How a hydrogen explosion led a teenage founder to become Sequoia’s first defense tech investment

As Sequoia Capital’s first defensive technological investment, Mach Industries is an industrial lover, To increase over $ 80 million Since the day it was established in 2023. Its founder Ethan Thornton, now 21, ago started working as a teenager MIT student Full working day falls on the beginning.

However, in the summer of 2023, a seed investment from Sequoia, a few months ago, there was a great decline: a team member who exploded a prototype of hydrogen weapons, and a team member who is a team member, forbes declare.

Talks with TechCrunch During the appearance of San Francisco in StrictyVC On April 3, Thornton first announced the incident for the first time, this happened due to lack of security sources.

“At that time, we were trying to finance himself, and we did not have money to work for these procedures.”

After the explosion, Mach Industries “actually closes all the work,” Sequoia Capital said to “essentially close,” he said. Now these reserves were provided, Thornton, Mach’ın full security team and said he was working with the US Army to develop new weapons.

The beginning also moved away from the initial attention of a hydrogen and a famous volatile gas. Speaking at StricttyVC, Thornton said that hydrogen was more developed “perhaps a bad technological bet.” But Pivot has not been philane from Mac.

Now Mach builds different types of weapons such as a bomb called “sliding” that can fire on a new cruise missile and the edge of the earth. That’s Recently signed a contract to the US Army and announced the plans Calls “Forge” for the Networking Network.

According to Thornton, “Many Prototypes”, according to Thornton, according to Thornton, the company is the main part of the company’s $ 85 million.

“It is not my ability to build this work, but more is our ability to get a record program around the federal government,” he said.