UKRAINE FOR FOUNDERS · A TALK IN THREE PARTS
Everyone tells you not to go.
They are wrong, and the reasons they give are the same four every time. This is the talk that answers them — three parts on war, Ukraine, and the future of defense, first given privately in San Francisco to a room of defense founders and the people who fund them.
- Part I is free and plays the moment you sign up.
- From someone who has lived in Kyiv for nine years and represented fifteen defense companies there.
- No pitch inside it. The talk is the talk.
START HERE
Watch the talk
WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD
The four reasons founders stay home
Every one comes up in the talk. Every one has an answer that comes from fifteen companies on the ground rather than from a conference panel.
“There is no money in Ukraine.”
True and beside the point. You do not go to Ukraine to profit — you go to learn, and you charge as little as you can afford to. The money arrives later, through allied procurement, once your product is proven. Companies that go in trying to charge American prices get found out immediately.
“Ukraine is too corrupt.”
Fifteen companies represented, $58MM in contracts closed, and not once has anyone tried a shakedown. When a founder comes home saying Ukrainians are corrupt, it usually means they did not want his product.
“It is not the war we will fight.”
Everyone you might fight is learning there. Iran supplies and operates Shahed drones. North Korea trains inside Russia. China pulls data from every mission it can reach. Your competitors’ systems are being counter-engineered in real time.
“My investors say the risk is not worth it.”
Then you may have the wrong investors. The companies in our results section raised on the strength of Ukrainian letters of intent — one of them used a $2MM LOI to get into Y Combinator.
WHO IS SAYING IT
ALL SIX RESULTS →US-government-funded letter of request, with a €100MM+ German follow-on in development.
Submitted letters of request for an acoustic sensor company, built on frontline demand.
Raised by an air-defense interceptor company on the back of frontline letters of intent.
The Borderlands Group, founded in Kyiv on day two of the full-scale invasion. Clients are anonymised by category — we do not name companies operating in an active war. Outcomes vary by product, performance and demand; no specific outcome is guaranteed.
PART I · FREE
Why War Matters
Why war is not an aberration but a permanent feature of how power works — and what that means for anyone building in defense.
- The power law of war, and why smaller forces beat larger ones
- Energy, economics, and how nations actually pay for wars
- The Last Supper of 1993: how 51 defense primes became five
- Man versus machine, and why there is still a human in the loop
- Clausewitz, the trinity, and the nine principles
- The defense reading list
AFTER YOU WATCH
Then it stops being history
Parts II and III are the half that tells you what to actually do. They are paid, and they come with a thirty-minute call.
Why Ukraine Matters
Every reason founders are given for not going, answered — and the ten rules that separate the companies that succeed from the ones that burn money.
- “There is no money in Ukraine” and what is actually true
- The corruption objection, answered from fifteen engagements
- Why everyone you might fight is already learning there
Winning the Future
Private military companies, the return of a four-hundred-year-old security model, and who your customer will be in ten years.
- Columbus, the Dutch East India Company, and privatised force
- Why PMCs are returning, and why Ukraine will export them
- Sea power against land power: the shape of the next fight
THE SPEAKER
Samuel P.N. Cook
Graduated West Point in 2000 and served as a US Army Cavalry officer — Regimental Adjutant under H.R. McMaster at Tal Afar, then troop command during the Surge in Iraq. After two tours, the Army selected him to earn his M.A. in World History at NYU, and he taught Russian History at West Point for three years.
He has lived in Kyiv for nine years. On day two of the full-scale invasion he founded The Borderlands Group, and has spent every day since helping defense companies enter Ukraine — building deep relationships across the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, NATO, and operating units.
He has seen first-hand which companies get Ukraine right, which get it wrong, and why. This talk is what he tells them.
He travelled thirty-six hours to give this talk once, to one room — a train out of Ukraine, then a flight to California. This is that recording.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Before you sign up
What is Ukraine for Founders?
A talk in three parts by Samuel P.N. Cook on war, Ukraine, and the future of defense, first given privately in San Francisco to a room of defense-technology founders. Part I is free; Parts II and III unlock after you watch it.
What does Part I cover?
Why war is a permanent feature of how power works: the power law of war, the economics and energy behind it, the 1993 consolidation that turned 51 defense primes into five, the limits of machines without humans, and the reading list.
Is it really free?
Part I is free and plays as soon as you sign up. Parts II and III are paid, and both include a 30-minute call with a senior partner.
Who is it for?
Founders building defense and technology companies. There are separate versions of this page for investors and for government, military and policy people, because the questions each group brings are different.
START HERE
Part I is free. It plays as soon as you sign up.
The only thing it asks of you afterwards is that you decide for yourself.
Watch my talk