WEBVTT

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- Good afternoon.

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At this time, I would like to introduce

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our X Tech Search 1.0
winner Adranos Incorporated

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to provide updates since winning,

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and to hear where they are today.

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Please help me welcome Adranos.

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(applause)

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- Thanks.

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I see I'm the only one
holding up the announcement

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of who wins and who's the next round,

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but they have graciously
told us that if we go over,

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they will extend the time.

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So, I'll do my best to use all
our time as much as we can.

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So, obviously very grateful
for the opportunity

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to be here to tell you about
what we did after X Tech 1.0,

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and that's the first
question we asked ourselves.

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What are we doing after X Tech 1.0,

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because the path was a little bit unclear.

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But first, we'll give you a
little background about us.

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We are a rocket company.

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We build rockets.

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We blow stuff up,

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and what we found is that
these rocket scientists

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are just a little overrated.

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Their rocket fuel is
corrosive and inefficient,

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and hasn't seen innovation since the 50s,

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and our goal is to change all that

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with our high performance
propellant that we call ALITEC.

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Now, as part of our X Tech demonstration,

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we did a live rocket
launch outside of Las Vegas

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that we recorded on video,
and we got a two minute video

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that we will show you,

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and in that video, we
compare the altitude reach

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of a rocket containing
traditional propellant,

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and a rocket containing our
propellant that we invented.

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So, a bit of a face off, if you will.

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So, without further ado, here's our video.

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(mood music)

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(rocket blasting)

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(engine roaring)

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(rocket launching)

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(rocket soaring)

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(rocket soaring)

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(cheering)

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- So, as shown in the video,

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our results of our launch were

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that we reached a higher altitude

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with the same weight of propellant,

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and the differential
was pretty substantial.

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In the first launch, we
reached two kilometers

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with our fuel, where as with traditional,

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we reached about a kilometer and 3/4,

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and then we did a subsequent launch,

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where we kind of switched the rockets,

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so that you had apples
to apples comparison,

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and we got even higher altitude.

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So what this means, the
hardest thing to do is

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to go directly against gravity

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when you are launching a
rocket, and so the 15% increase

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in altitude translates into
substantial increase in range

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over ballistic trajectory.

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So on average, the 1954 rockets,

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'cause that's when traditional
propellant was invented,

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traveled about 1.75 kilometers,

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and then ours traveled
just over two kilometers

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for an average of about a
differential of 873 feet

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on average.

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So, here's why this is relevant.

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So, back in the 40s, they
invented solid propellant,

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and it was basically rubber
and ammonia perchlorate,

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and the measure performance

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by something called specific impulse,

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and to the non-rocket folks,

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the best comparable we
have is miles per gallon.

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Not a perfect comparison, but effectively,

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they had a miles per gallon metric

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to measure the efficiency of the rocket.

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In '54, they added aluminum,

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which increased the
metric's specific impulse

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by 12 seconds, so it's
a measurement of time,

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for 12 seconds.

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That was enough

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to make the previous
stuff completely obsolete.

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So, what we can do from the launch,

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is we can extrapolate what's the increase

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in specific impulse based
on our altitude's reach,

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and we increase it by 20 seconds.

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So, it's the most significant
increase in rocket performance

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in really since it was invented,
and so, what this can do

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is it can go fit any form
factor, so any missile

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or firing system that
uses solid propellant

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can use our propellant
and can extend range

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or increase payload capacity.

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There's just a lot of
options that you can use

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to have a big impact on what
we're doing in the military

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and in space launch.

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So, what happened next?

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Well, rockets are expensive,
and so we're pretty much

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on the hunt to get money
to pay for more rockets

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'cause even though the
$125,000 that we got was great

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to help for that launch, we
spent more than that just

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on a hobby rocket launch.

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So we had to look for
money in other places.

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So, there's a program called

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Joint Enhanced Munitions Technology.

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That's a joint army navy air force program

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that we were introduced to.

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They have awarded us $2.1 million

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to do beyond minimum viable
product, 'cause what you saw

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in the launch was a
minimum viable product,

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so these were things like
how does it age over time.

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You know, a lot of these
scientific questions

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that we need to answer.

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Luckily, that's been funded.

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So, the rapid reaction technology office

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is throwing in an
additional million dollars

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to help us pay for a number
of tests, which is great.

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A million dollars is a lot
of money to do stuff with.

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The air force has awarded us two SBIRs:

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one for any of the companies that are new.

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It's this open source
SBIR for, through afwerx.

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I highly recommend it.

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It has opened the door for
us to go pitch in November

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to, in space pitch day, where we will try

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to get another three million dollars,

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to do further testing.

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So, and we just were selected
for the X Tech Search,

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dual use, SBIR where we
will test our additive

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in a solid fuel ram jet.

