At a film premiere in New York’s East Village, tech entrepreneur Steven Simoni, dressed in a designer Celine tracksuit and wearing a silver chain, laughed as he introduced himself:
“I’m a warlord now, bitch.”
The remark, half-joking and half-serious, summed up Simoni’s latest transformation — from Silicon Valley startup founder to defense-tech provocateur.
Simoni, who once sold his QR-code payment company Bbot to DoorDash for $125 million, is now co-founder of Allen Control Systems, a startup that builds AI-powered autonomous machine guns designed to shoot drones out of the sky. Its flagship product, called the Bullfrog, combines advanced targeting systems with AI algorithms capable of identifying and destroying unmanned aerial vehicles.
“The future is basically Skynet,” Simoni quipped, referencing the self-aware AI from The Terminator. “I want to supply those products to the government so they can use them.”
The 39-year-old Navy veteran has raised $40 million for his new venture — including a round led by Craft Ventures, the firm co-founded by David Sacks, now the Trump administration’s AI czar. Allen Control Systems has also secured prototype testing contracts with the U.S. Army and Special Operations Forces, marking a dramatic pivot from Simoni’s previous life in hospitality tech.
A Silicon Valley Shift Toward War Tech
Simoni is part of a growing movement in Silicon Valley where entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are redirecting their focus from consumer apps to military technology. Inspired by companies like Anduril (founded by Oculus creator Palmer Luckey) and Palantir, this new generation of startups is developing autonomous defense systems, drone swarms, and battlefield AI for the Pentagon.
“I hate war, but war is always going to happen anyway,” Simoni said. “So, someone’s going to make this product at some point.”
He has embraced the “warlord” persona, using it as both satire and branding. His brash approach has earned him appearances on Fox News, invitations to defense summits, and meetings with high-ranking military officials.
During a podcast episode of The Drone Ultimatum, General James Rainey, head of Army Futures Command, said the Pentagon is working to “get fiscal agility to go out to great U.S. tech companies” like Simoni’s and put technology in the hands of warfighters faster.
The U.S. Army confirmed it is in the process of awarding Allen Control Systems a contract to evaluate whether the Bullfrog can integrate with existing Army platforms.
From QR Codes to Combat
Simoni and co-founder Luke Allen met in the U.S. Navy while working on nuclear reactors. After several failed startups, they found success in hospitality tech, creating a QR ordering platform that exploded in popularity during the pandemic. But when Russia invaded Ukraine shortly after selling Bbot, they turned their engineering focus to defense.
Allen began prototyping the Bullfrog in 2023, while Simoni provided funding and eventually took over as CEO. “Every company needs a front man,” Simoni said.
Their product — a turret-mounted AI gun priced around $350,000 — can rotate 400 degrees in under a second. In demos, it has successfully shot drones from the sky, though occasional malfunctions persist. “It’s in its post-adolescent stage,” Simoni joked.
Prototype units bear playful names like Eminem and Bob Ross, and internal circuit boards are printed with caricatures of Simoni and Allen. “If Russia or China recover one of these, they’ll see our faces,” Simoni said. “We’re laughing at them.”
Politics, Parties, and Pentagon Access
Simoni has leveraged both charisma and connections. He has hosted fundraisers for Republican lawmakers and appeared alongside influential figures at Executive Branch, the elite private club founded by Donald Trump Jr., which caters to defense investors and political insiders.
His relationships with venture capitalists like Sacks have also brought him close to the heart of Washington’s defense-tech network. “The generals love me,” Simoni said after attending karaoke nights with military officials.
But not everyone is impressed. Critics within the tech community have mocked his transition from software to AI-powered weaponry. One software engineer publicly rejected his recruitment email with the caption:
“Imagine selling a $125M startup and deciding building AI guns is your life mission.”
Simoni responded by posting a photo of himself wearing a T-shirt printed with her post, grinning. “I don’t have to imagine it,” he wrote.
The Next Arms Dealer?
Allen Control Systems is already expanding its portfolio, developing laser dazzlers to blind drones and an aerial system called Scourge. Simoni plans to take the company public via a SPAC merger as early as 2025, betting that retail investors will embrace a “real-life Terminator company.”
“Whenever I go on Fox News, my inbox is filled with thousands of messages: What’s the ticker?” Simoni said.
Whether Silicon Valley’s new “warlord” becomes the next Palmer Luckey or the next cautionary tale depends on how fast he can turn hype into battlefield-ready hardware.
As one defense anthropologist put it:
“When it comes to weapons systems, failure isn’t just a bad demo — it can be catastrophic.”
