James Rabuck, Director of Innovation at Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., and Alexander Goldberg, Fellow for the Air Force Chief of Staff at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, spoke via Zoom on defense innovation during Dallas Startup Week 2020.

Much of the discussion focused on the Texas Military Department Joint Innovation Unit, also known as TMDx, which  Goldberg is the managing director of and Rabuck is the deputy chief innovation officer of, according to LinkedIn.

For listeners unfamiliar with the inner-workings of the Texas Military Department, Rabuck broke down the parallel leadership TMDx follows, even in an increasingly complex national security environment. 

“The Texas Military Department and National Guard make a contribution at both the state and the federal level,” Rabuck said. “Day in and day out, our chain of command is on the state with the governor. While we report to the governor, we resource through the federal government—our equipment belongs to the federal government, and it’s used by the state to prepare predominantly for that federal warfighting mission.” 

TMDx aims to bridge the gap from brainstorming to implementation for defense advancement. So far, TMDx has impacted the Texas economy by sponsoring Texas companies who have received $156 million in funding and had an overall economic impact of $413 million.

Goldberg listed their plans for making systems more effective and efficient through potential innovations.

“Three of the strategic objectives that we’re trying to execute for Texas, from the governor down, are autonomy, energy and water resiliency, and sustainability,” Goldberg said during the event. “Those are huge aspects for concern, whether they have to do with cybersecurity to our grid, electronic magnetic pulse attacks, or anything that can cause massive disruption to our daily basis and prevent our ability as first responders to be able to respond during those crises.” 

Goldberg also employed a call-to-action to the audience. For those interested in partnering, he directed them to the TMDx website for potential collaborators to drop their proposals. 

“Without sustained and predictable investment to restore readiness and modernize our military, we would lose our military advantage, resulting in a force irrelevant to the defense of our people,” Goldberg says. “Those of you who are willing to be partners in that are a critical part of our national security, just as much so as those that wear our uniform and volunteer to protect our freedoms.”

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