Massive Signals

Scott Davis: Selling Shovels in the Quantum Gold Rush

In this episode, we sit down with Scott Davis, CEO and co-founder of Vescent Technologies, a quantum infrastructure company selling into nearly every corner of the quantum ecosystem. Scott makes the case for why three of the four quantum computing modalities run on Vescent's photonics, how close we actually are to a "Q-Day" that could break modern encryption, and why GPS may be the more urgent vulnerability. We also get into what it actually took to move Vescent from a garage project into full-scale production, and why Colorado quietly became the country's only place-based quantum tech hub.
 
In this episode:
 
Picks, Shovels, and Photons: How a photonics side hustle became the tech most quantum computers now run on — and why Vescent bets across all four modalities. 
Is Q-Day Real?: Why commercial viability likely hits years before quantum computers can crack RSA encryption. 
The Vulnerability Nobody Talks About: How a 50-watt signal from thousands of miles up quietly runs our grid, phones, and financial trades. 
Foundations Before Rooftop Decks: Why the hardest part of deep tech isn't the invention — it's the grind to production. 
Colorado's Quantum Advantage: How the state became the only place-based quantum tech hub, and what that means for the industry's next decade.
 
Connect more with Scott Davis | Vescent
Website: https://vescent.com/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-davis-89494a7 
 
Connect more with Massive Signals
Website: https://massive.vc/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinewman 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgmandell

Vrajesh Bhavsar: Securing the Agentic Stack

In this episode, we sit down with Vrajesh Bhavsar, founder and CEO of Operant AI, a platform built to protect AI agents, cloud workloads, and MCP ecosystems at runtime. Vrajesh traces his path from Apple’s Secure Enclave to Arm’s ML business unit to the founding bet that security couldn’t scale on dashboards and human intervention alone. We cover how early design partners forced Operant’s focus, what it cost to break into cyber as an outsider, and how a Kubernetes-native foundation became the right architecture for a world that didn’t exist yet. We also get into the pricing model they figured out before the SaaS world caught up, what it meant when seven people showed up to the first enterprise demo call, and why agentic identity is the most overhyped category in AI security right now.
In this episode:
 
The Early Vision Problem: Operant started broad — it took real customer feedback to force the security focus that made everything else possible.
The Outsider Tax: Breaking into cyber without a Palo Alto or Zscaler pedigree was hard, and Vrajesh doesn’t pretend otherwise.
The Kubernetes Bet: Most enterprises weren’t sure Kubernetes would matter. Operant built their entire foundation on it anyway.
The Pricing Call: They built utility-based pricing before seat-based SaaS came under pressure — and the market caught up to them.
Seven People on the First Call: When enterprises started showing up to demos with full teams and no foot-dragging, the inflection point had arrived.
Connect more with Vrajesh Bhavsar | Operant AI
 
Website: https://www.operant.ai 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vrajeshio 
Connect more with Massive Signals
 
Website: https://massive.vc/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinewman 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgmandell

Kelly Coyne: Betting Big on Quantum

In this episode, we sit down with Kelly Coyne, investor at D4 Investments, a firm going all-in on quantum after years backing industrial robotics. Kelly shares how she went from dismissing quantum on stage at the School of Mines to making it her entire investment focus three months later. We cover why being wrong is a competitive advantage in venture, how geography determines your entire quantum thesis, and why the mega fund shift has quietly opened up a lane for smaller investors. We also get into the laser vs. fabrication cost divide, what near-term revenue actually looks like in quantum today, and why the tipping point everyone’s waiting for is already too late for early-stage investors.
 
What we cover:
The Wrong-on-Stage Reversal: Kelly dismissed quantum publicly in summer 2025 and was all-in by October. Why that kind of flip is a feature, not a flaw.
The Robotics Lesson: First mover traps, customer-first thinking, and why moving fast breaks things in hardware.
The Quantum Primer: What Q-Day actually is, why RSA encryption is the real stakes, and why quantum isn’t as new as people think.
The Mega Fund Gap: Why the shift toward large funds has created a real opening for smaller, earlier investors.
The Geography Filter: Why quantum is the most geographically locked technology Kelly has ever seen — and why it’s her first filter in any pitch.
The Near-Term Revenue Thesis: Components, sensing, timing, simulation — why she’s backing these over full-stack compute, with Vescent and Icarus as real examples.
The Laser vs. Fab Divide: Why laser-based approaches cost less to get to market — and what that means for early-stage bets.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 
Connect more with Kelly Coyne | D4 Investments
 
Website: https://www.d4investments.com/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellykcoyne  
Connect more with Massive Signals
 
Website: https://massive.vc/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinewman 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgmandell

The Ignored Frontier: How Urban Sky Is Unlocking the Stratosphere with Andrew Antonio

In this episode, we sit down with Andrew Antonio, founder and CEO of Urban Sky, the company treating the stratosphere like the final frontier it actually is. Andrew shares how a world-record skydive from 136,000 feet planted the seed, why the stratosphere has been ignored for 60 years while space and aviation absorbed all the capital, and how getting their butts kicked in the imagery market led to a defense breakthrough that changed the entire company. We cover reusable balloon economics, the one-button engineering philosophy, co-founder dynamics as a literal marriage, and why a global constellation of stratospheric balloons isn’t science fiction.
In this episode:
 
