Every defense startup wants to be the next Anduril. Here's what one of its earliest backers is looking for now.

Defense tech is red hot right now, with a proposed 40% increase (nytimes.com/live/2026/04/03/us/trump-news) to the federal defense budget, Anduril doubling its valuation (techcrunch.com/2026/05/13/anduril-raises-5b-do…) to $61 billion, and a wave of startups chasing government contracts. But according to Ross Fubini, the venture investor who wrote Anduril's first check, most of them won't make it. The valley of death between a prototype contract and a real production deal is about to claim a lot of companies.

On this episode of TechCrunch'sEquity (techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity) podcast, Rebecca Bellan asks Fubini — the founder and managing partner of XYZ Venture Capital (xyz.vc), built on the Palantir alumni network and now approaching $2B AUM — what separates the survivors from the rest.

Listen to the full episode to hear:

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Why Ukraine and Iran have become live testing grounds for US defense startups, and which companies are getting in the field

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How other countries are building their own defense tech ecosystems, and what that means for where startups build and sell

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The sustainment problem nobody wants to talk about, and why autonomous logistics is the real moat

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Where Fubini is writing checks next, from AI-driven US manufacturing to government software for health and human services

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