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The Navy Leadership Lesson That Built a $450M Company | Blue Water Autonomy, Rylan Hamilton

EO15:36Added Aug 31, 2026

Rylan Hamilton spent years putting over a million robots into Amazon warehouses. Now, he’s automating the ocean. As the CEO and co-founder of Blue Water Autonomy (BWA), Rylan is taking the "Amazon athlete" mindset back to his roots in the US Navy. With a fres

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  1. Why the best founders never lead from a desk

  2. 00:00Right out of college, I joined the Navy.
  3. 00:01So, I was on ships in the Pacific and
  4. 00:04the Atlantic Ocean. The Navy that I was
  5. 00:06in 20 years ago, we had the world's most
  6. 00:08powerful Navy. And there's really no
  7. 00:10pure competitor. But when I first was on
  8. 00:12a ship in the Navy, and I was in charge
  9. 00:14of a division, I actually wasn't a great
  10. 00:16leader. In the Navy, you don't get to
  11. 00:18choose the people that are working for
  12. 00:20you. The Navy basically says, "This is
  13. 00:22your team, and you've got to make the
  14. 00:23best out of them." And so what you learn
  15. 00:25over time is you have to learn what
  16. 00:26motivates people and you have to
  17. 00:28understand people and you have to care
  18. 00:29about people and if you don't understand
  19. 00:31people then you can't understand what
  20. 00:33motivates them and then you can't get
  21. 00:34your mission your job done and then
  22. 00:36everything kind of unravels from there.
  23. 00:38What I learned in the Navy about
  24. 00:39leadership is leading from the front.
  25. 00:41When I was a junior officer in the Navy
  26. 00:43there's this sort of concept of deck
  27. 00:44plate leadership is that you have to be
  28. 00:46on the deck plates with your sailors and
  29. 00:48with your team and trying to help them
  30. 00:50solve the issue that you're not someone
  31. 00:52who that they report to. You're someone
  32. 00:53who's part of a team that's helping them
  33. 00:55solve the problem at hand. And sometimes
  34. 00:57that meant spending hours in an engine
  35. 00:59room trying to troubleshoot through
  36. 01:01[music] an issue. Sometimes we would
  37. 01:02lose steering at sea. We'd lose power.
  38. 01:04We'd have flooding. We'd have fires. We
  39. 01:07had many different issues that we'd
  40. 01:08[music] have to work through. But when
  41. 01:10your team saw that you were the person,
  42. 01:12you're standing in there, you're waiting
  43. 01:13with them, you're being patient, and you
  44. 01:15understood the problems that they were
  45. 01:16facing, and you understood any barriers
  46. 01:18that you could help remove, you would
  47. 01:20then get their trust.

  48. The $60M mission to automate the US Navy

  49. 01:28My name is Ryland Hamilton. I'm the CEO
  50. 01:30and co-founder of Blue Water Autonomy.
  51. 01:33Our first customer is the US Navy. We're
  52. 01:34designing and building autonomous ships.
  53. 01:37Our focus is on the US Navy and building
  54. 01:40future warships for the Navy. Right out
  55. 01:42of college, I joined the Navy. I was on
  56. 01:44ships in the Pacific and the Atlantic
  57. 01:45Ocean. We were up in the Northern Gulf
  58. 01:47and we were looking for mines. In fact,
  59. 01:49we'd have lookouts on the front of the
  60. 01:50ship 24/7 looking for any mines that
  61. 01:53could be floating. There are a lot of
  62. 01:54really risky missions in the Navy that
  63. 01:55could be done by autonomous systems.
  64. 01:57There's no reason that a ship with 400
  65. 01:59sailors on it should be hunting for
  66. 02:00mines, including having people with
  67. 02:02binoculars on the front of that ship.
  68. 02:04And to date, we've actually launched
  69. 02:05what we call our autonomous test vessel,
  70. 02:07which is a 145 ton vessel just outside
  71. 02:10of Boston where we're already testing
  72. 02:12our technology. Google Ventures and our
  73. 02:14existing investors put $50 million into
  74. 02:16our company which really helps
  75. 02:17turbocharge what we're doing.

