Inside In-Q-Tel: Investing in America’s Cyber Future with Katie Gray

Show Notes

Katie Gray, a senior partner at In-Q-Tel, joins host Frank Cilluffo to pull back the curtain on the venture firm’s role in advancing U.S. national security through tech innovation. As head of In-Q-Tel’s cyber investment practice, Gray offers rare insight into the organization’s dual-use investment model, its evolving priorities, and the technologies it believes will define the next 25 years. They discuss how In-Q-Tel identifies emerging threats, evaluates startups, and bridges the gap between cutting-edge technology and urgent government needs. Topics include AI, quantum, cyber-physical security, and the vulnerabilities shaping today’s threat landscape. The conversation also highlights In-Q-Tel’s unique role as both strategic investor and national security partner.

Main Topics Covered

• In-Q-Tel’s origin, mission, and evolution beyond the intelligence community
• How In-Q-Tel identifies promising startups and matches them with agency needs
• The shifting threat landscape in cyber, including Volt Typhoon and AI-driven attacks
• Investment priorities in space, supply chain security, and operational technology
• The dual-use tech model and building resilience at machine speed
• A case study: VulnCheck and its impact across multiple government agencies

Key Quotes

“We are dramatically under invested as a nation in our cyber defenses… as we look to the future conflict, we’re so vulnerable from a cybersecurity standpoint. ” – Katie Gray

“[For] every dollar that In-Q-Tel invests in a company, there’s $40 that are invested from the private sector.” – Katie Gray

“One of the things we do look for is to try and fund dual-use technology that has strong commercial [and] government market.” – Katie Gray

“We’re going to be in a world where 80-90% of the code that is being written is being written by AI systems. – Katie Gray

“We can’t be responding to [AI-driven cyber attacks] at human speed. We have to be responding to that at machine speed.” – Katie Gray

Relevant Links and Resources

• https://www.iqt.org/mission
• https://mccraryinstitute.com/time-to-designate-space-systems-as-critical-infrastructure/

Guest Bio
Katie Gray is a senior partner at In-Q-Tel, where she leads the organization’s cyber investment practice and supports mission-driven innovation across the U.S. national security landscape. She previously spent more than a decade in software product management, leading development for mobile devices at Palm, HP, and Plastic Logic.

Transcript

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Katie Gray [00:00:00]: We are dramatically under invested as a nation in our cyber defenses. We have some great government agencies that are really focused on kind of information sharing, threat sharing, public private partnership, et cetera, but I don’t know that we have the capabilities to respond as quickly as we need to.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:00:21]: Welcome to CyberFocus from the McCrary Institute where we explore the people and ideas shaping and defending our digital world. I’m your host, Frank Cilluffo and this week I have the privilege to sit down with Katie Gray. Katie is a senior partner at In-Q-Tel where she is involved in all the investments that In-Q-Tel is making in support of the government and really excited to sit down. There’s a lot of mystery and mystique around In-Q-Tel. Let me just say they deliver and they deliver well. So, Katie, it’s a privilege to sit down with you today.

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Katie Gray [00:00:52]: I’m thrilled to be here. Thank you.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:00:54]: So I thought we’d start with, so there is a lot of mystery around In-Q-Tel, but in terms of what the core mission is, where you are today from where you started, you haven’t been there for 26 years, but you have been there 14, 15 years, so quite some time. Why don’t you help our viewers and listeners understand In-Q-Tel’s mission, core competencies and where you’re going?

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Katie Gray [00:01:17]: Yeah, absolutely. So as you said, In-Q-Tel was created about 25, 26 years ago, 1999, and was set up as an independent, not for profit investor to help bring new technology, innovative technology, out of the startup sector into US government. So, you know, we have been sort of delivering on that mission, I would say, for the past 25 years. Really what our core value is, is we are a great bridge between the government, the private sector and the VC community. Really looking at the most innovative technology that is happening kind of, you know, initially it was set up really because Silicon Valley and D.C. were not really well connected. Over the years, In-Q-Tel has actually made investments in 35 states and 20 countries. So it’s much more than just Silicon Valley.

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Katie Gray [00:02:08]: But really the fundamental idea was there’s all this innovation that was happening in the startup ecosystem that was very hard for the government to get access to. And there were these really hard problems, you know, in the government where new capabilities kind of coming out of that sector would be, would be helpful.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:02:26]: So some FOMO. Some legitimate FOMO as well, right?

