Where Mission Meets Innovation: Reflections on the Harvard & MIT Technology & National Security Conference

I’ve got to say: the MIT & Harvard Technology & National Security Conference is a great conference. The student organizers this year brought together an unusually earnest and talented group of people who genuinely care about the intersection of technology and national security. The conversations are serious. The stakes feel real. And the next generation of builders in the room is paying close attention.

This year’s theme – Acta non-verba: Innovating for the Frontlines” – set exactly the right tone. Actions, not words. It’s a standard the conference itself lived up to, and one that ran as a thread through every panel, pitch, and conversation. 

Costanoa was proud to be deeply embedded in the event as a sponsor of the Innovation Showcase and with five of our portfolio companies also sponsoring: Vannevar, Cape, Smack Technologies Inc., Bugcrowd, and Lumbra. Here's what stood out.

A Conversation on Building for Government at The QLab 

My week kicked off at QLab, a national security innovation accelerator at Harvard’s Kennedy School that brings together Harvard and MIT student entrepreneurs with intelligence and defense practitioners. I had the privilege of moderating a discussion with two people who have spent careers at the intersection of government, technology, and mission.

Katie Wildman, Senior Business and Technology Strategist at PEO Digital — the Department of the Navy's organization responsible for delivering and modernizing IT networks, enterprise software, and digital infrastructure for Sailors and Marines — brought a practitioner's grounded perspective on what it actually takes to modernize at scale inside a large government institution. She's navigating real bureaucracy, real constraints, and real stakes every single day.

Nick Sinai, Managing Director at Insight Partners and former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer, brought the view from both sides: what it was like to drive technology policy from inside the White House, and what it looks like now from the venture world, investing in companies trying to solve the same problems.

What struck me most was how aligned they were on a core tension: government needs technology partners who are willing to do the hard work of understanding the operational environment, not just pitch a product. And the most effective companies are the ones where the founder is genuinely obsessed with the problem, not just the market opportunity.

An Evening with Innovation Showcase Finalists — and a Fireside Chat with Nini Hamrick of Vannevar

The night before the conference, we co-hosted a happy hour for the Innovation Showcase finalists, alongside Vannevar and Lowenstein Sandler. The room was full of student founders, operators, and practitioners working on some genuinely hard problems. It was exactly the kind of evening that reminds me why I do this work.

The highlight was a fireside chat with Nini Hamrick, President & Co-Founder of Vannevar, one of our portfolio companies. Nini was equal parts insightful and disarmingly honest.

She talked about what it actually feels like to lead a mission-driven company. Not the highlight reel; the reality and weight of it. A few things she said that have stuck with me:

• Love the problem — not just the idea. The problem has to pull you.

• Before you start, tune out the noise and act with conviction. After you start, flip that instinct: listen deeply.

• When lives are on the line, your priorities get very clear, very fast. It sharpens everything.

The founders in that room got it immediately. Because many of them are already living it.

The Costanoa Portfolio Was All Over the Stage

Across the main conference, several Costanoa portfolio company leaders were part of the program, and it's a group I'm genuinely proud of: 

• Brian Katz, Mission Director at Vannevar, spoke on "Pacific Deterrence: Sustaining Advantage Across the Maritime Theater" — one of the most consequential strategic questions facing the U.S. right now.

• Aaron Brown of Lumbra and Andy Markoff of Smack Technologies Inc. were both on the "Decision Dominance: Artificial Intelligence for the Modern Front Lines" panel. These are two founders building AI that has to work when it really matters. Some takeaways: There’s been a dramatic shift in US national security AI adoption over the last 6 months. Teams that can rebuild rapidly and repeatedly will win and you must be comfortable having 6 months of work disrupted overnight.  

The Innovation Showcase: $100K to VectorWave

Costanoa sponsored the Innovation Showcase Pitch Competition, and I served as one of the judges alongside an impressive panel: John Doyle (CEO, Cape — one of our portfolio founders), Nick Sinai (Insight Partners / former Deputy CTO of the United States), Maria Tranquilli (Common Mission Project), and Jake Sortor (Cooley & 2025 Innovation Showcase winner).

The quality of teams was high. Students tackling genuinely hard problems in defense, intelligence, and national security with real technical depth and thoughtful go-to-market instincts. It was not an easy decision.

Ultimately, we awarded the top prize — a $100K SAFE — to VectorWave, an MIT spinout that built the first AI hardware accelerator specifically designed for wireless applications. Their analog processing unit (APU) is built to enhance edge compute and AI in environments where traditional digital chips fall short. It's the kind of technically differentiated, mission-relevant work that we love to back at Costanoa, and the team had exactly the right combination of conviction and intellectual honesty.

Congratulations to Ben Taylor, Ronald Davis III, and the entire VectorWave team!

Why This Matters

One of the things I keep coming back to from this conference is how much the landscape has shifted. A few years ago, the national security technology ecosystem was a niche corner of the venture world. Today, it's drawing serious talent, serious capital, and serious founders who want their work to matter.

The students who organized this conference understood that. The founders competing in the Innovation Showcase understood that. And the operators from Vannevar, Cape, Smack, Bugcrowd, and Lumbra who showed up to sponsor and speak — they're proof that you can build great, enduring companies in this space.

I'm grateful to have been part of it, and I'm excited to see what comes next.