Sharpening the Sword - The Conception of Fight Club International with Arnel David

<p>What does it take to build a grassroots movement inside rigid institutions like Western Armed Forces? </p><p>In this episode of Think.Fight.Learn.Repeat., we sit down with Colonel Arnel David, US Army Special Operations veteran, NATO strategist, and co-founder of Fight Club International (FCI), to trace his journey from Infantry Officer to Co-Founder.</p><p>Arnel opens up about the frustration that sparked Fight Club and a hunch that commercial-off-the-shelf games and simulations could do more. From there, we discuss what makes Fight Club fundamentally different from traditional wargaming organizations, how a rankless, volunteer-run community became a testing ground for AI, LLMs, and unconventional strategy, and why he believes the confidence to be disruptive is in short supply in the military and beyond.</p><p>We also talk about growing pains, like what happens when a grassroots idea scales faster than expected and how founders learn to lean on each other's strengths to keep the momentum going.</p>