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Katie Gray [00:02:29]: Maybe some FOMO, but I think really more it was about really tapping into the ingenuity and tapping into the innovation in our country and really being able to sort of leverage what the commercial sector was getting. And you know, you think about the commercial sector and sort of the, the speed of development, the speed of you know, iterating and building new technology. I think that was just sort of an ethos that was, was desired by the government to also be able to, to work on that kind of timescale.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:02:55]: And to get some of the cutting edge technologies into the hands of our first responders, first preventers, those on the front lines, our war fighter, our intelligence officers, which, which is a, so your, the definition of success isn’t necessarily or isn’t exclusively a highly successful outcome financially, right?

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Katie Gray [00:03:20]: Yeah. So again, you know, kind of emphasizing we are not for profit. So we are, you know, in sort of Silicon Valley province that would be a strategic investor as opposed to a financial investor. And what we’re really looking at is the technology fit. Are we bringing some new kind of game changing technology to the government partners? At the same time we’re looking for companies that will be successful and that’s not because we’re necessarily looking for that financial success, but because those will be ongoing concerns. Every dollar that In-Q-Tel invests in a company, there’s $40 that are invested from the private sector. So you know, we co invest with about two, 2,000 or so different, you know, venture investors, private equity, etc. And oftentimes In-Q-Tel’s involvement is sort of a stamp of approval on the technology on kind of some of the, you know, maybe some of the markets and use cases that might be available to the company.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:04:14]: And when you think of defense tech, you can’t have that conversation without discussing Palantir, Anduril. Both were original In-Q-Tel investments, right? And many others.

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Katie Gray [00:04:24]: Yeah. Palantir was one of, one of the earlier ones.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:04:26]: The OD investment. Exactly, exactly. And how does the requirement setting process and as much as we can discuss here, how does that look?

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Katie Gray [00:04:35]: You know, when we think about what companies and what technologies we want to invest in, there is a process sort of every year where we’re sitting down with all of the agencies that we work with. And just as an aside, I will, maybe because you asked about sort of the change of In-Q-Tel over time, so really primarily we were focused on the intelligence community when In-Q-Tel was stood up. And increasingly we’re working kind of across the government, so more across the Department of War and the civilian DHS, other agencies, et cetera. But in any case, we sit down every year with a problem set, sort of a formal kind of requirements, types of meetings. Most of In-Q-Tel is cleared. So we have a lot of folks in our Tysons office that spend a lot of time in the building with different constituents and really kind of end user groups to understand what their environments are, what their requirements are. So we’re typically trying to invest in areas where we know that there are capabilities desired and we’re trying to bring sort of like game changing technology again to, you know, to deliver on some of those capabilities.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:05:44]: So it’s not just blue sky, it’s really grounded in the needs and the requirements of your various customers inside government. Right?

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Katie Gray [00:05:51]: Yeah, I would say that is our number one criteria when we make an investment is do we see an opportunity again for the spring new capabilities? And it’s not 100%. I would say that maybe 20%, I’m kind of making up that number. But 20% of the investments that we do are not necessarily tied to a specific sort of demonstrated or articulated need. We do do some things that we consider them to be kind of either over the horizon, meaning we see trends that are happening in the commercial sector, but maybe they haven’t necessarily kind of hit the government’s kind of requirements setting process yet. A good example of that was cloud, where we did a lot of investing in cloud technology before our government partners were really necessarily thinking…

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Frank Cilluffo [00:06:36]: Fully recognized.

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Katie Gray [00:06:37]: And same with AI I would say. So maybe 20% are kind of these over the horizon.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:06:44]: So 20%, that’s a good, so the 80/20, yeah, that’s a good, that’s a good mix. And before, and I do want to talk about what we see coming now over the horizon in a second, but any other thoughts in terms of what separates you from a traditional venture capitalist, just so our viewers and listeners can understand?

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Katie Gray [00:07:02]: Yeah. And so I think another big piece of it is In-Q-Tel is this concept called a work program. So when we are investing in companies, again, it’s not just a financial investment. In many of the cases we have an end customer who’s kind of acting as a design partner to the portfolio company, to the startup. There’s, again, they have a specific need and requirement. Our goal is to find the best company that fits that need and requirement, that is excited about working with the government, that has the most cutting edge technology. So typically when we’re, when we’re investing in a company, we’ll talk to, you know, a dozen companies or you know, however many companies are kind of in that market and select the one that we think is really the best fit.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:07:50]: Awesome. I mean there is a, it’s a cool job, it’s a cool organization. And the Q does come from James Bond’s Q. Right?

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Katie Gray [00:07:58]: That’s right.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:07:59]: Who wouldn’t want to work at a place like that? What are the current sort of over the horizon technologies that you are most interested in right now?

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Katie Gray [00:08:09]: Yeah, absolutely. So I lead our cyber investment practice so I am very focused on the cyber side of things. Side of things In-Q-Tel as a whole again, you know, looking very much for technology that, that forwards the missions of the national security community. So AI, you know, can’t do any podcasts now without some mention of AI which I’m sure we’ll get into and talk more. Quantum, energy, microelectronics, you know, space, commercial space. So we’re, we’re really investing across a very wide range of technology.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:08:44]: And how they’re all converging, right? That, that’s what I find sort of mind boggling is physical cyber, space transcends air, land, sea, cyber, cyber transcends air, land, sea, space. It’s all kind of coming together. EWIW, all these issues are sort of merging and how we maximize that is is going to take some time and some effort and probably some scar tissue. But, and do you have that fail but fail fast sort of mantra at In-Q-Tel or can you not afford to fail?

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Katie Gray [00:09:20]: That’s a great question. I had mentioned a little bit the work program. So just to like expand on that a little bit more. The idea behind that is that we actually have the companies developing some additional sort of like enhancements, features to the product that then gets piloted by that particular sort of sponsoring customer, sponsoring agency. So there is that concept of being able to actually put it into practice, try it out. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, that’s okay also. I think we’re probably more risk averse than your traditional venture investor.

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Katie Gray [00:09:55]: That’s a whole nother topic I’m happy to talk about around how those work and kind of, you know, they expect a lot of failure. And I don’t think that In-Q-Tel has the same risk appetite as that. But we are able, you know, when we’re doing these enhanced products and being able to like really test them out quickly within, within the agencies. We actually, out of like In-Q-Tel’s investments, we have about 500 technologies that we have invested in that have made their way into various missions and you know, sort of use cases. Yeah. So it’s, we feel like that’s a really good rate in terms of like the number of investments that we make. But, but you know, there’s always risk involved with startups.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:10:35]: And I would say maybe more risk adverse than traditional VC, but also a higher risk tolerance than traditional government contracting. Right? So it’s sort of in that happy sweet spot there. What makes sort of an ideal candidate for In-Q-Tel to invest in?

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Katie Gray [00:10:53]: So I would look at that a couple of different ways. I think I already mentioned one which is the number one thing we’re looking for is, is this a technology that is going to bring some game changing new capability to our government partners? And so we actually have a very deep technical team which is also unusual for an investor and sort of sets In-Q-Tel apart. We have a very deep technical team that you know, again as we’re looking kind of across a specific domain really can be able to differentiate between, you know, this technology and that technology that sort of, you know, to the layman all sound the same. So I think there’s an aspect of like really being able to kind of sift through.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:11:35]: Where it matters. Right?

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Katie Gray [00:11:35]: Yeah.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:11:35]: People die if you’re wrong.

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Katie Gray [00:11:37]: Exactly. Yeah. So yeah. So be able to kind of like cut through the noise and find the technology. And then the other side of it is, you know, we are, again, we’re wanting to invest in companies that are also going to attract top tier venture investors as well. And so we are looking at some of the same things that they’re looking at, like who’s the team behind this, you know, what is their background, what have, what successes have they had? Do we think that they’re credible in building this product for this market? What is the market? Right? Like is it a big enough market to sustain a venture investor coming in to invest in a market? That’s not always required for us. Like we can do things that are maybe a little bit like smaller markets or more niche markets, but that tends to be important.

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Katie Gray [00:12:20]: And then the third is the technology, and are they building a product that we think is going to have broad applicability? Because one of the things that we do look for is to try and fund dual use technology that has strong commercial market as well as the government market.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:12:36]: Which is great. And do you also look sort of at a matrix where maybe we’re falling behind say China or others to sort of look that these are areas we need US investments in?