The Ignored Frontier: Why the stratosphere sits forgotten between commercial aviation and space — and why no one solved its core problems for 60 years.
Satellite in a Backpack: One person, one button, under 10 minutes — how Urban Sky reimagined stratospheric deployment from the ground up.
Getting Their Butts Kicked: Why a 2X better imagery product loses every time against five-year satellite contracts — and what it actually feels like when a market isn’t working.
The Defense Flip: When defense customers showed up and everything felt effortless — the moment Andrew knew he’d been swimming against the current.
Co-Founder as Marriage: The Biosphere 2 advice that took years to internalize — disagree hard in the room, walk out completely aligned.
The Fundraising Reality: Why the Series A was the real lift, what changed by Series B, and how Altos got to conviction on a category that didn’t exist yet.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Connect more with Andrew Antonio | Urban Sky
 
Website: https://urbansky.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewfantonio 
Connect more with Massive Signals
 
Website: https://massive.vc/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinewman 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgmandell

Deep Tech's Second Act with Aziz Gilani of Mercury Fund

In this episode, we sit down with Aziz Gilani, general partner of Houston-based Mercury Fund, which manages over $750 million focused on disruptive technology startups outside Silicon Valley. Aziz shares his journey from intern to partner, Mercury's renewed focus on deep tech, and why incumbents across industries have never been more vulnerable to disruption. We dive deep into what separates tourists from true players in frontier tech, the scars from the 2008-2010 cleantech boom, and why the convergence of software and hardware is creating the most exciting hunting ground for venture capital in decades.
In this episode:
 
The "Fresh Sheet" Era: The "cookie-cutter" SaaS playbook is dead; the new game is building net-new companies from a fresh sheet of paper. 
Hunting Brittle Incumbents: Stagnant players in defense and energy are now vulnerable to rapid, deep-tech disruption. 
The "CFO Top 5" Rule: You must solve one of a CFO's top five most urgent problems or you'll never survive the switching costs. 
No Room for Tourists: Success requires a founder’s "right to win" through deep technical moats rather than surface-level industry interest. 
The Power of Non-Consensus: The biggest winners are found in contrarian picks, not in deals where the entire partnership immediately agrees.
Connect more with Aziz Gilani | Mercury Fund
 
Website: https://mercuryfund.com/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/texasvc/ 
Connect more with Massive Signals
 
Website: https://massive.vc/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinewman 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgmandell

The Hybrid Electric Bet with Kevin Noertker of Ampaire

In this episode, we sit down with Kevin Noertker, co-founder and CEO of Ampaire, a company building hybrid electric propulsion and onboard power systems for existing aircraft. Kevin shares his path from NASA JPL to a $200M aerospace program to the lunch pitch that changed everything. We cover why Ampaire bet on retrofits over clean-sheet designs, how a Hawaiian airport killed their plug-in strategy, and what happened when a signed $10M term sheet quietly became $250K. We also get into the SPAC they walked away from, the 18 months they ran cashflow breakeven, and why the most credible path to electric aviation looks nothing like the hype.
In this episode:
 
The Customer Discovery Signal: One airline CEO's offhand question redirected Ampaire's entire product strategy. 
The Infrastructure Reality Check: A single charger install in Hawaii took nine months and killed the plug-in roadmap. 
The SPAC Inflection Point: Kevin saw the market turning before most and walked away while he still could. 
The Ghost Term Sheet: A $10M commitment became $250K — and what that taught him about founder integrity. 
The Default Alive Moment: When the raise fell through, they ran lean for 18 months and came out stronger. 
One Engine, Three Markets: The same core technology unlocks commercial, defense, and regional jet revenue — without losing focus. 
Connect more with Kevin Noertker | Ampaire
 
Website: https://www.ampaire.com/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinnoertker 
Connect more with Massive Signals
 
Website: https://massive.vc/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinewman 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgmandell

The Energy Inflection Point with Cody Simms of MCJ

In this episode, we sit down with Cody Simms, Managing Partner of MCJ Collective, an early-stage venture fund with over $115 million under management focused on climate and energy technology. Cody shares his journey from dot-com product manager to climate investor, how a podcast became the unlikely foundation for a venture fund, and why the energy transition is accelerating regardless of what’s happening in Washington. We dive deep into MCJ’s bets across fission, fusion, and software, the one founder behavior that predicts success every time, and why the climate tech conversation has quietly shifted from carbon offsets to national energy resilience.
In this episode:
 
Climate Gets a Rebrand: ESG is out — energy resilience, grid reliability, and AI power demand are the new tailwinds.
The Nuclear Moment: The technology was never the problem; project management was.
Fusion Crosses the Line: Q > 1 turned fusion from a theory into an investable thesis.
Small Fund, Big Round: Why ownership percentage isn’t the whole story in portfolio construction.
The Data Center Pivot Problem: Too many companies are chasing data center demand the same way they chased crypto.
Bet on the Founder First: Experienced operators move faster, talk straighter, and navigate complexity without hand-holding.
Connect more with Cody Simms | MCJ
 
Website: https://mcj.vc 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/codysimms 
Podcast: https://mcj.vc/media/podcast 
Connect more with Massive Signals
 
Website: https://massive.vc/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinewman 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgmandell