made tremendous strides in reforming how and who they buy from, students still need to know: Who writes the requirement? What’s an OTA? What’s color of money? What’s a Program Manager? Who owns the current contract?
Team Luminarch – Started with Tactical units lack the capability to visualize, manage, and adapt to the electromagnetic spectrum in real time. They ended with Tactical units lack low-cost, attritable RF sensors that can be deployed at scale, limiting their ability to detect threats, manage signatures, and communicate.
If you can’t see the Luminarch video click here
If you can’t see the Luminarch presentation click here
Team Tessellate– Started with the observation that drone missions don’t scale. And ended by realizing what’s missing is US multi-drone doctrine doesn’t exist and current drone warfare changes are happening faster than the software lifecycle.
If you can’t see the Tessellate video click here
If you can’t see the Tessellate presentation click here
**AI In the Class Room
**AI has had some obvious and not so obvious impacts on our class.
First, here’s a summary of how our students used AI in both classes I taught this quarter.
If you can’t see the AI Use In Class slide click here
If you can’t see the AI Rap Video click here
AI Tools Used
Claude + Granola – were the AI tools used by everyone.
Large Language Models Used
– Claude, Claude Code, Claude Chrome extension, Claude Cowork, Claude Design
– ChatGPT
– Gemini
Note taking
– Granola
– Twinmind
_Presentations
_– Perplexity
Building prototypes
– Replit
– Lovable
Creating Synthetic Users
– Listen Labs
– Viewpoints AI
Summarizing Research
– Google NotebookLM
– Notion + G Suite (not strictly AI, but used as part of AI workflows)
Other– Ultralytics YOLOv8 (used by the SwarmShield H4D team for drone detection/tracking MVP)
The obvious and positive changes of AI were that teams were able to do customer discovery more efficiently. The not so obvious change was that creating products rapidly allowed teams to make bad ideas go faster.
In the past, MVPs were a sign of a teams technical competence, but now spinning up something in hours that previously took weeks, means that an MVP is no longer evidence of critical thinking and hypothesis testing.
This meant student learning was unbalanced. A finished-looking product felt like success. Students confused a polished deliverable with the need to deeply understand the needs of all the stakeholders, as well as the need for Customer Validation. For defense startups that means understanding a path to a CRADA, or to a research or production OTA. We needed to slow the teams down. Going forward we’ll have students come into class with a prototype but next time accompanied by the explicit hypotheses and experiments they’ll use to validate whether the prototype solved an actual problem.
More about this in a separate blog post.
**It Takes A Village
**While I authored this blog post, this class is a team project. The secret sauce of the success of Hacking for Defense at Stanford is the extraordinary group of dedicated volunteers supporting our students in so many critical ways.
The teaching team consisted of myself and:
Our teaching assistants this year were: Evan John Twarog, Varsha Saravanan, Breno Casciello, and Luke Andrews.
**34 Sponsors, Business and National Security Mentors
**The teams were assisted by sponsors and mentors.
Sponsors were originators of the team problems. They gave us their toughest national security problems_:_ Owen West, Will Ryan, Phillip “Donna” Smith, Joel Uzarski, Alexandra Bissey, Mark Breier, Jonathan Stock, Trent Emeneker, Matthew Anderson, Ana Alvarez, Jonathan Boltersdorf.
National Security Mentors helped students who came into the class with no knowledge of the Department of War, understand the complexity, intricacies and nuances of those organizations: Katie Tobin, Kelly McGannon, Rachel Costello, Henning Heine, Josh Edwards, Marco Romani, Tom Schmitz, David Vernal, Rich Lawson, Dan Ruttenber, Ashley Perry, Sophia Vahanvaty, Rick Lu, Chris O’Connor
Business Mentors helped the teams understand if their solutions could be a commercially successful business: Doug Seiche, Jeremy Schoos, Adam Waters,, Matt Croce, Isobel Porteous, Eric Byler, Diane Schrader, Donnie Hasseltine, Mark McVay.
Sponsoring Organizations: Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, Common Mission Project, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BMNT, Defense Innovation Unit.
Thanks to all!








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