Defense Tech and Physical AI Take Center Stage at StrictlyVC Los Angeles
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The Shift Toward ‘Hard Tech’ and National Security
While the last few years of venture capital have been dominated by the abstraction of Large Language Models and SaaS scalability, a distinct pivot toward the physical world is manifesting in Southern California. On June 18, the StrictlyVC Los Angeles event will convene at The Aerospace Corporation Campus in El Segundo—a location that serves as a symbolic backdrop for an evening focused on the intersection of defense technology, robotics, and the shifting priorities of the VC class.
The event comes at a critical juncture for the defense sector. For decades, the military-industrial complex was characterized by glacial procurement cycles and legacy contractors. However, a new wave of ‘hard tech’ founders is attempting to apply the speed of Silicon Valley to national security. Ethan Thornton, founder of Mach Industries, will lead a session titled “Built for a New Era of Defense Technology,” focusing on how autonomy and modern manufacturing are disrupting traditional defense acquisition. Thornton’s approach reflects a broader trend where startups are no longer just providing software overlays for old hardware, but are building the hardware itself to meet immediate geopolitical needs.
Beyond the Chatbot: The Rise of Physical AI
One of the most anticipated segments of the evening will tackle the transition from generative AI—which lives in the cloud—to ‘Physical AI,’ which interacts with the tangible environment. Delian Asparouhov of Founders Fund and Saif Khawaja of Shinkei Systems are slated to discuss how the intelligence driving AI is being ported into robotics and automation.
This movement represents a significant technical hurdle. While AI can generate a convincing essay in seconds, giving a robot the dexterity to navigate a complex physical space or perform precision manufacturing requires a different architecture of sensor fusion and real-time processing. For investors like Asparouhov, the thesis is clear: the next leap in value creation isn’t found in another productivity app, but in the ability of AI to manipulate the physical world at scale.
Filtering the AI Hype Cycle
As the initial euphoria of the AI boom settles into a more pragmatic phase, venture capitalists are grappling with the difference between ‘AI-enabled’ companies and those with genuine, long-term durability. Carter Reum, co-founder and partner at M13, will address this tension in his session, “Finding the Next Big Thing.”
Reum’s focus highlights a growing anxiety among GPs: the risk of over-investing in companies that are essentially thin wrappers around OpenAI or Anthropic APIs. The objective now is identifying ‘vertical AI’—companies that use the technology to solve deep, structural problems in specific industries rather than those chasing generic growth metrics. This shift toward durability over hype suggests that the ‘growth at all costs’ era is being replaced by a demand for sustainable moats and proprietary data sets.
The El Segundo Ecosystem
The choice of El Segundo for the event is no accident. The area has evolved into a dense cluster of aerospace and defense innovation, often referred to as the ‘beachhead’ for companies like Anduril and other defense disruptors. By gathering founders, operators, and investors in this specific geography, StrictlyVC is highlighting the growing synergy between the venture ecosystem and the federal government’s increasing openness to commercial innovation.
The evening is designed to facilitate the kind of candid, off-the-record exchange that is often lost in the noise of public podcasts and social media threads, providing a rare look at the actual risk appetite of the people funding the next generation of autonomous systems and defense infrastructure.
