Orin Hoffman is a Venture Partner on the investment team at The Engine. In addition to investment responsibilities, Orin leads The Engine’s government affairs team which is dedicated to reducing friction for the frontier technology ecosystem to engage with government. In this capacity, Orin serves on multiple congressional, industry, and other government initiatives. Orin was most recently a senior government civilian at the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) where he served in both investment and CTO roles. Prior to DIUx, Orin spun out and served as Chief Technologist at Endeavor Robotics, which was later acquired by FLIR systems. Orin started his career in R&D at iRobot, where he led the development and deployment of robotic systems to various disaster and conflict responses. Orin holds BA and MS degrees in physics and electrical computer engineering as well as several patents.
The U.S. government should create a Foundational Technology Development and Deployment Office to fill critical commercialization gaps.
Create a $500M fund and an administration authority that allows relevant government agencies to create public-private partnerships.