EP 60 — Bazze’s Samuel Semwangu on How Commercial Intelligence Is Transforming Modern Warfare

Samuel Semwangu, CEO of Bazze, provides his insider perspective on the revolution happening in defense intelligence collection that most Americans aren't seeing. Bazze federates queries across dozens of commercial data vendors, delivering intelligence insights in seconds that previously took days. He also explains why the Ukraine war has become the ultimate proof point for commercial intelligence adoption and why our allies are moving faster than the US in embracing these technologies.

Samuel tells Dave his journey from spending a decade in the national security community to now at Bazze, highlighting the evolution of exclusive intelligence collection methods of the early 2000s that are now commercially available. His platform enables defense and intelligence organizations to pay only for the specific data they need rather than purchasing entire datasets that might go unused. Beyond technology, Samuel offers surprising insights into why personnel management systems and misaligned incentives are the true obstacles to defense innovation. 

Topics discussed:

• The transformation of global intelligence gathering through commercially available data that was once exclusive to government agencies, with Bazze enabling access to two dozen commercial data sources through a single platform.
• How Ukraine has become the definitive proof point for commercial intelligence adoption, demonstrating how commercially available satellite and cell phone data combined with affordable platforms can neutralize advanced military hardware.
• Why US allies are adopting commercial intelligence technologies faster than the US: their budgets are smaller, and they're in the “splash zone" of Russia and China.
• The structural problem of defense innovation funding, with only approximately 1% of the defense budget dedicated to innovative companies addressing critical national security challenges.
• How the post-WWII personnel management system, with constant rotations and outdated incentives, actively works against innovation adoption in defense and intelligence communities.
• The disincentivization of adopting unclassified technologies in intelligence organizations where career advancement is tied to conducting classified operations rather than filling intelligence gaps effectively.
• Strategies for crossing the "valley of death" in defense tech by building partnerships with established players like Palantir, Valenvar, and Deloitte who are already embedded with target users.
• The evolution of data partner relationships in defense tech, where Bazze provides value by establishing government contracts and paying data providers on a per-query basis, dramatically reducing their customer acquisition costs.
• How AI is integrated into every element of Bazze's platform, enabling untrained analysts to accomplish in minutes what experienced analysts previously needed days or weeks to complete.  

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Guest Quote: 

“What we say to our, our partners is 99.9% of digitally stored data out there is unclassified. It's commercial. If we're going to rely just on our classified information for our early warning — we're ignoring the vast, vast majority of the information in the world is televisions. It's an obvious point, but one that I think isn't always appreciated. Because if you think about the history of these organizations since the National Security Act of 1947, government has always been the leader of technology and information gathering. And there's a real muscle memory to say, ‘Hey, we know best, we have all the stuff.’”