Nelson Mills on Building a $100 Billion Company, the China Threat, and the Future of War
Nelson Mills, founder and CEO of Vatn Systems, joins David Weisburd to discuss why undersea autonomy has lagged aerial drones and how Vatn is building low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) at scale. Mills explores the defense prime playbook pioneered by Anduril, the economics of fixed-price defense contracts, and why asymmetric undersea vehicles offer unmatched deterrence against naval powers like China. He also shares foundational startup lessons on capital-efficient hardware development, candidate red flags in hiring, and how founders should manage investor relationships.
- Legacy primes like Lockheed Martin rely on cost-plus contracts that guarantee downside protection but cap average operating margins around 11%. Read →
- China's missile inventory makes surface ship survivability in the western Pacific theater mathematically unviable, turning billion-dollar capital ships into high-liability targets. Read →
- Nelson Mills transitioned from venture capital to defense manufacturing as CEO of Vatn Systems, applying industrial capital discipline to autonomous underwater vehicles. Read →
- Undersea autonomous vehicles trail aerial drones by roughly ten years because basic physics blocks radio waves, GPS signals, and optical sensors underwater. Read →