From Open Source to Open Skies: Why Sapphire Ventures Backed Defense Unicorns | The Pair Program Ep84

In this episode of The Pair Program, we sit down with Rob Slaughter, CEO of Defense Unicorns, and Jai Das, President, Partner, and Co-Founder at Sapphire Ventures, for a deep dive into what it takes to modernize defense software—and why a leading enterprise VC made its first-ever bet in defense tech. The conversation explores how open source is reshaping national security, what scalable government software really requires, and why contrarian investment decisions often lead to the biggest breakthroughs.

Key topics include:

• Rebuilding the U.S. military’s software backbone
• Open source as a strategic advantage in defense
• Bootstrapping to scale before taking venture capital
• Why Sapphire Ventures invested in defense for the first time
• The future of defense tech and government software innovation

About Rob Slaughter: Rob made a name for himself in the defense tech community leading a variety of software development teams within the Department of the Air Force and Department of Defense, including as director of the DOD’s DevSecOps platform team, Platform One. Now, since leaving the military, he’s CEO of Defense Unicorns, a company that delivers that same secure software development for mission-focused organizations.

About Jai Das: Jai is President, Partner, and Co-Founder at Sapphire Ventures, investing in growth-stage startups building category-defining enterprise technology. With 15+ years of experience, he has backed companies like Glean, Cohesity, ThoughtSpot, CircleCI, and Defense Unicorns, with 15+ IPOs and 20+ acquisitions across his portfolio. He is a recognized voice in AI and enterprise tech, frequently featured in top media and speaking at major industry conferences. His focus areas include AI/ML, data, security, DevOps, open source, and crypto.

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