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So, we're getting both the booster side

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and the air breathing side
we can have an impact on.

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3.5 million, really,
all of it came together

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since we won X Tech in March,
and it's been a big point

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of validation, so anybody
that can use that as a point

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of validation, it helped
us get a lot of mileage.

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So, we also secure the
funding to build a facility

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'cause rockets are expensive

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and facilities are expensive,
a big barrier to entry,

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but we've secured enough
money to build a facility

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to do rapid RND, which we
will start construction on

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in the coming months.

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Okay, so this is what
happens really next for us,

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and we wanna scale this stuff up.

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So, the first step is
that Gemtech 2.1 million,

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aging, studies, you know,
mechanical properties,

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typical things like that.

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After that, we wanna
launch it in a big rocket.

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So a tactical platform,
from a hobby rocket

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to a tactical platform,
and we're actively working

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with key offices to do that.

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Once we have a tactical
platform of a six or seven,

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then we can proliferate

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into actually impacting
actual programs on record,

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which is what we all want to
achieve when we're working

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with the government.

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So, that is the end,
so I'm well under time,

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but I wanted to keep
it open for questions,

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particularly young companies
are not, or really anyone.

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All right, I'm gonna get off
the stage as fast as I can,

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so if nobody has a question.

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Yes sir.

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- What does that performance increase

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in the rocket propellant translate

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to for range for like, cruise missiles,

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or for up and coming
platforms out there right now.

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- [Adranos] Yeah, it's
application specific,

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but we're seeing upwards
towards a 40% increase in range

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just by switching out the propellant,

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one powder for another.

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Yes sir.

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- I'm just curious, after
you won X Tech Search,

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did you know exactly who to go talk to

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within the government

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or were they kind of holding your hand

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to say you should go talk
to this person, this person,

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this person, and this organization.

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- Oh man, I wish that was how it worked.

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So, I think the most difficult thing now,

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is army's a complex organization.

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Lockheed Martin's a complex organization,

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and when you're firing a missile,

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there's like a thousand different
people that are involved.

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And so, the biggest challenge that we had

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was actually finding the right people

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within each organization,

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and really the best way
we did that was to go

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to conferences, and like,
just talk to people.

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We'd go to, one of our best contacts,

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we were at an air force event
in DC a couple weeks back,

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and Lockheed stands there, and we're like,

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"who's your tactical missile guy?"

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And they're like, "well,
here's this guy," and he said,

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"no, we're actually not here.

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"We're down at Quantico,
but the conference is going

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"on right now."

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So, what do we do?

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We hopped in our car and went down

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to Quantico that same
day, and met the contact

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that we needed to get an invite
to go and present to them,

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so it's really just bugging
everybody that we know to say,

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"who's the missile guy?"

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And there's still groups that
we haven't really gotten to,

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but no, we had...

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These poor guys, and
we've been on the road

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pretty much every week
for the past eight weeks

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to try and make some
of these things happen,

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so, good question though.

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Kay, yes.

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- Hi, following on from that question.

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So, the X Tech Search gave you funding.

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Was there anything other
than that, that came out

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of getting that funding, say
through facilitating contacts,

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'cause what I just heard you say, I think,

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was that you got the money,

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but then contacts were not facilitated.

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You've got to go out
and get them yourselves?

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- So, not entirely true.

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So, what I understood his question to be

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was there's somebody
holding our hand saying,

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this is the right person.
That's the right person,

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but the X Tech group was who
facilitated the introduction

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to RRTO, which is them
putting up a million dollars.

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So, the specific, one of the challenges is

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that the groups are so complex.

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Like, even the facilitators
of this don't know,

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like who's the right guy
doing X missiles system.

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So, they're gonna get you to a point,

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but then you kinda gotta
take it the rest of the way.

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And they, I mean, to their credit,

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we were trying to get introductions

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to a specific location, and
they tried and they tried,

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and then that location
just totally pushed us off.

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I think one of the
challenges that we have,

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the air force is moving past us,

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but the army's still
working through it is that,

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creating this culture
where companies can go

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and actually interact with the customer,

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and say, like, how do
we solve your problems?

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Like, we're not here.

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This isn't a sales pitch.

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Like, we don't want you to write a check,

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but how do you, what problems do you have,

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and how can we solve them?

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And so for us, one of the
things that we learned is

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that we thought range
was everything, right?

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Because that's the long
range precision fires,

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and that's the army's main
focus, but as we got talking

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to pilots in the air force,
they didn't care about range.

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They cared about speed and target.

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Well, we never would've known
that if we couldn't talk

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to pilots.

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And so, that's one thing
that the X Tech group tried

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to make happen for us,
but you know, we had to

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in some respects, we didn't get that done,

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so, yeah.

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Okay.

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Awesome, thanks so much guys.

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(applause)