Richard + Bliss + Dustin

Attendees: Dustin J Ross, Richard Dasher, Bliss Perry Date: April 8, 2026 Type: Partner Session

Summary

Project Progress & Structure

• Accepted to CHAN program (Stanford grant for summer work)
• Independent study with Jonathan Burke (business school professor)
• Taking RDI (Research Driven Innovation) class for protected time
• Moving from problem identification → product hypothesis → practical implementation phase

Strategic Framework: Design Thinking Process

• Stage 1: Empathize with users (compliance pain points)
• Stage 2: Define clear problem with constraints
  • Budget limitations, industry size considerations
  • Regulatory compliance vs supply chain fidelity distinction
• Stage 3: Ideation (current stage)
• Stage 4: Develop minimally viable prototype
  • Test with early market feedback
  • Iterate based on user reactions

Market Opportunity Analysis

• Regulatory compliance burden massive (ITAR export controls = 800 pages)
• Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act requires proactive proof of compliance
  • Companies must guarantee provenance to basic materials
  • Shift from reactive investigation to proactive demonstration
• Taiwan earthquake example: TSMC couldn’t answer basic supply chain questions
  • Which tier 2/3 suppliers within 50km of fabs?
  • Cascading revenue impact scenarios

Customer Prioritization Strategy

• Focus on “greed over fear” - revenue generation vs cost saving
• Primary target: Companies hungry for government contracts
  • 25% better chance of winning = significant ROI
  • Defense contractors proving clean supply chains
• Secondary opportunities:
  • Supplier discovery and optimization
  • Due diligence tool for investors (CFIUS compliance costs $300K, 6 months)
  • Innovation support (chiplet architecture transitions)

Technical Approach: Digital Twin Development

• Goal: Bloomberg terminal for global supply chain
• Jigsaw puzzle metaphor: Start with edges, build framework first
• Data acquisition strategy:
  1. Public data scraping (10K filings, multilingual)
  2. Compliance tool as data collection mechanism
  3. Build critical mass before focusing on specific use cases
• AI advantages: Lower development costs, agent-based data gathering

Funding Opportunities

• SBIR grants (Small Business Innovation Research)
  • 3% of all federal R&D budgets reserved for startups
  • Perfect stage for their current development
  • Target agencies: DARPA, DoD, Department of Commerce, NSF
  • National security angle: supply chain resilience

Data Strategy & Business Model

• Compliance as trojan horse for data acquisition
• Companies provide data in exchange for compliance automation
• Build proprietary dataset while solving immediate pain points
• Avoid Google’s advertising model - focus on direct value delivery
• Need legal protections for data obfuscation and privacy

Next Steps

• Summer focus: Map overall “puzzle shape” of semiconductor supply chain
• Research existing academic work at Stanford (digital library project, modeling in MS&E)
• Test big AI models (Gemini, Claude) for current supply chain data availability
• Schedule follow-up meeting: Thursday May 14th, 11am