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Katie Gray [00:12:49]: Yes. Yeah. And so that is, that’s actually kind of a new initiative at In-Q-Tel. So traditionally or historically we’ve really, we’ve really been investing kind of in, in an area where there will be a government user of the technology. Right? But not all of the critical technologies that we’re thinking about necessarily are going to have a customer in the government, but they’re still really, really important for our national security.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:13:13]:

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And our economic security.

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Katie Gray [00:13:15]: Right, and our economic. Exactly, yeah. And so we are also making investments in strategic areas that are important for national security. And those include things like quantum, energy, like microelectronics. It’s not necessarily that we’re going to have a customer for an AI chip, but it’s imperative that we be producing those in the US and that we’d be funding US companies to develop this type of technology.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:13:43]: Some of those are races we simply cannot afford to lose. Quantum and a post quantum environment. Yeah, we lose that one game over in, in a traditional sense. And obviously in AI, the application of that becomes so significant. So I’m happy, happy to hear that. Let’s talk a little bit about cyber, since you are…

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Katie Gray [00:14:07]: My favorite topic.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:14:08]: You’re leading a lot of those efforts and, and sort of, how do you see that strategy, has it changed? I mean, obviously technology’s changed, but how do you see that evolution in terms of In-Q-Tel’s investment in the space?

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Katie Gray [00:14:22]: Yeah, so cyber has been an area where we have invested from the very beginning. We were one of the first investors in FireEye, for example.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:14:29]: I did not know that.

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Katie Gray [00:14:30]: Yeah, yeah.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:14:31]: Wow, boom.

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Katie Gray [00:14:32]: And so, you know, it’s been an area we’ve been really focused on for a long time. I think, you know, some of the geopolitics have really shifted some of the ways we’re thinking about, about cyber. So, you know, some of the geopolitics and also just like really fundamental technology changes. But you know, obviously looking at, you know, the, the increasing capability of China, things like the Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, which really are threats to our critical infrastructure and again to our national security. Things like the, the war in Ukraine, which has really brought to the surface the importance of, you know, our, our allies and also of national resilience really when it comes to cyber and being able to, you know, increase the, the resilience of our critical infrastructure, but also just of the data and systems of the country.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:15:26]: And when you think about it, you used to treat cyber as its own island, but you cannot divorce cyber from geopolitics. And quite honestly, any form of conflict is going to have a cyber dimension to it, whether it’s a collection purpose or an attack or you name it. So I think trying to get your arms around that is hard but, but essential. What about supply chain? What about operational technology? Are these areas you’re looking into as well?

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Katie Gray [00:15:54]: Yes, very much. So, I think supply chain In-Q-Tel is looking at broadly across supply chain because obviously that, you know, that’s very important in terms of, from a hardware and software perspective, where components are made, where products are made. From the cyber side of things, we’ve spent a lot of time in software supply chain security, both because if you think about just how much software is developed using open source today and open source is developed globally and it’s, you know, there’s a lot of vulnerability, a lot of potential malicious actors who could use open source sort of as a vector, as a vector in. So we’ve made a number of investments in kind of the supply chain security side of things.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:16:39]: And just getting visibility across our supply chains is really hard. So that alone is a massive challenge. But to your point, with open source and I might add firmware as well, right?

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Katie Gray [00:16:51]: And firmware for sure. Yeah. And you mentioned operational technology where I think firmware is also important. You know, that’s a really, really hard area to invest in and it’s a really, you know, challenging areas we all know to secure just because of kind of the legacy technology that’s, you know, across a lot of our critical infrastructure operational technology. But we think it’s a really, it could not be a more critical area.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:17:18]: From a kinetic impact.

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Katie Gray [00:17:19]: Exactly.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:17:20]: Consequence it is. And, and they’re all being netted through IoT Types of devices and, and the like. But it’s a 40 year technology sometimes.

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Katie Gray [00:17:29]: Yeah, exactly.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:17:30]: And these run some of the most important functions of our economy and country and the like. So I do hope you double down there. What do you think some of the biggest gaps are in current cyber funding?

