The Defense Tech Startup YC Kicked Out of a Meeting is Now Arming America | E2280

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Northwest Registered Agent - https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist Render - https://render.com/twist Agree - https://agree.com Ro - https://Ro.co/Twist Plaud - https://Plaud.ai/twist Today's show: The US military is running low on missiles, but now, Firehawk Aerospace is using 3D-printed solid rocket propellant to cut production costs in half and 5x U.S. output. Plus: PhD researcher Maruchi Kim just built camera-equipped earbuds that perform on par with Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and could be the next wearable AI platform hiding in plain sight. Guests Will Edwards: https://x.com/williewockets Firehawk Aerospace: https://firehawkdefense.com/ Maruchi Kim: https://x.com/maruchikim VueBuds project: https://vuebuds.cs.washington.edu/ Related Links This Week in AI: https://www.thisweekinai.ai/ "Ghost Murmur: The Heartbeat-Tracking Tech That Has Experts Questioning the Laws of Physics": https://www.military.com/feature/2026/04/18/ghost-murmur-heartbeat-tracking-tech-has-experts-questioning-laws-of-physics.html Neurometric: https://www.neurometric.ai/ Meta Ray-Bans: https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/ Hanwha Defense USA: https://www.hanwhadefenseusa.com/ Raytheon: https://www.rtx.com/ Pilatus PC-24 corporate jet: https://www.pilatus-aircraft.com/en/pc-24 PlaneSense: https://www.planesense.com/ Slopes app: https://slopesapp.com/ Speechify: https://speechify.com/ Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/ Timestamps: 0:00 Are all these layoffs really AI's fault? 8:51 Why laid off people should start their own companies 9:27 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist 13:18 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off! 15:25 Will Edwards of Firehawk joins the show 15:46 What are Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs)? 20:06 Render: Find out why 5 million developers are already using the all-in-one cloud platform, Render. Go to https://render.com/twist and apply for the Render Startup Program to get $500-$100,000 in free credits, depending on your stage and backers. 23:10 Who are Firehawk's customers? 24:25 Reimagining and reinventing the US military 28:35 How do missiles fit into the military's operations? 29:34 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life! 31:01 What's next on the roadmap for Firehawk? 31:49 How to make propellant (with easy to find ingredients) 33:13 A cheaper way to fly private 38:03 Ro.co: Ro's insurance checker will let you know if your coverage includes GLP-1s for FREE. Go to https://Ro.co/Twist for your free insurance check. 40:48 Maruchi Kim of Vuebuds joins the show! 44:35 Why are VueBuds better than meta glasses? 46:23 The biggest VueBud use cases 48:09 Jason wants to use VueBuds on the slopes 55:38 Jason's advice for angel investors: never underestimate anyone! Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp Follow Lon: X: https://x.com/lons Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis Check out all our partner offers: https://partners.launch.co/ Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis