Salvador Badillo-Rios

Founder of EquiTech Innovate

Sal is Founder of EquiTech Innovate, a strategic consulting and advisory firm aimed at helping deep tech founders with the largest barriers bring innovative and disruptive technologies to market. The focus is on early-stage deep tech startups that need guidance through commercialization. He is also Senior Associate and AI Lead at National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC), a component of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), aimed at accelerating early-stage dual-use deep tech startups toward commercialization. Salvador leverages his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering (UCLA) and partnerships with Spacex, Stanford, and Wright Patterson Air Force Base, his research experience at top universities and government labs (Caltech, UC Berkeley, DOE's Sandia), 12+ years background in energy, aerospace and defense, and his experience in helping stand up and manage operations for NSIC. His core competencies include early-stage venture capital, national security strategy, and deep technology.

At DIU and NSIC, Salvador also helped identify, evaluate, fund, and/or support 23 early- stage dual-use hardware startups across 12 states with ~$50M over three years leading to over $365M in total follow-on venture capital and over $190M is U.S. government funding. Some of the portfolio companies include Lyten, Anthro Energy, Starfish Space, Darkhive, Ateios Systems, NUVIEW, Teradar, and Maybell.

Salvador is passionate about removing barriers in the STEM, venture capital, and tech startup communities. To that end, he is a mentor for the Stanford Latino Business Action Network (LBAN) and is part of Angeles Investors