The Defense Tech Startup YC Kicked Out of a Meeting is Now Arming America | E2280
April 25, 2026 · 59 min
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Show notes
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
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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:
Are all these layoffs really AI's fault?
Why laid off people should start their own companies
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
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!
Will Edwards of Firehawk joins the show
What are Solid Rocket Motors (SRMs)?
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.
Who are Firehawk's customers?
Reimagining and reinventing the US military
How do missiles fit into the military's operations?
Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!
What's next on the roadmap for Firehawk?
How to make propellant (with easy to find ingredients)
A cheape