Pete DiSalvo comes from a family with a long history of inventing physical things—his great-great-grandfather patented a precision rifle-barrel machining process, and his great-grandfather patented the Foley catheter—and before joining Blackwing as an investor, he worked as an engineer at Raytheon and Northrop Grumman and built a software company for utilities and emergency response agencies that was later acquired. He also co-founded the San Diego chapter of Post-Exit Founders, reflecting his interest in what founders do after they sell their companies, and he often writes about teams moving unusually fast in industries like nuclear that are normally slow to change.