Ian Cinnamon is the CEO and Co-Founder of Apex, a high-rate configurable satellite bus platform manufacturer named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025. Backed by over $500 million from the world’s best investors, Apex’s first satellite bus set a world record as the fastest cleansheet design to production spacecraft operating in space. Focused on meeting the needs of the rapidly expanding space industry and advancing critical national security missions like Golden Dome, Apex provides scalable platforms to both the commercial and government sectors. Apex's Los Angeles production facility can deliver satellite buses to customers in weeks rather than the industry standard of months or years, with the capacity to produce over 200 buses per year at full scale. Prior to his work with Apex, Ian founded Synapse, a company specializing in artificial intelligence for security and defense. Ian led the company through acquisition by Palantir. Earlier in his career, Ian co-founded Superlabs, which was sold to Zynga, where he served as Director of Product after the acquisition. Ian is a Forbes "30 Under 30" honoree and an alumnus of Y Combinator. He received his B.S. from MIT and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Nathan Mintz is the co-founder and CEO of CX2, an electronic warfare startup based in El Segundo, California. He previously founded and led Spartan Radar, which was acquired by John Deere in 2024, and Epirus, a defense technology unicorn. Prior to entrepreneurship, Nathan spent 13 years as a systems engineer at Boeing and Raytheon.

Nathan holds a BS and MS in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University and is the inventor on 10 U.S. patents. He is also an active advisor to and investor in multiple venture capital funds and early-stage technology startups.

Dr. Michael G. Smayda is founder and CEO at Fortastra Corporation. Previously, he was co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Hermeus Corporation, a venture-backed high-speed aircraft company, where he led internal product development as well as external business development, requirements generation, and congressional engagement. Prior to Hermeus, Michael spent 5 years at SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle working aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics for booster entry, descent and landing, design criteria, systems engineering, and hardware design for Falcon Heavy. Dr. Smayda has a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia and a BS in the same from Cornell University. He lives in Hermosa Beach, CA.

Nick is a general partner at Upfront Ventures. He focuses on early-stage investments in hard tech and national infrastructure sectors like advanced manufacturing and robotics, industrial automation, energy and utilities, aerospace and defense, and more. Prior to joining Upfront, Nick was at Crosscut Ventures leading seed investments. Before Crosscut, Nick was an early employee at Warby Parker, where he was the general manager of the Home Try-On business. Nick also served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Human Ventures and as an investor with the Dorm Room Fund, First Round Capital’s student-run investment fund.

Nick graduated with a degree in economics from UC Berkeley and earned his MBA from The Wharton School.