#205: Advancing National Security through Classified Workspaces with Sean Blackman, USNA ‘07

<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“Not having a paycheck for the first time in my life and taking a jump into the unknown was scary as hell, but honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more fulfilled in my career since making that decision. I was thinking, this feels great…I’m having a blast. For the first time in my life, it opened my eyes to the fact there’s a different way of living, there’s a different way of doing things. It's been really exciting to figure this out, to figure out a new way of living and doing.”</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">- Sean Blackman</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sean Blackman (USNA ‘07) is a former F/A-18 Hornet pilot and the Co-Founder and CEO of Nooks, which provides classified-spaces-as-a-service (CSaaS) to both commercial and government customers. Sean and his team</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">believe that in order to win the great power competition of the next century, every effort must be made to accelerate technology transfer between industry and government. By lowering the barrier of entry for qualified companies to access secure facilities, Nooks plans to dramatically change the landscape of who can be competitive for classified contracts with the US government, thus speeding the pace of innovation and technology transfer.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode, we discuss:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The origin story of Nooks</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How Nooks is filling a gap in the classified marketplace</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why Nooks' target market falls outside traditional associations with the DoD</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How Sean’s transition into tech accelerated his entrepreneurial journey</span></li