  76. How 9/11 changed my career path forever

  77. 02:23That is the World Trade Center and we
  78. 02:25have unconfirmed reports this morning
  79. 02:27that a plane has crashed into one of the
  80. 02:30towers of the World Trade Center.
  81. 02:32When I was in college, 9/11 happened and
  82. 02:34it definitely was a moment that kind of
  83. 02:36I think shook everyone and said, "What
  84. 02:37do you really want to do with your
  85. 02:38life?" And at that point, the
  86. 02:40traditional jobs coming out of college
  87. 02:41were to go into consulting or into
  88. 02:43investment banking and professional
  89. 02:45service careers. But I wanted to do
  90. 02:46something different. And I'm not the
  91. 02:47type of person who's well suited to be
  92. 02:49behind a desk from 9 to 5. And I was
  93. 02:51like, "Oh, well, my family had been in
  94. 02:53the Navy. My father actually went to the
  95. 02:54Naval Academy and served on nuclear
  96. 02:56submarines in the '60s. I had two uncles
  97. 02:58who also served in the Navy. So, I
  98. 03:00wonder what a career in the Navy would
  99. 03:01be like." And I joined the Navy, which
  100. 03:03was one of the best decisions I've ever
  101. 03:04made. We were up in the Northern Gulf
  102. 03:06and we were looking for mines. In fact,
  103. 03:08we'd have lookouts on the front of the
  104. 03:09ship 24/7 looking for any mines that
  105. 03:11could be floating. One of the most
  106. 03:13memorable experiences I had in the Navy
  107. 03:15was probably the first time I actually
  108. 03:16was on a naval ship out sort of in the,
  109. 03:19you know, open ocean. And I joined an
  110. 03:21amphibious transport ship. It was
  111. 03:22actually in the Persian Gulf when I met
  112. 03:24it. But in order to get to that ship, I
  113. 03:25had to fly in a helicopter and actually
  114. 03:27go to sort of an aircraft carrier first.
  115. 03:30And while I was on that aircraft carrier
  116. 03:31waiting to get transported to my ship,
  117. 03:33Iran actually fired some test missiles.
  118. 03:34Now, the Navy at the time didn't know if
  119. 03:36those were test missiles until the whole
  120. 03:38ship went to general [music] quarters,
  121. 03:39but here I was knew the Navy and because
  122. 03:42I had actually been traveling in the
  123. 03:43Middle East, I was still in my civilian
  124. 03:45clothes. So, I was on a ship, the ship
  125. 03:47was going to general quarters, and I
  126. 03:48didn't even know where to go. And so, I
  127. 03:50was just running up and down staircases,
  128. 03:51and someone grabbed me and said, "You

  129. Surviving Iranian missiles in civilian clothes

  130. 03:53look like you don't know what you're
  131. 03:54doing. Come in here and kind of wait."
  132. 03:56And so, that was like my first like hour
  133. 03:58on a naval ship. But, I think that
  134. 04:00lesson told me it's like, you know, be
  135. 04:01aware anything can happen at any moment.
  136. 04:04It's important to have a plan, but then
  137. 04:06it's also important to understand that
  138. 04:08plan will never actually materialize
  139. 04:10exactly as you expected. And one of the
  140. 04:13things is when you're in the Navy, you
  141. 04:15don't get to choose. You basically hire
  142. 04:16the people that are working for you. The
  143. 04:18Navy basically says this is your team
  144. 04:20and you've got to make the best out of
  145. 04:21them. When I first was on a ship in the
  146. 04:23Navy and I was in charge of a division,
  147. 04:25I actually wasn't a great leader. And
  148. 04:27so, what you learn over time is you have
  149. 04:28to learn what motivates people and you
  150. 04:30have to understand people and you have
  151. 04:31to care about people. And if you don't
  152. 04:33understand people, then you can't
  153. 04:35understand what motivates them and then
  154. 04:36you can't get your mission your job
  155. 04:38done. And then everything kind of
  156. 04:39unravels from there. And so when I first
  157. 04:42joined the Navy, I was like, let's do
  158. 04:43this job because everyone cares about
  159. 04:44the mission and America. But at the end
  160. 04:47of the day, actually what people cared
  161. 04:49about, especially when you're in port,
  162. 04:50is they're like, [music] "Hey sir, I
  163. 04:51just want to go home at 3 PM." So if our
  164. 04:54division can get all of our tasks done
  165. 04:56and we can go home at 3 PM, that's what
  166. 04:58matters to me because at home I have a
  167. 04:59wife, I have kids, I have a lot of other
  168. 05:01stuff going on. And so when we're back
  169. 05:03at port, like it really matters for me
  170. 05:05to have this kind of balance between my
  171. 05:07work and my life. And I realized that
  172. 05:09over time. And then I said, "All right,
  173. 05:10when he showed up to at work, let's
  174. 05:12focus on getting the mission done and
  175. 05:14let's get everyone home." And then when
  176. 05:15you got people home, they were like,

