WHO WE ARE
JT
Investor · Interviewer · Minneapolis, MN
JT runs a verified Substack Bestseller followed by thousands of investors in the emerging drone, energy, and autonomous robotics sectors. He has a background in finance with nearly a decade of experience in variable indexed annuities.
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BENNY
Investor · Interviewer · Charleston, SC
A retired commercial general contractor based in Charleston, SC, Benny has been known to travel coast to coast in search of the best organizations and leaders in which to invest. He specializes in small to mid-cap defense, drone, and drone-adjacent companies.
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PRIMARY SOURCE ACCESS
We go directly to CEOs, CFOs, and founders, not analyst reports or secondhand summaries. Long-form interviews surface nuance that headlines miss.
EXECUTION OVER HYPE
We track quarterly execution, backlog growth, revenue trajectory, partnership depth, and technology milestones. Price action alone tells us nothing.
SECTOR EXPERTISE
Defense and technology is a specialized space. We speak the language of C-UAS, ISR, BVR, UAS, TAM, asking: What is ISR? What is UUV? What is counter UAS? How do autonomous weapons systems work?
COMMUNITY TRANSPARENCY
We share our research openly, collaborate with other retail investors, and credit our sources. The edge is community, not secrecy.
SECTORS AND DEFINITIONS
Our research spans the full defense and emerging technology landscape, with depth in the following sectors:
DRONES & UAS
Unmanned aircraft built for reconnaissance, logistics, and combat support, the category most of ZHG's coverage sits inside. Ondas' Optimus platform, Volatus' commercial UAS services, and Unusual Machines' NDAA-compliant FPV components each attack a different piece of this market, from hardware to software to first-person-view components repurposed for the battlefield.
COUNTER-DRONE (C-UAS)
Technology built to detect and stop someone else's drone instead of flying your own. Ondas' Sentrycs and Iron Drone platforms use cyber takeover and autonomous interception to defeat threats, and Safe Pro's SpotlightAI has identified more than 34,000 explosive threats from operations in Ukraine. C-UAS contracts are one of the fastest-growing line items in defense budgets.
AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
Systems that operate without a person at the controls, from drone-in-a-box platforms to full command-and-control software. Ondas' Optimus and Anduril's Lattice OS take two different approaches to the same problem: getting sensors, drones, and weapons platforms to coordinate on their own.
ISR & SURVEILLANCE
Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance: the equipment that lets a military spot a threat, track it, and pass that information to whoever needs to act on it. World View's stratospheric Stratollite platforms and Ondas' InsightSense ground sensors both sell into this budget, and Ondas built its Sentinel division to tie these ISR layers together.
DEFENSE ELECTRONICS
The displays, optics, and imaging hardware inside modern defense systems. Kopin's microdisplays power heads-up displays and augmented reality systems for defense forces worldwide. LightPath licenses its BlackDiamond infrared glass exclusively from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
PROPULSION & POWER
Energy storage and power systems built for platforms that can't afford weight or downtime. Amprius' high-energy-density silicon anode batteries target the defense, aerospace, and electric vehicle applications where every gram in a battery matters.
AI & SOFTWARE
The software layer running underneath the hardware, from edge computing to enterprise data platforms. Palantir's Gotham and Foundry platforms serve as the AI operating system for the Department of Defense, and Lantronix's Edge AI compute sits inside other companies' drone systems as the processing backbone.
SPACE & STRATOSPHERIC
Persistent sensing from altitudes traditional aircraft can't reach. World View's Stratollite platforms handle stratospheric surveillance and communications relay, and Ondas folded them into its new Sentinel division alongside DZYNE's long-endurance ULTRA and LEAP aircraft.