ACME General Corp.

Last month, we were pleased to welcome our first Department of Defense (DOD) Skillbridge fellow, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Colomb, to the ACME team. Based out of ACME’s New York City office, Dan most recently served as Commander of the Army’s 24th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team out of nearby Fort Hamilton, New York, and will be working with our team through February. For those unfamiliar with it, DOD's Skillbridge program helps transitioning service members acquire valuable civilian work experience through industry training, apprenticeships, or internships during their last 180 days of service. For industry partners like ACME, it’s a great opportunity to access world-class talent at no cost (because service members participating in the SkillBridge program continue to receive their military compensation and benefits). And for service members who have spent years, and in some cases decades, serving their country, it’s a great chance to get exposure to civilian training and work experience that can ease their transition into the private sector. We look forward to working with Dan over the next several months and to welcoming additional Skillbridge fellows from future cohorts.

It’s been a busy couple of months here at ACME but we would be remiss if we didn’t take a moment to thank Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics (PDASA(ALT)) Young Bang and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Data, Engineering, and Software (DASA/DES) Jennifer Swanson for sitting down at our offices during their recent visit to NYC with local investors and fast growing startups from New York’s burgeoning defense tech ecosystem to discuss the Army’s software modernization strategy and, more generally, the Army's efforts to provide more opportunities to non-traditional innovators and to better leverage the country's deep reserves of private capital, much of which is managed in and around the tri-state area.  In a dynamic and wide ranging discussion, Bang and Swanson addressed what they described as several misconceptions about the Army’s new software strategy including the idea that it has a preference for cost-plus contracting (rather, they explained, the strategy envisions using a range of different contracting mechanisms depending on the nature of the specific product or service being acquired). Bang and Swanson also had a chance to hear directly from companies and investors working with the Army on a regular basis about what was and wasn’t working from their perspective as well as constructive suggestions for how various initiatives might be improved. As we frequently note, the New York City defense innovation ecosystem is home to some of the most innovative companies and some of the deepest pools of capital in the country. But what it doesn’t have is a large, permanent DoD government presence. That’s why engagements like this one are so essential. We’re grateful to Mr. Bang and Ms. Swanson for making time to meet with members of the local defense tech ecosystem and look forward to hosting more engagements like this in the new year to help local companies, investors, and enablers better understand not just current programs but also the plans and priorities of the new Trump administration. David Bonfili, Grant Fox, Patrick Mahaney, Sherman Williams II, Peter N. Ackerson, David L. Collier King, Jeffrey Mark, David Skinner, Oliver Mitchell, Prad Parthiban, Daniel Clark, John McCormick, Davey G., Ryan Musto, Erin O'Pray Stattel

For more than half a decade now, ACME General Corp.’s New York office has been deeply involved with efforts to build a regional defense tech ecosystem anchored out of New York City and connecting together government, academic, and commercial defense innovation hubs and private capital providers across the tri-state area.    That’s why we were particularly pleased to recently have had the opportunity to host, along with the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum's Grant Fox, Congressman Patrick Ryan (NY-18) for a Saturday morning discussion on the merits of formalizing these efforts through the establishment of New York Defense Innovation Hub with support from both the federal and state and local levels where, in addition to Congressman Ryan, we had the good fortune to be joined by state Assemblyman Alex Bores, the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s Daniel Clark, Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Deputy Director for Commercial Operations Liz Young McNally, and former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller as well as more than 30 representatives of local defense tech companies and investors, all of whom were not just willing but eager to make time in their schedules on the last weekend before Thanksgiving.   We’d like to thank Congressman Ryan, Assemblymember Bores, and NYCEDC for their ongoing engagement on this topic and look forward to engaging with other tristate elected officials at all levels of government as we continue to build momentum and support for this critical initiative.   Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries, Dataminr, Persistent Systems, LLC, Accrete AI, Cape, National Center for Urban Operations, Pallas Advisors, Newlab, Venrock, Hangar, 8090 Industries, Alumni Ventures, Squadra Ventures, Decisive Point, KLM Ventures, Front Door Defense, NYU Veterans Future Lab

