My ‘return’ to DC comes full circle in defense innovation

Joseph Kopser
2 min readJul 13, 2024

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All my worlds collided yesterday. It was a Harvard Kennedy School reunion of sorts on stage as I hosted Aditi Kumar, Deputy Director of Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), at the launch of hashtag#StationDC in partnership with the Washington Office and Capital Factory at their NATO Micro-Summit.

During our NATO To The Future event, leadership discussed the importance of industry (big and small) intertwining with public servants to deliver critical capabilities rapidly and steadily. From the policy side, I got a channel my inner Sosh mentors like Jay Parker, Michael Meese and Robert Gordon.

StationDC is a partnership between Capital Factory and the Washington Office and will fill a missing link for frontier technology companies, especially those operating in the dual-use space. The fact that RideScout started at 1776 over 10 years ago in DC and now (then) 1776 co-founder Evan Burfield is back with the Washington Office alongside Miles Taylor make it a perfect match and wonderful homecoming reunion.

As the EmCee, I snuck a picture of Steve Clemons and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Director Stefanie Tompkins engaged in a fascinating discussion on the progress of DARPA.

The event, “NATO TO THE FUTURE: Preparing for Coming Disruptions,” was a pivotal moment as we navigate a future shaped by AI, robotics, synthetic biology, and re-industrialization. Bringing together policymakers, venture capitalists, and startup founders, we aim to accelerate innovation to strengthen the Alliance. The line-up of speakers was rockstar for technology and policy wonks.

Congrats to EDENS CEO Jodie W. McLean, James Barlia, Revolution/Rise of the Rest, Kevin Morgan and Ashtan Moore, of DC Tech & Venture Coalition (DCTAV), Paige Soya of K Street Capital Partners, Brandon Pollak, Joshua Baer, Meg Vrabel, Mary Gwinn, and Nina Shelat for pulling all this together!

Thanks to Eli Turner for some great photos! It was also fun to see so many friends from the Truman National Security Project join us.

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Joseph Kopser
Joseph Kopser

Written by Joseph Kopser

Speaker, Author, Investor and Innovation Expert @TeamGrayline | @BunkerLabsATX | @USTomorrowUS | @CleanTX | Father of 3 daughters | www.josephkopser.com