BSV Podcast 0144: Union Technologies

Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Joe Musselman, Founder of Union Technologies, to discuss factories as a stockpile. Union Technologies is developing software-defined factories for national security manufacturing. The company is focused on increasing industrial production capacity for critical systems such as 155mm shell bodies by making factories faster to build, replicate, and operate.Timestamped Overview00:00 – Introduction and overview of Union Technologies00:50 – Joe Musselman’s family background, military service, and manufacturing roots03:00 – Bravo Victor Venture Capital’s national security thesis and the origin of Union05:00 – Why factories became the bottleneck across munitions, rare earths, nuclear, and energy systems07:30 – Transition from investor to operator and building the Union founding team09:30 – Factory-as-product model and the concept of factories as a stockpile12:00 – Union’s first factory and the decision to begin with 155mm shell bodies14:15 – Building a factory faster and at lower cost than traditional defense manufacturing models15:40 – Production goals, line throughput, and 155mm manufacturing capacity18:50 – Why 155mm rounds matter in Ukraine, Taiwan, and broader deterrence planning22:30 – Raising a large seed round and explaining industrial scale to venture investors25:00 – Financing capital-intensive hard-tech companies and building blended capital stacks27:30 – Framing the factory as a moat rather than a liability29:50 – Union’s software stack: Fabric, Faction, Overmind, and Overhaul32:30 – Embedding software inside the factory to command production, traceability, and optimization36:00 – How a Union factory differs from a traditional prime contractor facility41:00 – Lessons from standing up Factory One: teams, leadership, and culture46:00 – Mutually Assured Production and manufacturing as a deterrence doctrine49:00 – Builders as peacekeepers and the role of industrial capacity in avoiding future conflict52:50 – Closing remarks and invitation to connect with Union and Balerion This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit balerionspace.substack.com