In the latest episode of our Accelerate Defense podcast, ACME General Corp. CEO David Bonfili sits down with former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller. Prior to his time leading the Department of Defense in the final months of the last Trump administration, Miller served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict and as Senior Director for Counterterrorism and Transnational Threats at the National Security Council where he was responsible for running the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). A retired Army Special Forces Colonel, Miller began his career as an enlisted infantryman in the U.S. Army Reserves in the early 80s before commissioning as an infantry officer and entering the Special Forces community in 1993 where he served in numerous command and staff positions and participated in the planning and execution of multiple Special Forces deployments worldwide including some of the earliest combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. While it’s unclear what role, if any, he might play in the incoming Trump administration, Miller is clearly a deep, influential, and often heterodox thinker when it comes to the business of defense and we encourage anyone interested in the topic to give this episode, available on all your favorite podcast platforms and linked in the comments, a listen.

Earlier this month, ACME CEO David Bonfili was honored to join BRAVE1’s Nataliia Kushnerska, D3’s Eveline Buchatskiy, Tech Force in UA’s Kateryna Mykhalko, and Waveup’s Olena Petrosyuk for a panel discussion moderated by MITS Capital co-founder H. Perry Boyle, Jr. on setting conditions for greater US investment in Ukrainian Defense Tech as part of the first annual MITS Capital Forum in Kyiv. While challenges remain, the government of Ukraine has made great strides over the past two years in reforming defense procurement practices both to improve transparency and accountabiltiy and to accelerate the the time from problem identification to solution fielding at scale. As a result, it’s no surprise that interest continues to grow among US and European investors in gaining greater exposure both to the hundreds of cutting-edge UXV companies providing combat-proven products to enable Ukraine’s “Army of Drones” and to the established Ukranian defense companies supplying everything from high quality armored personnel carriers to cutting-edge passive radars to help the armed forces of Ukraine defend their homeland. Alex Bornyakov Maria Berlinska Maryna Bezrukova Yulia Marushevska 

Last month, along with his Business Executives for National Security (BENS) colleagues Samuel Cole and Al Puchala, ACME CEO David Bonfili had an opportunity to address the 2024 Marine Corps Commanders’ Media Training Symposium (CMTS) to discuss the unrivaled depth and breadth and national security implications of America's private capital markets. Held annually in New York City for Colonels and Lieutenant across the United States Marine Corps who are in or have been selected for command, the Corps’ CMTS is designed to ensure that unit and base commanders are well prepared to address the broad range of questions they’re likely to encounter from local and national media. This year, for the first time, leveraging private capital markets was an area of focus. Building on arguments originally articulated by Sam Cole, former BENS CEO GEN (ret) Joseph Votel, and Carlyle’s Frank Finelli, panelists were able to provide an overview of recent progress in the Department of Defense's efforts to better leverage private capital including not just the well publicized surge of early stage venture funding flowing into defense tech but also trailblazing new efforts like the OSD’s Office of Strategic Capital's recently launched $1B loan program to help scale production from new market entrants and innovative public-private partnerships like the one led by Al Puchalla’s firm, CapZone Impact Investments LLC, leveraging private capital to help strengthen and expand the domestic submarine industrial base through the development of new shipyard facilities in qualified Opportunity Zones. Here at ACME, we believe that at least some level of capital markets literacy is an essential competency for almost all senior military officers and it’s a privilege to be able to support BENS on their efforts to help ensure that current and future leaders across the services receive the kind of exposure to these topics they need to not just speak to but also fully leverage this uniquely American asset. 

