Photo via neonriver.com
Stark has won billions in defense contracts in about 18 months, and Uwe Horstmann, CEO of Stark, and Johannes Schaback, its CTO, told Sequoia Capital's Training Data podcast that no single drone explains it.
Defense primes have spent 70 years building small numbers of expensive, exquisite systems. Stark, a European defense-tech company about two years old, designs every product for mass production from the prototype onward, and Uwe treats the factory itself as part of what deters an enemy.
"The real learning from the Ukraine-Russia war is probably not drones, no drones. It is about an innovation ecosystem. That is the actual wonder weapon."
Uwe and Johannes have grown Stark from nothing to roughly 700 people, mostly engineers, and run a large team inside Ukraine that tests their strike drones with the soldiers who fly them. Sequoia Capital, which produces the show, is one of the investors that let Stark fund its own product development.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 44 minutes of audio, 10 minutes of reading.
Here are the 10 insights that matter.
Sequoia Capital · Oct 28, 2026 · 44m · 34m saved
With Uwe Horstmann, CEO of Stark · Johannes Schaback, CTO of Stark
Key Takeaways
The lesson of the Ukraine war is the innovation ecosystem, not any one weapon, in Uwe's view
Stark designs for industrial scale from day one, under the rule that "production is deterrence"
Its factory looked "about as complex as a washing machine" to operational experts, which is the goal
The soldier who operates a system is the customer that matters, not the general who buys it
A failed Bundeswehr trial led to a round-the-clock fix in under four weeks, and Stark says it has hit its targets ever since
European procurement reform will last because Europe has no alternative, Uwe said, not because one leader pushed it
Defense contracts should carry pre-agreed surge capacity, like cloud contracts, which Uwe calls the real source of deterrence
Nobody in the West has solved this yet, in his view
1. A Four-Part Playbook
Uwe credited four things for Stark winning billions in contracts within about 18 months. Stark builds close to the battlefield, working directly with units and soldiers. It is "venture first," paying for product development with money from Sequoia and other investors rather than waiting for government research funding. Its products are designed to be usable and certifiable by NATO forces, not only technically new. And they are designed for industrial scale from the first day.
Uwe Horstmann treats Stark's manufacturing capacity as part of the weapon itself
"Factory is part of the weapon. Production is deterrence." — Uwe Horstmann
The point is that an adversary weighs how many systems a country can build and replace, not just how good each one is. That idea runs through the rest of the conversation, up to Uwe's closing argument about contracts.
