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The Way of Product with Caden DamianoInterview podcastsguest profiles with top builders in tech and product. Author: Caden Damiano
Every week I publish two conversations with people who build in technology and product. Each one comes with a narrative essay that puts you inside the conversation through my eyes. www.wayofproduct.com Language: en Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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#203 Tom Kubiniec: He Never Owned a Gun. That’s Why His Weapon Racks Won.
Episode 203
Tuesday, 4 August, 2026
Tom Kubiniec is the President and CEO of SecureIt, the leading authority in small arm storage and armory design for both military and consumer markets. Rising to prominence in the early 2010s, he became widely recognized as the primary civilian supplier to the US military for weapons storage and armory design services after winning a critical US Army Special Forces Command survey contract in 2007. Under his leadership, SecureIt appeared on Inc. Magazine’s fastest-growing companies in America list twice within three years, reaching No. 3812 on the Inc. 5000 with 167% three-year revenue growth.Previously, as founder of Greenline Data, he built one of the largest B2B sellers of backup tape storage racks through TapeRack.com before pivoting to secure laptop storage under HIPAA regulations in the mid-1990s. That pivot — physical storage of sensitive hardware — became the direct bridge into weapon storage when an FBI agent called in 2001 asking whether Tom could store an MP5 submachine gun. He became known for treating military armory design as a first-principles product problem: after spending 18 months on the road surveying every US Army Special Forces armory, he invented and patented CradleGrid™, a weapon storage platform built around a single moving part that replaced competing systems with 87 to 270 separate components.His career began with Jet Computer Products, which he co-founded in 1987 as a B2B computer supplies company, where he spent seven years developing the sales and distribution instincts that would later define SecureIt’s consumer launch. Before that, he performed professionally as a heavy metal guitarist — a background he credits with developing the creative instincts and pattern-breaking temperament he applies to product design and company culture today.Hey, Thanks for reading this. I mean that. There’s a lot of content out there competing for your attention, and you spent some of it here. I hope it was worth it. Even better, I hope it prompted you to think about something differently enough that you’d share it with someone who’d get something out of it too.I started this podcast because tactics never stuck with me. What stuck were stories — business biographies, autobiographies, the decisions people made and why they made them. The principle only clicks once you know the story behind it.So I built the thing I wanted to listen to. Every week I have two conversations with people who build in technology and product. Then I write the essay in my premium newsletter (Taste Maker) to distill the principles and reflect on the narrative — one that puts you inside the conversation, through my eyes. What caught me off guard. What I kept thinking about after we hung up. Where the principle actually lives once you strip away the jargon.I make this for myself first. If you read the way I do, you’ll want it too.Subscribe to The Way of ProductPS — If you want to pitch coming on the show, or you know someone I should talk to, shoot me an email at caden@hey.com with "January752" in the subject line so it gets past my filters. I'm not optimizing for famous guests. I'm optimizing for interesting conversations, even from people who aren't LinkedIn influencers. Get full access to The Way of Product w/ Caden Damiano at www.wayofproduct.com/subscribe