Earlier this week, ACME General Corp., along with our friends at the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum (DEF) New York Agora and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Northeast Region, was pleased to host a roundtable discussion in our New York City office with ADM Christopher Grady, USN, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Ms Liz Young McNally, Defense Innovation Unit Deputy Director for Commercial Operations. As the second highest ranking officer in the US military, Admiral Grady is responsible for overseeing the development of joint military requirements through his service as Chair of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), represents the military in National Security Council deputies meetings, and serves on the Department of Defense's Deputy’s Management Action Group (DMAG), the primary civilian-military forum supporting the Secretary of Defense. Over the course of a wide-ranging 90 minute discussion, ADM Grady and Ms. McNally had an opportunity to engage with a broad cross-section of the dynamic New York metro defense innovation ecosystem including investors like KKR, Venrock, RTX Ventures, and 8090 Industries, companies like Accrete AI Inc., Altana Technologies, ConductorAI, Dataminr, Distributed Spectrum, FLIP, goTenna, Nanotronics, and Persistent Systems and other key actors like Frontdoor Defense, the National Center for Urban Operations, Newlab, New York University’s Endless Frontier Labs, the Army’s 75th U.S. Army Reserve Innovation Command, and the Marine Innovation Unit. We were particularly pleased to be joined as well by Andrew Kimball, President & CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), former acting Secretary of the Army the Honorable Patrick J. Murphy former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities Michael Horowitz, and Ravi Reddi, Senior Advisor to New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a long standing champion of defense innovation efforts across New York State. The interest shown by senior DoD leaders like ADM Grady and Ms. McNally in the New York defense innovation ecosystem is reflective of the growing importance of the region (including not just New York City and New York State but also inadjacent defense innovation ecosystems in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) in efforts to drive the rapid technological transformation of the US military necessary to deter future conflicts and provide for the security of all Americans.

In our latest episode of Accelerate Defense, ACME General Corp.’s CEO David Bonfili speaks with Paul Scharre, Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). After serving as a U.S. Army special operations reconnaissance team leader, Paul worked in the Pentagon, where he led the Defense Department Working Group responsible for establishing the Department’s policies on weapon system autonomy with DoD Directive 3009. He is also the award-winning author of Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War and Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Tune in to hear Paul recount his recent trip to visit military innovators in Kyiv, discuss the future of weaponized autonomoy, and explain how the United States can expand its pool of elite deep tech talent. https://lnkd.in/eeF7b-hh

Along with our good friends at Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)'s NSIN - National Security Innovation Network and 8090 Industries, ACME General Corp.’s New York City office was pleased to play host last night to a capacity crowd of deep tech entrepreneurs and investors who came together on the side lines of NY Tech Week to hear from a diverse group of US government representatives from R&D-focused organizations like the US Army DEVCOM Armaments Center out of Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) out of Rome, NY, the U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory - Northeast out of Boston, MA, and the 75th U.S. Army Reserve Innovation Command and National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) from right here in New York City. Even more impressively, last night’s event came toward the end of a packed week of high quality defense tech events including a panel discussion featuring Army Futures Command Commanding General James Rainey organized by Bloomberg’s under the leadership of Beth Kroman, a happy hour sponsored by natsec-focused investors Squadra Ventures, AIN Ventures, and Lockheed Martin Ventures, and a breakfast meet-up organized by the American Dynamism team at Andreessen Horowitz and Decisive Point. Collectively, these events attracted hundreds of diverse attendees and left no doubt that NYC is well on its way to re-establishing itself as the epicenter of American defense tech innovation. Our thanks to our co-hosts and all of last night’s attendees. We look forward to working with all of you to continue to build on the already impressive momentum demonstrated by the defense tech community both here in NYC as well as the broader tristate region. David Skinner, Saptarsi Bandyopadhyay, Garuth A., Peter LaMonica, Shawn Coleman, Alice Hong Kuehn, Daniel Clark, Julie Loiland, John Barrientos, Bhargav Patel, Patrick Mahaney, Caroline Still, Aleksandra Popovik, Asad Akram, Ernie Garcia Lopez, Briana Garcia, Rob Thelkeld, and Stacey Matten https://lnkd.in/dvZF2agH

ACME General Corp. is pleased to announce that it will be partnering with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)’s NSIN - National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) and 8090 Industries to co-host a “Deep Tech” meet-up at our NYC office next week. On the sidelines of NY Tech Week, ACME will welcome local startups and investors to come meet with a range of governmental organizations from within America’s innovation and evaluation community. Guests will mingle with representatives from DIU/NSIN, the Army’s DEVCOM Armaments Center and Army Research Lab, the Navy’s Task Force-59, the Department of Homeland Security’s National Urban Security Technology Lab, and others. We are rapidly approaching capacity, so if you are interested in attending, please request to join at the link below as soon as possible. We will do our best to accommodate as many people as possible.  https://lu.ma/kqnnzezb