  177. Why sailors just want to go home at 3 PM

  178. 05:17"Hey, I'm motivated now." And so it's
  179. 05:19really like when you're in the Navy
  180. 05:20about understanding people, what
  181. 05:22motivates them. And that's not something
  182. 05:23that was innately obvious to me when I
  183. 05:25first uh joined the Navy. What I learned
  184. 05:27in the Navy about leadership is leading
  185. 05:29from the front. When I was a junior
  186. 05:30officer in the Navy, there's this sort
  187. 05:32of concept of deck plate leadership is
  188. 05:34that you have to be on the deck plates
  189. 05:36with your sailors and with your team and
  190. 05:38trying to help them solve the issue.
  191. 05:39That you're not someone who that they
  192. 05:41report to. you're someone who's part of
  193. 05:42a team that's helping them solve the
  194. 05:44problem at hand. And sometimes that
  195. 05:46meant spending hours in an engine room
  196. 05:48trying to troubleshoot through an issue.
  197. 05:50Sometimes we would lose steering [music]
  198. 05:52at sea, we'd lose power, we'd have
  199. 05:53flooding, we'd have fires, we had many
  200. 05:56different issues that we'd have to work
  201. 05:57through. But when your team saw that you
  202. 06:00were the person, you're standing in
  203. 06:01there, you're waiting with them, you're
  204. 06:02being patient, and you understood
  205. 06:04[music] the problems that they were
  206. 06:05facing, and you understood any barriers
  207. 06:07that you could help remove, you would
  208. 06:08then get their trust.

  209. Transitioning from mission obsession to customer obsession

  210. 06:13I had a great experience served for four
  211. 06:15years and then when I got out I went to
  212. 06:18graduate school and I transitioned into
  213. 06:20warehouse automation and I got lucky and
  214. 06:23I joined a company that was called KA
  215. 06:24systems. It was back in 2011 when there
  216. 06:27are a couple thousand robots in the
  217. 06:29field. And after a couple years, Amazon
  218. 06:31came in and actually bought KA systems
  219. 06:33[music] and made KA systems into what we
  220. 06:35now call Amazon robotics where there now
  221. 06:37over a million robots all throughout the
  222. 06:39world in Amazon warehouses. [music] You
  223. 06:41know, my experience in Amazon robotics
  224. 06:43where it wasn't deck plate leadership,
  225. 06:44it was more like concrete floor
  226. 06:46leadership in a warehouse where you're
  227. 06:47spending a lot of time with the team in
  228. 06:49warehouses all throughout the United
  229. 06:51States and the world. and you're with
  230. 06:52your team when you're trying to
  231. 06:53commission these different systems and
  232. 06:55you were there. You're traveling, you're
  233. 06:56spending the time in the warehouse, it
  234. 06:57really showed the team that you cared
  235. 06:59and the team would kind of respond well
  236. 07:00to that. So those are definitely things
  237. 07:01that I've learned over time. And the
  238. 07:03other piece is in the Navy, we
  239. 07:04definitely had sort of mission obsession
  240. 07:06where we knew what the mission was and
  241. 07:08we had obsessed and just complete it at
  242. 07:10all costs. When I transitioned to KA
  243. 07:12systems, it was all about customer
  244. 07:14obsession. My responsibility at KA in my
  245. 07:16job was to be a program manager, a sales

