The Defense Innovation Unit: Former DIU Director Mike Brown on Leveraging Commercial Enterprise for National Security

This week, A'ndre talks to Mike Brown, who recently served as Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) between 2018 and 2022, on what DIU is and why the organization is unique within the Department of Defense, his time as Director, and the challenges facing the defense innovation space in the 2020s. We begin the podcast with a conversation on the term innovation itself, before moving into how DIU works with commercial enterprise to dramatically accelerate timelines of acquisition. Mike reflects on his own leading the organization, discussing how he made decisions of prioritization and lessons learned for others evaluating innovation.  Mike also provides his take on the biggest challenges facing commercial enterprise in partnering with DoD, and what can be done within procurement to enable access to longer-term contracts for smaller businesses and start-ups. He  addresses perceived accessibility issues and concerns around classification that may give business leaders pause when partnering with DoD, and whether DIU is being adequately supported by current DoD funding and if the organization has the roots to keep going as the defense innovation space matures. We round out the conversation by getting Mike's reflections on the state of defense innovation today, and his thoughts on the advent of the many new national security centric tech companies that are out there.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this episode are those of the hosts. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any host’s employer.