BreakLine Arena brings you inside conversations with the builders, operators, and changemakers driving innovation across tech, AI, defense, and mission-critical industries.
These powerful conversations are brought to you by BreakLine, the leading source for effects-based hiring and the Talent Operating System of the Defense Industrial Base. We replace pedigree with performance by curating a community of elite top performers and visionary, purpose-driven companies, all in pursuit of accelerating the American Dream.
These are the stories and strategies shaping the future. Whether you're a founder, future founder, builder, operator, or just passionate about advancing the mission, we welcome you, and we’re glad you found your way into the Arena.
Jackson Fairburn, Mission Success Lead at Swarm Aero | Resilience, Reinvention, and Being Open to Yes
What does resilience look like when the market turns against you?
In Episode 78 of the BreakLine Arena, Team BreakLine’s own, Natalia Peddycoart, sits down with Jackson Fairburn, a former U.S. Army AH-64 Apache pilot, company commander, and now Mission Success Lead at Swarm Aero, to unpack his journey from nine years of military service into a volatile 2022 tech hiring market.
Jackson shares how he translated high-stakes aviation leadership into civilian impact, landed a solutions engineering role at Evolv Technology during a downturn, earned rapid promotions, and ultimately returned to aviation-focused innovation by staying open to unexpected opportunity.
This conversation is about more than transition.
It’s about reinvention.
Reassessing priorities as life evolves.
Trusting the process when outcomes feel uncertain.
And adopting a mindset Jackson calls: “Be Open to Yes.”
Whether you’re navigating a pivot, leading through ambiguity, or searching for true mission fit, this episode offers a grounded, tactical look at resilience in action.
If you’re a visionary founder or a purpose-driven top performer building the future with clarity, community, and access to the most ambitious companies in America, join us!
Learn more about our Effects-Based Hiring approach here: partners.breakline.org (https://partners.breakline.org/)
20 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT
Sam Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Method Security | Cyber Resilience at Scale
Sam Jones started his career as a GS-7 cyber operator in the Air Force. Today, he’s the co-founder and CEO of Method Security, a bleeding-edge, dual-use cybersecurity and AI company that has raised $26M from top investors, including Andreesen Horowitz and General Catalyst.
In this BreakLine Arena conversation, Sam doesn’t just talk with Zayn (CEO and Host) about cybersecurity; he talks about building for the business effect from the onset. Sam unpacks why his team chose what he describes as the “psychotic approach” of serving Fortune 500 companies and the Department of War from day one. Resilient software isn’t a strategic choice but a structural requirement if the government and Fortune 500 are to secure their organizations. And what it means to design a company, technically and culturally, around the hardest missions first.
“To become resilient, you need to test the whole of the enterprise all the time where it matters most.”
This episode is about more than AI and cyber. It’s about raising standards. Building teams with real conviction. Choosing the harder path early so the ceiling stays high later and for the long game.
If you’re a visionary founder or a purpose-driven top performer building the future with clarity, community, and access to the most ambitious companies in America, join us!
Learn more about our Effects-Based Hiring approach here: BreakLine.org (https://breakline.org)
6 Feb 2026
Justin Crocker, Head of People & Talent at Sharp Performance | Purpose-Driven Performance
In the first episode of 2026, we’re bringing you a fresh conversation that sits at the intersection of purpose and performance.
Join us in The BreakLine Arena to hear Justin Crocker, Head of People & Talent of the a16z-backed startup, Sharp Performance, pull back the curtain on his strategy for building high-caliber teams. Justin discusses his career and the key decision-making variables along the way, what the team at Sharp Performance is building for their front-line customers in high-risk jobs, and how the team hires with an incredibly high bar. In this episode, Justin joins Zayn Knaub in The BreakLine Arena to pull apart the “black box’ of high-stakes hiring, team-building, and post-military careers.
From out of the dense, directionless fog of transitioning out of service to leading a team that is “literally saving and changing people’s lives,” don’t miss his gems about building for longevity, not just short-term performance.
If you’re a visionary founder or a purpose-driven top performer building the future with clarity, community, and access to the most ambitious companies in America, join us!
Learn more about our Effects-Based Hiring approach here: BreakLine.org (https://breakline.org)
Inside a recent episode
Jackson Fairburn, Mission Success Lead at Swarm Aero | Resilience, Reinvention, and Being Open to Yes
Published 2 Mar 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] So tell me about your time in the military and what you were thinking about as you were transitioning to something new. Yeah, well, thanks, Natalia. I know we have a long history together at Breakline. That's been great. So I'm really, really happy that we're doing this. So yeah, nine years overall as an aviation operations officer and age 64 pilot in the Army. Started off, you know, flight school like every candidate does, a year and a half doing that. You know, the grunt work of learning Apache and getting to a point of being a competent aviator. […]
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