Squadra News: Wins in January, Off to Munich in February
We’re off to the races in 2026 with major news to share from across our portfolio including leadership growth and major contract awards. Consider this your go-to snapshot of what's happening this month and how to engage.
Good Morning! We’re off to the races in 2026 with major news to share from across our portfolio including leadership growth and major contract awards. February brings events coast to coast, and beyond, as the Squadra team heads to Europe. Consider this your go-to snapshot of what's happening this month and how to engage.
In this edition you will find:
📈 Big moves in portfolio news
✨ Highlights from across the network
🚀 Events and opportunities to connect
Company News to Celebrate
🛡️ Shift5 announced the appointment of Toby Magsig as President and Interim CEO, marking a major leadership milestone as the company scales its mission to modernize defense and industrial operations through data-driven insights. Co-Founder Josh Lospinoso will remain involved as founder and board member, focused on long-term vision, major product initiatives, and key strategic engagements. A former Army commander and L3Harris VP, Toby brings extensive experience in emerging technologies and enterprise-scale leadership that will advance Shift5’s mission. Read the announcement.
🐸 Primordial Labs was featured in Breaking Defense, spotlighting the company’s growing role in advancing autonomy and mission-critical AI for defense applications. The coverage highlights rising attention around Primordial’s technology as the Pentagon and industry push faster toward scalable, software-driven capabilities. Read the article here.
💥 Aurelius was awarded a contract under the $151B Missile Defense Agency SHIELD, IDIQ to advance the development and delivery of its laser weapon system. The award follows their recent testing with the 25th Infantry Division and U.S. Army Hawaii. Read more on SAM.gov.
👾 PDW announced that COO James Slider will be stepping into role of CEO while co-founder Ryan Gury will be shifting into the role of Chief Innovation Officer. The two have worked together for over a decade. Read the announcement.
🌊 Tidal Cyber was recognized as the Threat-Led Defense Company of the Year by GRC Outlook magazine. The company’s approach to turning threat intelligence into concrete security action, ensures security teams map adversary behavior to controls and frameworks, while enabling smarter prioritization based on actual threats, not checkbox compliance. Read the article here.
Network Highlights to Share
SysGit Featured at AIAA SciTech: Steve Massey, CEO of SysGit, joined Istari Digital and nTop at AIAA SciTech for a workshop where attendees from across the government and industry used code-first workflows to write and share requirements for complex hardware. The hands-on session demonstrated how to accelerate engineering for our most critical national security programs. Check out the recap.
Falcomm Podcast Feature: Edgar Garay, CEO of Falcomm, and Greg Junek, Head of Growth, were guests on Under The Banyan Tree with Sam Awrabi, for a conversation on the future of RF, chips and AI. Taking a deep dive into Falcomm's technology, they explored not only how they deliver 2x the power efficiency of existing solutions, but the power of being manufactured 100% in the U.S. Watch the interview on YouTube.
Georgetown Venture in the Capital: Squadra Managing Partner Guy Filippelli was part of a panel discussion on “Technology for the Tactical Edge.” Joined on stage by Dan Magy, co-founder and CEO of Firestorm, Adam Warmoth, Founder and CEO of Chariot Defense, and Jake Chapman, Managing Director of Marque Ventures, the conversation focused on what it takes to win in the national security ecosystem. The key, according to this group: Build real solutions for real end users to deliver transformational leaps in capability. Check out our recap on LinkedIn.
Open Roles Across the Squad
🌊Tidal Cyber is hiring a Revenue Operations Specialist to partner with sales, marketing, and operations stakeholders to diagnose bottlenecks, implement scalable process improvements, to ensure precise revenue attribution and support data-informed decisions. Locations: Remote
📝 Overwatch Imaging is hiring a Technical Communications Specialist to translate complex technical work into clear documentation, proposals, and customer-facing materials. This role will work closely with engineers and product teams to ensure messaging is accurate, consistent, and aligned with real-world operational use cases. Location: Hood River, OR
🛠️ Launchpad Build is hiring a Technician to support hands-on assembly, testing, and maintenance of advanced automation and robotics systems in a fast-paced manufacturing environment. Location: El Segundo, CA
🧑💼 Performance Drone Works (PDW) is hiring a Senior Technical Recruiter to lead full-cycle hiring for highly technical roles. This role will be embedded with engineering and leadership teams to build strong pipelines for hard-to-hire technical and mission-critical positions. Location: Denver, CO
📊 Datalogz is hiring a QA Platform Engineer to build and maintain testing frameworks that ensure the quality, performance, and reliability of its data observability platform as it scales, and collaborate closely with product and engineering teams to catch issues early and strengthen platform trust for enterprise customers. Location: Remote
Up Next this Month
🛠️ Reindustrialization in Phoenix — 2/3 & 2/4: Squadra Principal Dan Madden will be moderating a panel at Manifest West exploring America’s reindustrialization and the intersection between defense and commercial markets. He’ll be in conversation with Ted Chavis from JIATF 401, Col Nate Huston from CENTCOM, and Davey Gibian from CDAO.
🎬 “Why Scale Fails” Webinar with Instant Teams — 2/10 @ 12:00 PM EST: Join Instant Teams CXO Erica McMannes and Squadra Principal Margaret Roth for a conversation on a core principle shared by successful entrepreneurs, VCs, and CX leaders: you can’t scale what you haven’t first proven through repetition and replication. Register for the webinar.
⚠️ “The Risks Behind the Resume” Fireside Chat at Squadra HQ — 2/11 @ 5:00 PM EST: Join us for a conversation with Jen Hoar, journalist turned corporate intelligence professional, on how founders, investors, and advisors can and should evaluate the backgrounds and reputations of partners, leadership teams, and organizations before making critical decisions. This event is part of our ongoing “Building in the Beltway” series. Register to attend.
🇩🇪 Squad Goes East to the Munich Security Conference — 2/13-15: As a leading forum for international security policy, Squadra team members Dan Madden and Dominic Ventimiglia are excited to join for the first time to learn from leading experts on key foreign and security policy challenges. Headed there? Reply to this email and let us know.
🎉 10 Year Anniversary of Overwatch Imaging — 2/18 & 2/26: In 2016, Overwatch Imaging started with a vision to harness advances in AI and autonomy to deliver superhuman vision for critical missions. Today, the company’s smart sensors and software are mapping wildfires, detecting elusive vessels, and tracking threats around the globe. We’ll be marking the occasion on both coasts with events in DC and Hood River, OR. Register to join us in Hood River or in DC.
Final Look from the Field
Engineers from Squadra portfolio company PDW deliver instruction as soldiers at the Army’s National Training Center operate PDW’s C100 sUAS in support of Army’s TIC initiative and partnership with Program Management Office Small UAS. Read the full case study here.
Squadra Ventures is a venture capital firm led by founder-operators that invests in early-stage national security companies advancing the critical edge.
Grounded in the belief that success is a combination of people, product, and planning, the Squadra team provides transformational support to startup leaders in the complex dual-use technology ecosystem. By applying a growth-stage mindset at the seed stage and a commitment to building alongside entrepreneurs, Squadra empowers extraordinary teams to win and leave a lasting positive impact on the world.
You received this email because you signed up on our website, attended one of our events, or are a friend of the Squad.
Not interested? Unsubscribe below. Want more? Keep up with us on LinkedIn.