  246. The concrete floor leadership of Amazon Robotics

  247. 07:18team who would basically spend months or
  248. 07:20years kind of working through a deal and
  249. 07:22they'd get a customer to sign a contract
  250. 07:24and the contract would say we are
  251. 07:25willing to pay this amount if you hit
  252. 07:27these different sort of objectives or
  253. 07:29different milestones. And so my job was
  254. 07:30to hit those milestones and one of them
  255. 07:32was to get the customer to accept the
  256. 07:34system. And so there was a ton of
  257. 07:36crossunctional work that had to happen
  258. 07:37but part of that was to really [music]
  259. 07:39just do whatever it would take to kind
  260. 07:41of get the deal done and to make the
  261. 07:42customer happy. Sometimes I would mean
  262. 07:44traveling to warehouses in remote parts
  263. 07:46of Nevada and actually trying to
  264. 07:48convince someone to go run a fiber line
  265. 07:50from the street into the warehouse
  266. 07:52[music] into the data room. And
  267. 07:54sometimes that would mean saying, "Hey,
  268. 07:55I'll pay you a hundred bucks right now
  269. 07:57in cash. I don't know if that will
  270. 07:58incent you, but you just do whatever it
  271. 08:00takes. Just [music] we just have this
  272. 08:01customer obsession and be like think
  273. 08:02outside the box about what it would take
  274. 08:04to actually get the job done." For me,
  275. 08:06startups have always been a passion
  276. 08:07project. It's probably not the best way
  277. 08:09to kind of like a balance [music]
  278. 08:10between your work and your personal
  279. 08:12life. I wouldn't recommend startups, but
  280. 08:14if you want to find something where you
  281. 08:15show up every day and it's the best job
  282. 08:17in the world and you love what you're
  283. 08:19doing, you love your customers, then
  284. 08:21there's nothing better than getting
  285. 08:22obsessed over a startup.

  286. Why choosing pain was the best decision of my life

  287. 08:28I took that experience from being sort
  288. 08:30of in warehouse automation and actually
  289. 08:32started a company with some other people
  290. 08:33from Amazon Robotics, company called Six
  291. 08:35Rover Systems, and we made collaborative
  292. 08:37autonomous mobile robots. to basically
  293. 08:39self-driving vehicles in warehouses and
  294. 08:42we created a new form of automation and
  295. 08:44we sold that a couple years later to
  296. 08:45Amazon's competitor Shopify. When I left
  297. 08:48Six River Systems, I really take
  298. 08:50Jensen's advice at Nvidia to heart that
  299. 08:52he probably wouldn't go back and start
  300. 08:54another company because it is so hard.
  301. 08:56But I found myself [music] kind of
  302. 08:58itching to do something. I like taking a
  303. 09:00hard problem and solving it. And if it's
  304. 09:01an easy problem or an easy path, it's
  305. 09:03just not interesting to me. So I think
  306. 09:05throughout my career I've probably taken
  307. 09:07the hard path more often that have taken
  308. 09:09the easy path. Many [music] other people
  309. 09:10can take the easy path. But it's the
  310. 09:12hard problems that where if you solve
  311. 09:14them or if you solve them with a team
  312. 09:15the gratification that comes from
  313. 09:17solving hard problems is amazing.
  314. 09:18[music]
  315. 09:19I had a a period of time to just go
  316. 09:21explore. I was looking into a lot of
  317. 09:22different verticals. I knew someone who
  318. 09:24actually worked at Androl which is a
  319. 09:26really impressive defense tech startup.
  320. 09:27And I realized at the time that like you
  321. 09:29can actually start a company and then
  322. 09:31sell into the defense market. And that
  323. 09:33wasn't sort of a concept or framework

