The Startup Predicting The Next War (Backed by NATO)

Justin Lane (CEO & Co-Founder of CulturePulse) spent years in the most volatile corners of the world trying to understand one thing: why do entire societies behave the way they do? He had a PhD, a background in cognitive science, and a growing frustration with an AI industry obsessed with language models that could write like humans, but had no idea how humans actually think, decide, or act. So he built something completely different: AI that models the psychology of entire populations, not just their words.The road there was long: conflict zones used as live testing grounds, predictions that came true, the UN knocking on his door after spotting his work on Twitter, NATO DIANA backing his work, and a first investor ticket secured over what Justin thought was just a coffee meeting and more.In this episode, Justin delivers a masterclass on what it takes to turn deep research into a real business, how to know when your idea is genuinely ahead of its time versus just wrong, how to sell into institutions that move at geological speed, why European founders chronically leave money on the table when fundraising, and what the transition from academic to CEO actually costs you.Get in touch with Justin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-justin-lane/-----------------------------------------------Chapters:(00:00) Introduction(01:48) What CulturePulse Actually Does(06:47) Why Studying Real Conflict Zones Built the Product(17:31) Why LLMs Can't Do What Governments Actually Need(25:13) When to Stop Publishing and Start Building(37:53) How the Defence Detour Became the Real Business(39:16) How to Land a Government Customer with Zero Sales Team(47:46) How to Get Your First Investor Check(56:03) How to Hire People Who Won't Quit When It Gets Hard(01:06:45) How Government Procurement Actually Works(01:16:05) What NATO Diana Is Actually Worth(01:23:39) Why You Should Raise More Than You Think(01:40:08) The One Lesson for Every DefenceTech Founder-----------------------------------------------You will learn:- What it looks like to test your technology in active conflict zones- How to know if your idea is genuinely ahead of its time or just wrong- Why academic research moves too slow for the real world, and what to do about it- How to sell a technology that has no existing market- What it actually takes to go from researcher to CEO and what academia never prepares you for- How the UN became a client after finding CulturePulse on Twitter- Why European founders consistently undervalue their companies- How to raise money in Europe when the ecosystem is against risk- Why LLMs cannot model human behaviour and what actually can-----------------------------------------------Follow Martin Majercin on X:https://www.x.com/monsfrostFollow Martin Majercin on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/monsfrost/Follow CulturePulse on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/culturepulse-ai