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Katie Gray [00:17:41]: You know, I personally think that we are dramatically under invested as a nation in our cyber defenses. You know, I think as we look kind of…

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Frank Cilluffo [00:17:51]: I would agree with that, so footstomp here.

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Katie Gray [00:17:54]: I mean, yeah, as we sort of look to the future conflict, we’re so vulnerable from a cybersecurity standpoint. You know, 85% of our critical infrastructure is private sector owned. We have some great government agencies that are really focused on kind of information sharing, threat sharing, public private partnership, et cetera. But I don’t know that we have, you know, the capabilities to respond as quickly as we need to. And we also, I think need to focus a lot more kind of on the resilience side of things, that if things do go down, they are going to go down, we got to get back up really quickly. Yeah, but you know, I think generally areas that we see gaps and we think are really interesting, obviously AI is changing everything. So if you want to go there…

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Frank Cilluffo [00:18:40]: Let’s go there. Let’s go there. Yeah.

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Katie Gray [00:18:41]: Yeah, let’s go there. Yeah, so, you know, I just think like the idea of software being generated by AI, like that is going to be a complete game changer. Right? We were talking about software supply chain security, and all of a sudden, you know, we’re going to be in a, in a world where 80, 90% of the code that is being written is being written by AI systems. Right? So that’s going to be just a really interesting area to be paying attention to. AI systems themselves…

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Frank Cilluffo [00:19:11]: Securing AI itself.

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Katie Gray [00:19:12]: Like securing AI itself is going to be, you know, is certainly challenging. There’s a lot of attention being focused on that. So I think we’re in a good position in terms of securing AI systems. But it’s an area where like, things are just moving so fast. You know, how do you build for something that like the underlying technology is just moving so quickly that, you know, every new iteration sort of is going to take securing it and understanding it all over again.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:19:39]: And I think that’s happening.

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Katie Gray [00:19:41]: It is. And we’re investing a lot in sort of like the explainability and security of AI.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:19:48]: Great.

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Katie Gray [00:19:50]: One other thing I’ll mention, like, in terms of gaps is, and it gets back to kind of like our ability to like respond to things very, very quickly. So when we think about AI, we also think about AI for cybersecurity because we know that adversaries are already starting to use AI to do reconnaissance, you know, to develop new malware, to, you know, to, to attack systems. And we, we can’t be responding to that at human speed. We have to be responding to that at machine speed.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:20:21]: Exactly. You know, we’ve had a number of guests and I, I know it’s an unfair straw man almost, but does AI benefit red or blue, the attacker, the defender? Almost every government official will point to the attacker because they can’t afford one bad day. Almost every CISO or the like that we’ve had said it benefits the blue. The truth is it benefits both. Right? It’s a double edged sword. But at the end of the day, if we’re not leaning forward in this, we are going to be overtaken by events. And that’s something that has to constantly, constantly change.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:20:57]: And I’d be curious about space. Is that, and maybe undersea if you want to go there, but are those two areas that, I think are all merging, but I’d be curious what your thoughts are.

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Katie Gray [00:21:09]: Yeah, I mean I think what you’re saying in part is that like, I mean I’m going to go back to cybersecurity again, but cybersecurity, everything is connected. Right, yeah. Everything, like everything is connected. We have more and more software defined everything, software based space systems, you know, weapon systems, etc. So I, absolutely we’re very, very interested in the cybersecurity of space systems. And there’s a few areas. One is like the secure communication links, I think that’s an area that we think is very important.

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Katie Gray [00:21:42]: And then the security kind of, of those like assets that are being put into space like as, as the kind of underlying technology gets more commoditized and you know, maybe like, part of the reason people haven’t focused as much on it is because they’re very bespoke and you know, sort of exquisite systems that it’s sort of the security by obscurity. Like, no one knows what we’d put in there, so how are they going to, how are they going to hack it? But as things get more interconnected and kind of more commoditized on the, the infrastructure sort of system level, I think that’s going to become more important.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:22:18]: Especially as commercial space takes a more and more prominent role as it is. So I mean we recently had Tory Bruno on talking about sort of UAL and national security launch, and what he was focused on 10 years ago versus today is night and day, just because launch, capacity, everything else has changed so dramatically.

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Katie Gray [00:22:42]: Yeah. I do think it’s an area where, again, I think a lot of people haven’t really accepted or really given enough thought to the security of space systems. And you know, it’s an area that we have spent a lot of time thinking about, and there are, you know, there are a few companies that are in that area. Like you know, we’re thinking about it from the standpoint of like where can we find commercial technology or, you know, startups focused on it? But I think that the buy, the buyers aren’t absolutely there yet. And in some ways maybe it’s going to have to be kind of in the contracts that the security, you know, that the security needs to be a piece of it.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:23:19]: And whether it’s assured PNT and all these issues, one thing that I’m not going to put you on the spot, but we did a long report looking at the need to designate space as a critical infrastructure sector.

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Katie Gray [00:23:31]: Right.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:23:31]: The fact that it hasn’t been to me is just sort of missing the boat.

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Katie Gray [00:23:36]: Yes.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:23:37]: I’m not going to put you on the spot.

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Katie Gray [00:23:38]: It feels that way. It certainly feels critical.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:23:40]: Yeah. It is as critical as critical can be critical. And whether you can move people from emission insurance, deploy forces, project power, you can’t do it without space being secure. And clearly our adversaries in public reporting are investing very heavily, not only in ASATs but also more conventional means to stymie our capabilities in space. So I do think that’s a big, big area that we are near and dear, near and dear to us. But I’d also be curious any, any examples you can talk about where In-Q-Tel has had a demonstrated capability and impact in cyber.

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Katie Gray [00:24:22]: Yeah, there’s a lot I can’t talk about.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:24:25]: I know. Which is the cool stuff, which is what makes it cool.

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Katie Gray [00:24:28]: Right, right, exactly. But no, we’ve got a lot of just incredible companies that we have invested in across time, and maybe I’ll mention one of them. It’s a, it’s a fairly early stage company called VulnCheck. We invested in them in 2022.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:24:46]: Okay.

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Katie Gray [00:24:47]: We did this work program, right, so we talked about sort of the, we’ve got these kind of government sponsors who are acting as design partners with the company. The company builds, has built out sort of a very thorough database of known, or, vulnerabilities, like much, much more expansive kind of than the CVE database in terms of like speed of getting things in there and kind of the breadth of what’s in there, and also has built out a big database of known vulnerability, of known exploits. So, you know, being able to look at, right, exactly match the two up.

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Katie Gray [00:25:21]: And they did a work program for two different In-Q-Tel government partners, has been, you know, acquired by, you know, even more than that. You know, three or four agencies have actually now ended up, you know, working with them to kind of enhance.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:25:36]: Sort of a shared services. That saves the taxpayer a lot of money. Right?

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Katie Gray [00:25:39]: That’s actually a really, really good point is that there is sort of this leverage. And, and again, this company, you know, has gotten millions of dollars from private sector investors also. Right? So they’re being funded by mostly the private sector. I mean, In-Q-Tel, in the grand scheme of things, our dollar amount is small that we’re giving.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:25:57]: But it was an early mover that gave it credibility. Right?

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Katie Gray [00:25:59]: Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And we invested in the company when it was really just a couple of people, and you know, they now have raised a couple rounds of funding, are doing great both in the commercial sector and in the private sector and the public sector. So it’s a, it’s a really, yeah, has, has made a big impact on a lot of behind the scenes, maybe, kind of security missions in terms of like really being able to understand vulnerabilities and sort of the exploits that are happening out in the wild.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:26:30]: And you sort of mentioned a couple of people. When you look at sort of your investment thesis, do you sometimes bet on the people because you know they’ve done cool stuff or they’re committed to the mission so fully, or is it always about the technology, or is it a combination of both?

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Katie Gray [00:26:51]: Yeah, it’s a combination. In this case, you know, we were, technology is super interesting. Also a repeat entrepreneur who has had successful companies in the past and really is like, could not be more of a domain expert in, you know, in this particular area. As In-Q-Tel has been around and investing for a while. We have had a lot of, you know, repeat founders who have invested, who have built companies, ended up selling them or going public and then started new companies. And so that’s kind of exciting to sort of, you know, be there kind of full circle. And then there’s a lot of like alumni. So, you know, there’s a company that we are recently working with that is still in stealth mode right now, but a bunch of people who are former Palantir, you know, who are doing some things in, in the cyber domain as well.