  324. Facing the 230x China shipbuilding gap

  325. 09:34that I had 10 or 20 years ago when I was
  326. 09:37thinking about different sort of startup
  327. 09:38opportunities. But I started exploring
  328. 09:40and before I said I want to go start
  329. 09:41something, I said let me just go learn
  330. 09:43more about the space. And I really just
  331. 09:44try to get smart about the opportunity
  332. 09:46[music] set within sort of defense and
  333. 09:48within the Navy. And what was amazing is
  334. 09:51if I started the first idea that I came
  335. 09:53up with, I would not be here today. But
  336. 09:55I just had an open mind and just wanted
  337. 09:58to absorb as much information and get
  338. 09:59really smart about the opportunity. The
  339. 10:01Navy that I was in 20 years ago, we had
  340. 10:03the world's most powerful navy and
  341. 10:05there's really no pure competitor. But
  342. 10:07today, as we think across the world,
  343. 10:09China builds half of the world ships.
  344. 10:11China [music] possesses a ship building
  345. 10:13capacity over 230 times that [music] of
  346. 10:17the United States.
  347. 10:18When it comes to just building like raw
  348. 10:20tonnage that we can put in the Pacific,
  349. 10:22China is like definitely a competitor in
  350. 10:24that space. [music] So, we need to
  351. 10:25rethink the problem. I definitely spend
  352. 10:28a lot of time trying to understand is
  353. 10:29this market big enough? Is this market
  354. 10:31big enough that I can spend the next 10
  355. 10:33plus years building a transformational
  356. 10:36company in this space? And so every week
  357. 10:38I would have 10 to 20 different
  358. 10:40conversations with people. I learned
  359. 10:41about some of the delays that we have in
  360. 10:43some of the large ship building
  361. 10:44programs. I learned about how big of a
  362. 10:46painoint it is and how [music] we're not
  363. 10:48going to overnight change our ship
  364. 10:50building capacity in the United States.
  365. 10:52And so we need to rethink the problem.
  366. 10:53We're not going to compete on ship
  367. 10:55building, but we can compete on tech.
  368. 10:58The United States is really strong on
  369. 11:00autonomy and technology. And so we can

  370. Why retrofitting old ships is a technical trap

  371. 11:02take that strength and then apply it to
  372. 11:04our today's [music] Navy. We're not
  373. 11:06retrofitting existing in vessels to make
  374. 11:08them autonomous. We're literally
  375. 11:10redesigning a ship from the keel up.
  376. 11:12Part of that reason is my experience in
  377. 11:14the Navy was that today's naval ships
  378. 11:15and commercial ships have engineers that
  379. 11:18are on the ships that are standing watch
  380. 11:20every day and they're maintaining and
  381. 11:22repairing the vessels. [music]
  382. 11:23So to take that commercial design or
  383. 11:25that naval design and try to make it
  384. 11:27unmanned for months at a time just won't
  385. 11:30work. There too many single points of
  386. 11:31failures and we've got a lot of good
  387. 11:33feedback that you can't take a
  388. 11:35commercial design and do a retrofit for
  389. 11:37the missions that we're focused on.
  390. 11:40At any early stage startup, you need to
  391. 11:42be super focused on one customer with
  392. 11:44one product. But I don't think it's
  393. 11:45obvious to a lot of founders kind of
  394. 11:46when they're starting something.
  395. 11:47Sometimes they see a cool technology and
  396. 11:50they try to force fit it or try to
  397. 11:52create a market. When we're thinking
  398. 11:53about the opportunities on the
  399. 11:54commercial market for autonomous ships
  400. 11:55and then on the defense market, the
  401. 11:57commercial market is super interesting,
  402. 11:59but there's still some regulatory sort
  403. 12:01of hurdles and obstacles that need to be
  404. 12:03overcome. But when you looked at the
  405. 12:05defense side and we looked at some of
  406. 12:06the geopolitical threats that are
  407. 12:07happening in all the areas of the world,
  408. 12:09especially around the Pacific, we saw a
  409. 12:11critical need. We saw a customer with a
  410. 12:13willingness to pay and we didn't see
  411. 12:15[music] any of those sort of regulatory
  412. 12:17obstacles that you have on the
  413. 12:18commercial side. And we said, we believe
  414. 12:20in maritime autonomy. We want to
  415. 12:21accelerate it, but we're going to focus
  416. 12:23on the defense market. We've seen a
  417. 12:25[music] ton of support from the Navy.
  418. 12:27We've even seen Congress allocate over
  419. 12:29$2 billion to what we're building. And
  420. 12:31so the lesson learned was focus really
  421. 12:33matters at an early stage company. Now
  422. 12:35that doesn't always scale, but I think
  423. 12:37when you're an early stage company,
  424. 12:38you're not trying to figure out how to
  425. 12:40scale. You're trying to figure out how
  426. 12:40to solve a problem.

