Holly was looking before you came in and she was like, wow.

Thank you.

We've been fortunate to work with really amazing people and had really great mentors.

And I think that's really part of our thesis is that we want to back amazing founders and we want to apply our own experience, some scar tissue as well.

But really working with exceptional founders that are solving and addressing really large unmet healthcare problems, like what Nick was talking about.

And so one of the things we really evaluate is, of course, starting with the founder themselves.

What have they done in the past? What's their passion? Do we think that whatever the problem is and the solution is that they're putting together, do we really think that they can execute on that? Another area that we're looking for is also making sure that they understand the risk of the overall startup journey.

But what gives you pause when you're looking? So, Garrett, maybe if you can tackle this one first, what are the red flags for you when you're looking at companies that people should be aware of and know to either have overcome in advance or not to do if they expect to get a conversation with you?

And it's not bad, but it's like, it's not the Justin Lin movie that we were kinda promised or hoped for or whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah, that movie just feels worse the lo- the further we get away from it, I think.

But at nine, I just, like, ah, I, I really enjoyed watching this movie.

It felt so refreshing to me.

I, I think after, like, having watched X a couple of times, to be back in a gear with these characters where I, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, they make sense in this movie.

Like, I understand how everybody's...

... what are, what are you doing?

Why out of all the things you could have focused on, why focus on the convergence of these three elements in one?

Yeah, so I think it's a natural thing what's occurring right now in the market.

So obviously we have AI in almost everything these days, but AI and specifically to medical technologies, there's all types of tools, different procedures where the AI, like say example for surgery, there's an AI company that I back that can have more precise surgical procedures because it's using AI to improve the accuracy.

So that's kind of where AI comes in, one example.

Biology, more and more medical devices, we're seeing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.

So we're seeing this kind of merger between drugs and also devices.

And so we think that's a really exciting area where you can have novel delivery systems of drugs using devices.

So walk me through who are the types of LPs that might want to be part of Reef Haven and how have those conversations gone so far?

Is that intentional? Was that just for show, like in this show? Or is that kind of how you talk with clients through this as well, to kind of move through and let them see what doesn't work before they get to what does work?

Yeah.

So, uh, first, thanks for having us on.

And, um, I think the value proposition from our standpoint, the reason why Reveal Technology, a, a technology company, is investing in and supporting and producing the Battle Lab series, is because we saw a giant gap in the market around defense technology companies building things in a vacuum that were never tested or not tested early enough with live force-on-force user feedback.

And the thing that results from that kind of a product development flow is, uh, you're building the wrong thing that eventually doesn't wrap into the tactics, techniques, and procedures of the, you know, adopting unit or the, the, uh, the echelon that you're intending to deliver value to.

So that's why we were investing in this.

Um, so a, a product development proposition basically, and to accelerate the adoption of technology, uh, over the long term.

When we're talking about the flexibility to adapt and incorporate new technologies, have you noticed any unit or any branch of service in the US military that you think is doing it better and kind of leading the way in that regard?

What, from your viewpoint, makes this situation different from prior flare-ups that we've seen in the Middle East?

Yeah, thanks for having me, Marlee, and good to be with you, Steve.

I think you're totally right that this is a multi-theater conflict.

In other words, this flare-up is happening not only across multiple geographies, specifically in the Middle East, but expanding outward from there.

But it's also happening in industry.

There is a long tail of defense industry activity that needs to be active and needs investment in order to adequately support the end states that the United States and its Western allies and partners want to affect in a place like the volatile Middle East.

I want to take a step back, though, and identify that even though there's a large defense industrial base draw and there's a lot of remote deployment of weapons systems and airplanes and all of that, there's still a very direct human cost.

Is the drone revolution investable at this point, or is it hype running ahead of a procurement reality? Is it available enough?

So what are you seeing out there?

so first off i think you're right to point at places like germany which are re-industrializing and reorienting toward a new 21st century post-russia invasion of ukraine's security environment so i think european defense etfs are trading at 78 plus 78 percent over the course of 2025 so yeah any amount of exposure to that market is is good news for your portfolio we do expect it to continue in the private markets we're seeing similar levels of kind of reward from the investing community and private valuations uh climbing and a huge amount of venture capital going into companies like ours as we're growing toward that eventual direct or public direct listing or public offering so i mean this is a good period we expect that The geopolitical environment is not going to cool off.

I think things are only going to heat up as competition, especially on the AI front, continues to rear its ugly head, so to speak, between players like China and the United States.

And we expect it to continue.

So I think 26 is full of good news stories for those of us in the industry that are trying to build a deterrent capability We're not necessarily warmongers.

We're trying to prepare ourselves and to balance the geopolitical environment so that conflict doesn't erupt.

But that does require a lot of investment and fielding of real capability.

You know, is that where it is really hot in this market right now?

As far as trends that you're starting to observe, Garrett, how important is AI in the technological advancements of modern warfare and the defense space?

Yeah, so I think I'm particularly well-positioned to comment on this, both because I'm running a software company that deploys versions of AI into our product stack and deliver it into the industry, but also because I have over two decades of personal combat and military experience as a United States Marine Corps officer, both on the active duty and reserve sides.

So I've been in combat operations.

I've seen the gaps in technology that are being answered by this new rise of AI.

I've also spent the last two years, both while running my company Reveal Technology and in a government capacity, traveling overseas to conflict areas to learn from those environments.

Specifically, within the last year, I've been to the front lines in Kharkiv and Ukraine in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

And we've seen the rise of automation technologies and AI being deployed into ever more creative and dynamic drone deployments across that forward line of combat between Ukraine and Russia and eastern Ukraine.

And so if an investor is looking to try to invest in this space as this overhaul is underway and this massive technological shift is happening, how do you best do that? Do you follow the innovation? Do you go with proven technology? What's the best approach?