Episode 5: Scott Sanders - Chief Growth Officer, Forterra

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(1:16) Pryzm, not sponsored

(1:56) Scott Being Early on Drone Warfare

(6:35) Drones in Urban Combat

(8:19) Takeaways From Ukraine War

(10:13) Military "Rustiness" & Turnover

(12:18) Putin's Interview with Tucker

(14:16) Acquired Podcast shout out

(15:50) How Forterra’s CEO got into the business

(18:07) Reality of DoD Procurement for Startups

(20:50) SBIRs: Pros and Cons

(23:18) Best Path for a New Defense Product

(26:37) Problems with "Cost + Fixed Fee"

(30:00) Is Building a Successful American Drone Company Possible?

(31:40) Should We Ban DJI Drones / TikTok?

(34:52) How Scott Got Into Anduril Early

(38:45) Anduril's Early Product Development

(44:02) Your Buyer Is Not Your User

(45:38) Issues with DoD's Detailed Requirements

(48:11) OSINT

(49:44) Testing Hard Tech Products

(52:02) Why a Self Driving Car on the Battlefield

(56:01) Risks of Forterra Business Model

(59:55) Buying An Autonomous Vehicle Off-the-Shelf

(1:04:16) Aliens & UFOs

(1:07:39) Outro

Scott Sanders is chief growth officer at Forterra - a leading provider of autonomous systems for ground-based movement in the working world.Before Forterra, Scott was Head of Business Development at Vannevar Labs and Senior Director for Anduril Industries’ Counter Unmanned Systems division, where he built the company’s acquisition strategy for its $1 billion SOCOM Systems Integration Partner program.