Crossing the Valley
Crossing the Valley
Ep. 25: Bootstrapping the Thunderdome
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Ep. 25: Bootstrapping the Thunderdome

Strike Solutions Founder & CEO Emma Przybyslawski and Director of Ops Chris Spach join us to talk about their service-to-startup journey

About Emma and Chris

Emma Przybyslawski and Chris Spach's story began on the battlefield in 2015, when then-Air Force intelligence officer Emma identified targets for pilot Chris to engage. Years later, they reunited and merged their operational expertise into Strike Solutions. Emma brings deep experience from special operations intelligence, while Chris contributes 12 years in combat air forces and operational testing. Their complementary backgrounds - Emma's vision and Chris's operational rigor - create a leadership dynamic that balances innovation with execution.

About Strike Solutions

Founded two years ago in Nevada, Strike Solutions is seeking to make sense of the IoT data explosion. Their flagship product, Thunderdome, is a multi-modular sensor fusion platform that processes spectrum data at the tactical edge. By correlating signals with video feeds for facial and license plate recognition, Thunderdome provides crucial situational awareness for operators.

Strike also recently launched Prism, a packet capture solution that helps customers identify compromises in their tech stacks. Both products demonstrate Strike's ability to rapidly develop and deploy capabilities that solve immediate operational needs.

Key Takeaways

  1. The Bootstrap Advantage: While others chase venture funding, Strike chose to build through customer revenue. This forced intentionality in development and created natural product-market fit. Their ability to reach TRL 9 deployment in conflict zones within two years is an impressive testament to their team and engineering prowess.

  2. Partnership-First Mindset: Strike rejects the "go it alone" mentality common in defense tech. By focusing on interoperability and strategic partnerships, they deliver complete capabilities rather than point solutions. This approach has accelerated adoption and opened new opportunities.

  3. Mission Solutions Matter: Product success requires more than great technology. Strike's dedicated mission solutions team ensures proper integration, training, and operational support. Their 70-30 split between product and services revenue reflects their approach.

  4. Speed Through Focus: Strike's ability to go from customer request to deployed product in two weeks (with Prism) comes from deep domain expertise and a lean, talented team. By staying small and remaining fiercely selective in their hiring, they keep the culture alive and the impact coming.

  5. Technical Integration First: Rather than pursuing top-down adoption, Strike focuses on proving value through technical integration. Their experience shows that success in defense tech requires solving not just technical challenges, but integration challenges across complex systems.

For more:

On Strike Solutions: strikesolutions.io

On Emma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmaprz/

On Chris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-%E2%80%9Cpacman%E2%80%9D-spach-4ab077111/

Discussion about this podcast

Crossing the Valley
Crossing the Valley
Few companies make it from pilot to production in the defense market. Those who do often change the industry in the process.
How do they do it? What lessons can startups take from their trials, successes, and failures? Crossing the Valley tells the stories of the trailblazers who are forging a new path for America's defense.