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Katie Gray [00:27:43]: So, you know, I think, yeah, so it’s, it’s, people at earliest, earliest stages, the people is almost the most important thing you can be betting on.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:27:51]: So similar to a venture capital, traditional venture capital investment as well. But you also have the government defining some of the requirements and needs and it’s matching. You’re a bit of a matchmaker in that respect as well. What about sort of biotechnology and, and sort of where that fits into all of this? Because that too has a cyber. I, I can’t think of any discipline that doesn’t have a cyber twist to it anymore.

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Katie Gray [00:28:19]: Yeah, that’s what I keep telling everyone.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:28:20]: Yeah, it’s true though. It is. It is.

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Katie Gray [00:28:23]: On the biotech side, I would say we haven’t really done anything in cybersecurity on biotech. In-Q-Tel does have a team that’s looking at biotech and has made, you know, some, some really interesting investments across that area. But like, I think that, that the, the cybersecurity side of that has been not as, you know, hasn’t been a real primary focus.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:28:46]: Well, I think In-Q-Tel has an amazing story to tell. First 25, 26 years has been, I’m sure it’s had to pivot and refocus and pivot and refocus. But at the end of the day, lives have been saved, the mission has been improved. How do you make sure the next 25 years look similar?

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Katie Gray [00:29:06]: Yeah, that’s a great question. You know, it’s interesting because we were kind of talking before this how defense tech has become, you know, a really hot area or there’s just a lot of money going into defense tech right now. And I think it’s great that In-Q-Tel is, you know, continues to sort of focus on our government partners and their missions without regard to kind of, again, sort of the financial outcome that will be. And so I think that, you know, that In-Q-Tel is continuing to do kind of more, more of the same, like really focused on how can we bring new capabilities, game changing capabilities, how can we keep the country sort of ahead of, as a leader, a world leader in technology? And so I think that we like to kind of keep our eyes focused on that. In-Q-Tel is an incredibly mission driven organization. Just an incredible group of people who do come from government, who come from private sector, all, a lot of different domains. And you know, every, every day what we’re really focused on is like, how can we be the best partner and how can we, you know, bring the best technology kind of without, yeah, without regard to necessarily…

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Frank Cilluffo [00:30:32]: The finances alone. I mean, making a difference matters. Right? And the mission matters. And to wake up every day and find cool ways to enhance that and advance that, I think is, is pretty special.

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Katie Gray [00:30:45]: Yeah.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:30:46]: Katie, so as a Stanford Cardinal, an MBA from the great university, how does In-Q-Tel fit into the broader innovation and ecosystem and, honestly, the American engine that makes us unique? How do you see yourselves fitting into that entire puzzle?

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Katie Gray [00:31:05]: Yeah, yeah, actually we have sort of this whole concept of the national capital stack that goes everything from kind of basic research applied research, you know, commercialization of the research, growth, et cetera. And it’s a combination of, you know, government grants, which we all know sort of like basic science. Government grants have been a tremendous driver of innovation in this country. Everything from kind of early government grants to the DARPAs and IARPAs that are really sort of building more applied, applied types of technologies to kind of the angel investors, early stage investors, the DIUs that are helping to like, you know, sort of maybe commercialize some of those advances. In-Q-Tel kind of fits into that category where, you know, where we’re, we’re taking things that are ready to be commercialized and are being commercialized and are ready to actually, you know, be adapted for, you know, specifically for government use.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:32:08]: You know, the real secret sauce of, in my eyes, that makes the United States unique and special is innovation. It is the ability to think what is impossible to some. And quite honestly, the day that people start saying they wish they were born in Beijing or elsewhere is the day, I’m afraid. So for right now, we’ve got the best at this. And Katie, thank you for your commitment to our national security. Thank you to our, to your commitment on innovation and making sure that our country moves forward.

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Katie Gray [00:32:44]: Yeah, well, absolutely. Thank you for having me and giving me an opportunity to talk about the thing I love best.

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Frank Cilluffo [00:32:49]: Privilege to have you. Thank you, Katie. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Cyber Focus. If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing. Your ratings and reviews help us reach more listeners. Drop us a line if you have any ideas in terms of top topics, themes, or individuals you’d like for us to host. Until next time, stay safe, stay informed, and stay curious.