defence, DTM, Lessons Learned, meetup

The very first Defence Tech Meetup is a wrap!

Last week saw the very first Defence Tech Meetup event, graciously hosted by Startplatz Düsseldorf.

Although it all came together on short notice, it turned out quite alright; People interested in making a difference by getting involved in defence technologies did indeed show up, great speakers could be convinced to share from their knowledge and experiences and take questions from the people attending the meetup, and everybody participating said it must continue – and so it will!

HEADS UP: Join the Defence Tech Meetup #2 on June 25th 1830 location (this time also in DUS) TBA.

See you there!

The Defence Tech Meetup was created for people like you and me, people who are concerned by the geopolitical developments and are looking to get involved to help protect democracy and European values – our future – by helping to build the new generation of “Made-in-Europe” defence technologies.

The Defence Tech Meetup group is available to the public for anybody to join, it’s by no means an exclusive or secret group – but what gets shared at the actual meetups is by default not public, because we want to make sure people feel they can speak and share freely. This is also why members of the Defence Tech Meetup are only visible to other members (and why you won’t find any pictures of the members participating shared in public).

However, as this was the first meetup of its kind, I thought I’d make an exception to give people still on the fence or curious about joining a better understanding of what a typical meetup event looks like.

But the next time, you’ll have to be there in person.

On Wednesday May 14th at 1830 hours CET at Startplatz Düsseldorf, we met up for the very first time.

After a short intro about the meetup’s how and why, the participants introduced themselves and shared their motivation for joining, what they wanted out of the meetup and what they felt they could contribute with in the group.

It was then time for our first invited speaker was Stavros Messinis on video call from Athens, Greece who shared his learnings from founding a defence tech startup and selling it to Delian (nee Lambda Automata) within the course of around two years.

Stavros live from Athens, Greece

Some of his key insights that stuck with me were:

  • Don’t go “all in” on touting being a defence startup at the get go, start as a “little” dual-purpose project “amongst friends”, don’t create unnecessary attention and scrutiny day one, move fast and don’t break too many things, aka don’t take stupid risks to life and property, think one step at a time
  • You’ll have to partner with a prime* at some point if you want to be able to sell what you are building and make an impact
  • Implicitly, to proceed, either you have to raise the money for getting the certifications, licenses, etc or join forces with a prime or neo-prime** who has already cleared all these hurdles, already have license to operate
  • You’ll have to be present at the industry trade shows where the people in uniform and government officials – the people who buy – are (it may cost you, but it is worth it – it’s how to play the game)
  • There may be significant difference between how you have been thinking about using your product and how the buyer is actually going to use it (aka is it going on the shelves in storage somewhere, mothballed for years until they are needed in a conflict, only to be brought out and be tested once a year) which may have huge implications on what you need to consider (aka components to whole product life expectancies, corrosion, updates, etc) so you need to talk to the end users in uniform, the boots on the ground
  • Book recommendations to better understand the industry: “Skunkworks” and “The Kill Chain

*The term Prime is often used to refer to a handful of large companies (incumbents) that hold contracts for major Department of Defence (DoD) systems and programs. Technically, the term “prime” means anyone who has a direct contractual relationship (in this context with a DoD government entity). **The term Neo-Prime refer in this context to the new wave of defence companies, often still privately held and venture backed, that aims to either disrupt or complement the incumbent primes with new technology, rethinking defence (that have already successfully formed a direct contractual relationship with DoD).

The second speaker for the evening was Lars Mesenbrink from Orrick, one the leading law firms in the world when it comes to technology and innovation.

Lars’ talk was a primer on how to stay out of legal problems in Germany when building defence tech and he was happy to also give us permission to share his slides and graciously spent a lot of time after his talk to answer our many questions.

Some of the key takeaways for me was “know your investor” and “know if you classify as a weapon or dual-use (and dual-use has to be real and credible, not made up by you)”. Furthermore:

  • You as a founder / c-level are liable if it turns out that the money is coming from a nation state, entity, or person on the blacklist
  • Check with the Deutsche Bundesbank if the investor is OK or not
  • Theoretically you also need permission (must at least notify authorities at this threshold) for anything over 10% of foreign (non-German) ownership, but in practicality (and in the eyes of the law) there is no actual threshold and it could kick in with 1%, depending who you are selling equity to (aka are they on a list?), better to ask authorities up front as the investment (transfer of ownership) will not be legally binding (invalid) until ownership officially cleared/permitted
  • It doesn’t matter if your company is registered in say the UK, if you or one of the other central (aka founders or C-level) people are registered as living in Germany because there is precedence for applying the same German rules to your company if you/they do

Download the slides as a PDF ⬇️ (also available as a slideshow at the bottom of this page)

Lars answering all of our questions

We then voted if it was worth continuing with the meetup (it was a resounding YES), and took speaker wishes and topic requests for feature meetups.

The following was noted as of interest for future meetups from the participants:

  • Investors in European Defence (speakers & overview)
  • More information on other relevant events and groups
  • Industry reps like Rheinmetall (speakers, what do they do, what do they think about defence startups)
  • The status of (offensive & defensive) Cyber Security (speaker / overview)
  • Information about needs from allies at conflict frontlines

Now taking wishes and requests does not guarantee it can and will happen already at the next meetup, but we’re going to make an effort to touch on the topics – if feasible and with enough people interested.

Don’t forget to join the Meetup group and attend the next Defence Tech Meetup event in person on June 25th 1830 hrs CET, at a location in DUS yet to be announced – so save the date now.

Lars’ presentation as an image gallery:

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AI, Lessons Learned

How I use AI in my work in 2024

AI created all the images for my pitchingmasterclass.com

Over the past year, AI has become an essential tool in my daily work, simplifying tasks, and saving me time and headaches. Whether it’s copy editing, translating, programming, or video production, AI enables me to work more efficiently, having to do much less boring tasks myself. In this article, I’d like to share how I’ve been using different AI tools and platforms. (If you haven’t been sleeping for the last year, this may contain no surprises).

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cine, Lessons Learned

On my Color Grading in 2024

Digital super16mm antics: Second grade / look pass

A while back, I posted about my Live Streaming Studio V3.1  setup, because many people wanted to know what gear I’m using and how I get the “cinematic” look on a live Zoom call. And to achieve the look I was going for, one of the things I had to learn from scratch – in addition to operating a digital cinema camera and properly use lighting – was how to color grade.

For reference: Non-graded image without look and effects applied, only BMD Film Gen 1 (camera log) color space transform to rec709 / Gamma 2.2 (what a monitor can display) applied.

Below, after some grading, applying a ton of stuff for the look, and even throwing in some effects to emulate anamorphic edge distortions and a fake film gate crop for too much good measures:

BTW, do you need help with creating a great custom “look” for your film or video production, your camera, or your podcasting or stream? Give me a ping, and let’s talk. I wasted a silly amount of time and money making all kinds of mistakes starting out, so I’m happy to help you avoid that.

In this post, I’m sharing a bit about my further digging myself into a hole adventures into color grading with Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve Studio (free download of the non-studio version). It’s an incredible piece of software, by the way. If you’re thinking about ditching Adobe Premiere – just do it! It’s a joy to work with and I’ve never regretted it for a second.

This is not a primer on color grading. It’s just me dumping writing up and sharing what I’ve learned that works best for me so far. If you too wish to start (or continue) on a color grading learning journey with DaVinci Resolve, Cullen Kelly’s YouTube channel is probably the best place for that.

The following assumes you’re already familiar some of the concepts of color grading – or at least have a faint interest in how to create a cinematic image with digital tools. If not, fair warning, this post will bore the living daylights out of you is probably not for you.

What started as a necessity during the lockdown era (aka building a professional-looking online tele-presence) turned into a path of rediscovery, reigniting my passion for the cinematic image. Little known fact: You might not know that I actually started out studying cinema with the goal to become a film director – but I dropped out after only two years as university as studying film wasn’t really my thing – and then the commercial Internet happened and the rest is history

As a person most likely somewhere on a spectrum of some kind, of course I can’t, I won’t, and I don’t stop digging until I’m getting somewhere interesting, somewhere where I can feel a sense of mastery and understanding of the full stack (in this case lighting, lenses, physics, camera sensor, cinematography, color grading, look development – everything that goes into the sausage factory of a nice – to me – digital “cine” image), aka being able to make predictable outcomes and making those outcomes look cinematic and pleasing – to me. It’s become sort of a new time sink obsession hobby of mine (in addition to still helping other startup founders go farther faster, don’t you worry).

And I’m still digging.. .

Read on below for this long non-startup (but hey – still full of tech & geekery) post.

A lot going on under the hood here.
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cine, Lessons Learned, video

My Cinematic Streaming Studio v3.1

By popular demand, I’ve jotted down some details about my updated “Cine” Live Streaming Studio V3. I’ve shared some Lessons Learned at the end of this article that might be helpful if you also want to achieve a more professional or “cinematic” look for your streaming or Zoom calls.

UPDATE 1: Above, a screenshot from my current 2024 v3.1 setup.

UPDATE 2: Latest changes to how I color grade to get the “cinematic” look

And if you could use some help with putting your studio, podcasting, or event setup together (which camera, lenses, lighting, sound, live switchers, etc to get that are right for you and how to cable, set up, and install it all) – or creating that special signature “look” for your videos or streams – give me a ping, and let’s talk about it. I spent a idiotic amount of time and money doing things all sorts of wrong in the beginning, so I’m happy to help you not do the same.

See for yourself in the video below what v3 actually looks looked like when recorded and check out the comprehensive list (constantly updated) of the gear I’m currently using to achieve the look on my Kit.co page.

Here’s what v3.1 looks and sounds like in an actual real-life Zoom call interview situation:

 

Of note, compression smears the image a whole lot (that’s why I have the camera output set to be so sharp – more details in = more details out when compressed in Zoom), and depending on the conferencing software and the operating system, things happen to your saturation and gamma (here desaturated, less contrast-y – which makes me think it was not captured on a Mac).

Fun fact: One of the other changes from v3 to v3.1 is the choice of microphone. Can you hear it? (One costs 1.600,- Euros, the other 117,-). I’m actually now using the cheap-ass microphone(!) instead of my (still beloved) Neumann. Check out my v3.1 kit.co page for the deets.

The path to getting there

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innovation, Lessons Learned, Rants

Talking about corporate innovation and the pandemic

Recently I was on Fabian Böck‘s BOECKBX podcast and talked a bit about corporate innovation and the effects of the pandemic on businesses – including my own.

Have a look and listen.

TL;DR

Based on my own experience working in outsourced innovation with governments, organisations and some of the largest companies in the world on and off between 1996 and 2010, I do not think it is a good idea to outsource (business model) innovation.

That’s the whole premise of my company, +ANDERSEN & ASSOCIATES.

From the +ANDERSEN mission statement:

“… we enable companies to manage and run innovation for tomorrow inside their own company, using their own people today.

Because innovation in your company will never happen by outside consultants.

It has to come from your most valuable assets – the people you already have on the inside.”

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