Startup lessons Silicon Valley won’t teach you | Cameron McCord (Co-founder of Nominal)

Cameron McCord spent 484 days underwater. As a submarine officer in the US Navy, he learned to run a reactor in a space where the crew sees you 24/7, even brushing your teeth, and where there is no "later" to sort out a disagreement. He still calls the Navy the single biggest influence on how he leads. After the submarine came Capitol Hill as a Navy congressional liaison, then early Anduril, then Saildrone, then a stint in venture at Lux Capital. Each one was a deliberate move toward starting a company.

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That company is Nominal, a connected software suite that is changing how the world tests and operates hardware. Three years in, Nominal is valued at $1 billion, has raised $155 million in ten months, and counts four of the five largest defense contractors as customers. The team has grown from around 40 people to 170 in a year, across offices in LA, Austin, New York, DC, and now London.

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In this conversation, Cameron walks through the operating playbook underneath that growth. Why he still interviews everyone and looks for people who are "three layers deep." What it means to "earn the right to stand the night watch." How he imports intentional ambiguity from early Anduril and a critique culture from the submarine. And where physical AI is actually going.

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In this conversation with Cameron McCord:

00:00 Who is Cameron McCord?

01:34 What did 484 days underwater teach him about leadership?

10:36 How do you "earn the right to stand the night watch"?

16:28 What was so special about Anduril’s culture?

28:39 What is the "power of ambiguity"?

31:29 How does Cameron think about recruiting?

37:39 Can you recruit “killers” who are also low ego?

46:50 What was the broken old way of testing hardware?

50:50 How do you actually crack selling to the government?

55:12 How did Nominal land four of the five largest defense primes?

1:01:33 What does "physical AI" actually mean?

1:18:14 What is Cameron still working on in his inner game?

1:23:22 Quickfire: military movies, leadership books, and a favorite office?

1:25:07 What advice would Cameron give to his 25-year-old self?

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Cameron's sharpest lines from this conversation...

On why the weakest link defines the team:

"Even if you're the person turning a wrench on a pump, if you don't do your job, the team could be at risk, because everything has to come together."

On what he recruits for:

"The biggest gift, and frankly the thing you look for in talent, in recruiting, is people that are fit to stand the night watch… a safe pair of hands."

On asking a team to do the impossible:

"It is always worth going the extra mile to draw the thread between the impossible task you're asking someone to do and the outcome for a customer."

On what it takes to win:

"Do one thing and do it really, really well… in practice, you need to do something 10 times better than the current way."

On the inner game of leadership:

"Being comfortable in your own head is so powerful, and it’s the biggest gift I can give to Nominal."

On a mantra from his submarine captain:

"Stress is the body preparing you for greatness."

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Where to find Cameron:

• Nominal

• X

• LinkedIn

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Where to find Nakul:

• Audacious Ventures

• X

• LinkedIn

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Where to find Audacious Ventures:

• Website

• LinkedIn