EP 123 — Overmatch Ventures' Morgan Hitzig On The Founder Offset And Why America Wins By Playing Its Own Game

<p>If 85% of defense M&amp;A exits land below $100 million in enterprise value, why are so many defense tech founders raising at valuations unmoored from the fundamentals? <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-hitzig/"><u>Morgan Hitzig</u></a>, General Partner at <a href="https://www.overmatch.vc/"><u>Overmatch Ventures</u></a>, thinks the answer lies in who founders take money from and whether those investors understand budget cycles, colors of money, and what it takes to scale production.</p><p>Morgan walks Dave through how Overmatch deploys its oversubscribed $250 million fund across deep tech, defense, and space at the pre-seed to Series A stage. She introduces the &quot;Founder Offset&quot; thesis, where America&#39;s edge over China is thousands of founders nobody had to approve, and explains why supply chain single points of failure are where she sees the most urgent gaps.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Topics discussed:</strong></p><p>- Deploying a $250M fund from pre-seed to Series A</p><p>- The &quot;Founder Offset&quot; thesis against China&#39;s central planning</p><p>- Spotting &quot;forces of nature&quot; founders on a first call</p><p>- Why inflated valuations risk defense tech longevity</p><p>- Mapping single points of failure across defense supply chains</p><p>- The &quot;bring your own operator&quot; syndrome in government sales</p><p>- How the Office of Strategic Capital changes venture math</p><p>- Understanding colors of money and budget cycles</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Listen to more episodes: </strong></p><p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dib-innovators/id1720062726"><u>Apple </u></a></p><p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Z3PpCHsglA3uk2S6dCRBP"><u>Spotify </u></a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX2eBOnzz1SX0Psj6BmbdCw"><u>YouTube</u></a></p><p><a href="https://radicl.com/dib-innovators-podcast"><u>Website</u></a></p><p><br></p>