Massive Signals

Sassie Duggleby, Co-Founder and CEO of Venus Aerospace, joins Massive Signals to discuss building the world's first high-thrust rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) — and the journey from a jet-lagged conversation in Japan to a $90 million Series B. She shares how Venus cracked a propulsion concept that had eluded the industry for over 40 years, why a single test flight in May 2025 flipped the company from an "academic ex...

In this episode, we sit down with Chris Gladwin, founder and former CEO of Ocient, the company behind the software powering the world's largest data-analyzing systems. A serial deep tech founder who built Cleversafe into a $1.4 billion IBM acquisition, Chris spent over a decade building for the petabyte-scale data generators - telecom, intelligence, adtech - until AI made data volume explode across the enterprise market. We get int...

In this episode, we sit down with Zeb King, Managing Director of Endeavor Colorado — the local chapter of a 45-market global network that backs growth-stage founders through mentorship and a rules-based co-investment fund. Zeb makes the case for Colorado as a genuine global leader in quantum, space, and genomics, not a scaled-down Silicon Valley. We get into why founder-market fit beats revenue as a signal in deep tech, why C...

In this episode, we sit down with Liz Dennett, CEO and Founder of Endolith, a mining technology company using microbes to pull more copper out of the low-grade ore already sitting inside existing mines. Liz makes the case for why mining moves slower than any industry she's touched, why revenue is easy to chase for the wrong reasons in deep tech, and why the world needs more copper by 2050 than humanity has produced in all of histor...

In this episode, we sit down with Leo Polovets, co-founder of Humba Ventures, a fund built around the physical, hard-tech problems most investors avoid. Leo makes the case for why deep tech finally became investable around 2020, why revenue is the wrong milestone to underwrite in hardware, and why non-dilutive funding is a tool founders too often misuse. We also get into what separates real moat-building from just chasing governmen...

In this episode, we sit down with Jon Bronson, co-founder of J2 Ventures, the firm investing at the intersection of deep tech and national security. Jon shares how a PhD chemist and a military intelligence officer became co-founders, why “dual use” gets misapplied as a euphemism for failed commercial ventures, and how non-dilutive government funding can extend a startup’s runway without ever counting as real reven...

In this episode, we sit down with Scott Davis, CEO and co-founder of Vescent Technologies, a quantum infrastructure company selling into nearly every corner of the quantum ecosystem. Scott makes the case for why three of the four quantum computing modalities run on Vescent's photonics, how close we actually are to a "Q-Day" that could break modern encryption, and why GPS may be the more urgent vulnerability. We also get into what i...

In this episode, we sit down with Vrajesh Bhavsar, founder and CEO of Operant AI, a platform built to protect AI agents, cloud workloads, and MCP ecosystems at runtime. Vrajesh traces his path from Apple’s Secure Enclave to Arm’s ML business unit to the founding bet that security couldn’t scale on dashboards and human intervention alone. We cover how early design partners forced Operant’s focus, what it cost...

In this episode, we sit down with Kelly Coyne, investor at D4 Investments, a firm going all-in on quantum after years backing industrial robotics. Kelly shares how she went from dismissing quantum on stage at the School of Mines to making it her entire investment focus three months later. We cover why being wrong is a competitive advantage in venture, how geography determines your entire quantum thesis, and why the mega fund shift ...

In this episode, we sit down with Andrew Antonio, founder and CEO of Urban Sky, the company treating the stratosphere like the final frontier it actually is. Andrew shares how a world-record skydive from 136,000 feet planted the seed, why the stratosphere has been ignored for 60 years while space and aviation absorbed all the capital, and how getting their butts kicked in the imagery market led to a defense breakthrough that change...

In this episode, we sit down with Aziz Gilani, general partner of Houston-based Mercury Fund, which manages over $750 million focused on disruptive technology startups outside Silicon Valley. Aziz shares his journey from intern to partner, Mercury's renewed focus on deep tech, and why incumbents across industries have never been more vulnerable to disruption. We dive deep into what separates tourists from true players in frontier t...

In this episode, we sit down with Kevin Noertker, co-founder and CEO of Ampaire, a company building hybrid electric propulsion and onboard power systems for existing aircraft. Kevin shares his path from NASA JPL to a $200M aerospace program to the lunch pitch that changed everything. We cover why Ampaire bet on retrofits over clean-sheet designs, how a Hawaiian airport killed their plug-in strategy, and what happened when a signed ...

In this episode, we sit down with Cody Simms, Managing Partner of MCJ Collective, an early-stage venture fund with over $115 million under management focused on climate and energy technology. Cody shares his journey from dot-com product manager to climate investor, how a podcast became the unlikely foundation for a venture fund, and why the energy transition is accelerating regardless of what’s happening in Washington. We div...