  427. Build your team like a Navy

  428. 12:46The other part about being on ships and
  429. 12:47in the open ocean is it's a beautiful
  430. 12:49experience being out in the middle of
  431. 12:51the open ocean. You don't necessarily
  432. 12:52have control over everything. You just
  433. 12:54have a lot of respect for the ocean. If
  434. 12:56you're in a large storm or something
  435. 12:58like that, there's only so much you can
  436. 12:59do. What you can do is you can rely
  437. 13:01around the people that surround yourself
  438. 13:03that are on the ship and you're a team.
  439. 13:05When you show up to a job and it's 9
  440. 13:06to5, you can go home at the end of the
  441. 13:08day. Well, when you're on a ship in the
  442. 13:10middle of the ocean, you don't go home
  443. 13:11at the end of the day, you're on the
  444. 13:12ship. And then they also remind you that
  445. 13:14it's a team effort and that it's not

  446. Designing ships that solve their own problems

  447. 13:16about you being successful in your job
  448. 13:18on a ship. It's about the whole ship
  449. 13:20being successful. [music]
  450. 13:20And those are some of the thrilling
  451. 13:22moments about being at a startup. If you
  452. 13:24have teams that don't trust each other,
  453. 13:26then the interfaces between the teams
  454. 13:28aren't necessarily healthy. And what'll
  455. 13:30happen is that every team will have
  456. 13:31contingency that's there and then when
  457. 13:33you don't hit a date, they'll basically
  458. 13:35create a lot of conflict between the
  459. 13:36[music] different teams. But if the
  460. 13:38teams trust each other, then you can
  461. 13:39kind of remove a lot of that contingency
  462. 13:41[music] between the different teams. So
  463. 13:43what's super important to me is
  464. 13:45integrity. Especially at a startup,
  465. 13:47there are a lot of things that could go
  466. 13:49well. There are a lot of things that
  467. 13:50could go wrong. And one thing I learned
  468. 13:51in the Navy is that bad news does not
  469. 13:53get better over time. And I want [music]
  470. 13:55people to feel comfortable sharing good
  471. 13:58news and bad news, but it doesn't help
  472. 14:00to kind of like heard a little bit of
  473. 14:02bad news internally and not tell other
  474. 14:04people because it just doesn't help the
  475. 14:06startup. [music]
  476. 14:06And so transparency and being truthful

  477. Why bad news never gets better with time

  478. 14:10is definitely helps a startup make the
  479. 14:12best decisions at the moment. So when
  480. 14:14you're a founder and you're thinking
  481. 14:15about a plan and never does your plan go
  482. 14:17perfectly. In fact, there are a lot of
  483. 14:19times when the outcomes aren't what you
  484. 14:20expected. And that's the beauty about
  485. 14:22being sort of a founder is basically
  486. 14:24you're trying to get the best out of
  487. 14:26everyone because at the end of the day,
  488. 14:28you'll have so many resources, [music]
  489. 14:29you have so many people, and your goal
  490. 14:31is to get the best out of your resources
  491. 14:33and your people and to produce the best
  492. 14:35outcome. It might not exactly be the
  493. 14:37plan, but just embrace that there going
  494. 14:39to be some downsides, but there are also
  495. 14:40a lot of upsides and things you moved a
  496. 14:42lot faster than you ever expected. So
  497. 14:44today we're in San Francisco and when I
  498. 14:46think about what I want Blue Water to be
  499. 14:48by describing it to like my family or
  500. 14:49friends and what the long-term vision
  501. 14:51is, I really want to be the Whimo for
  502. 14:52the open ocean. I think Whimo is this
  503. 14:54type of technology in this company where
  504. 14:56we're now coming to the fact that we
  505. 14:57accept getting into a car without people
  506. 14:59in it. We don't think about Whimo less

  507. Becoming the Waymo of the open ocean

  508. 15:01as a vehicle company and more as a
  509. 15:03company creating these softwaredefined
  510. 15:05vehicles. And so when I think about what
  511. 15:07I want Blue Water to be is I want Blue
  512. 15:08Water to basically create every ship
  513. 15:10that's out there and for people to think
  514. 15:11about them as being software defined. A
  515. 15:13lot of the dole and jobs can be kind of
  516. 15:15replaced by software. So it can actually
  517. 15:17maybe become one of the best jobs that's
  518. 15:18out there where you're basically on a
  519. 15:20vessel doing different types of you know
  520. 15:22tasks, chores or missions and it's kind
  521. 15:24of a beautiful experience just like
  522. 15:25being in a Whimo car.