Joby, Dirac & Allen Control: The Future of Air, AI & Defense Tech

America’s industrial base is being rebuilt by a new generation of founders at the intersection of aerospace, AI, and defense. In this Sourcery episode, host Molly O’Shea sits down with three leaders driving the reindustrialization movement, Eric Allison (Chief Product Officer, Joby Aviation), Filip Aronshtein (CEO, Dirac), and Steve Simoni (President, Allen Control Systems)Together, their stories highlight how capital-intensive, frontier-defining companies are raising billions from elite venture funds and strategics like Toyota, Founders Fund, Coatue, Craft Ventures, 8VC, Baillie Gifford, and Uber. The conversation captures the urgency, conviction, and vision behind America’s reindustrialization — from flying cars in Dubai to AI factories in New York to autonomous defense systems in Texas.This conversation is part of Sourcery’s “Made in America” Mini-Series recorded at the Reindustrialize 2025 Summit. 1. Eric Allison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-m-allison/2. Filip Aronshtein: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fila/3. Steve Simoni: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevensimoni/4. Molly O’Shea: ⁠https://x.com/MollySOShea⁠5. Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryvc⁠Brought to you by:• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel.As a Sourcery Listener you get: 75,000 points after spending $3,000 on Brex card(s), white-glove onboarding, $5,000 in AWS credits, $2,500 in OpenAI credits, & access to $180k+ in SaaS discounts. On top of $500 toward Brex travel, $300 in cashback, plus exclusive perks (like billboards..) visit → https://brex.com/sourcery• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. Visit: https://turing.com/sourcery• Carta—Carta connects founders, investors, and limited partners through software purpose-built for private capital. Trusted by 65,000+ companies in 160+ countries, Carta’s platform of software & services lays the groundwork so you can build, invest, and scale with confidence. Visit: https://carta.com/sourcery• Kalshi—The largest prediction market and the only legal platform in the US where people can trade directly on the outcomes of future events: https://kalshi.com/sourceryFollow Sourcery for the latest updates!https://www.sourcery.vc/Chapters:(00:00) Flying Cars, AI Factories, & Defense Autonomy(00:20) Eric Allison on Joby’s U.S. manufacturing expansion(02:00) Why Joby doubled down on vertical integration(03:30) FAA certification and building the first commercial air taxi(05:00) Going public via SPAC with Reinvent Technology Partners(07:00) Joby’s proving flights in Dubai & quiet aircraft acoustics(10:00) What the consumer Joby air taxi experience will look like(14:00) Scaling a 2,000+ person company with AI and data systems(17:00) Filip Aronshtein on reindustrialization urgency in Detroit(22:00) How Dirac’s BuildOS automates work instructions(25:00) Launching BuildOS & massive inbound demand(28:30) On-the-ground state of U.S. manufacturing(34:00) Using AI & AGI in manufacturing software(40:00) Steve Simoni on founding Allen Control Systems(42:00) Building Bullfrog turrets: AI machine guns vs drone swarms(45:00) The future of defense: robot-on-robot warfare