April 2025 | Nancy Dahlberg

The Entrepreneur
Daniella Sladen, 35, Co-founder and CTO
Zulu Pods, Coral Springs

The Backstory

Daniella Sladen didn’t set out to be an aeronautical engineer or an innovator. Undecided on her major at the University of Central Florida, she was drawn to engineering after flipping through her course catalog and noticing aerospace engineering — the first entry alphabetically. “I didn’t even know what engineering was. I just knew I wanted to do something with math and science.”

Sladen, who grew up in South Florida, excelled in her new field, and she soon had internships and later jobs at Boeing and Pratt & Whitney in Seattle and Connecticut, where she worked on both the internal and external components of jet engines, gaining a deep understanding of how oil lubrication systems worked. She earned her MBA at the University of Connecticut, which meshed her detail-oriented engineering brain with a bird’s-eye view of how business works, and she dreamed about one day starting her own business that would be less rigid than the corporate settings. While in Connecticut, she also met and married Rob Sladen, an engineer who would become her co-founder in a future entrepreneurial venture. In 2019, the couple and their two young children moved to Broward County.

An Idea is Born

The story of her venture, Zulu Pods, begins not in a boardroom or tech lab, but during a family car ride. In the summer of 2020, as the Sladens were driving from South Florida to Orlando with their children asleep in the back seat, they found themselves chatting about work. It struck Daniella that big, complex engine lubrication systems were also being used in smaller engines with missions lasting 15 to 30 minutes. It seemed like overkill. “If your car was designed to be for only one mile, it would be designed differently. Why are they not doing this to engines?” she wondered. She envisioned a single burst of oil — like a Tide pod for smaller jet engines.

First up, a patent search. All clear — it was a greenfield opportunity. OK, but was this just a crazy idea? The couple reached out to colleagues, many of whom held Ph.D.s and had decades of experience in aerospace engineering, and the feedback was positive. Soon, the crazy idea turned into a garage project. Daniella’s father-in-law, also an engineer, helped them build a proof of concept, which enabled them to raise initial funding to propel Zulu Pods from a mere idea to a real business.

Today, Zulu Pods offers an innovative, efficient solution to traditional engine oil delivery systems. The company developed a lightweight, decentralized system that provides precise oil metering, delivering just the right amount of oil to small engines with minimal waste. This improves performance and saves costs. “We’re going from gallons of oil to milliliters, teaspoons of oil,” she says. “It’s a different way to run an engine.”

Big Wins, Future Plans

In the last two years, Zulu Pods secured contracts with the U.S. Army and Navy, each seeking solutions for different applications. For the Army, Zulu Pods is working on emergency systems for helicopters, offering a backup oil system in case of lubrication failure. For the Navy, as part of the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) Program, Zulu Pods’ contract is geared toward replacing a large lubrication system the Navy now uses with a Zulu Pods product. The startup is in “phase 2” with both government entities, meaning the feasibility of the technology has been validated and they are headed toward commercialization.

Winning the phase 2 contracts were monumental moments, Sladen says. “Basically, the government is underwriting our technology. It’s the best stamp of approval you can get.” Zulu Pods has attracted $3.5 million in government contracts. The company also has raised another $3.3 million from a strategic aerospace partner, $5 million from angel investors and is currently fundraising.

As Zulu Pods began to gain traction, the Sladens turned to their network of former engineering colleagues to build their team. One of the first hires was Todd Currier, a Ph.D. engineer and Daniella’s mentor. While building a business is a roller coaster of highs and lows, “a roadblock doesn’t feel like a roadblock because we know some way, somehow, we’ll figure it out with the team, the processes, and the technology that we have,” she says.

Company culture plays a key role too. As a Latina, Sladen not only felt alone in the male-dominated industry but found the corporate world overly rigid. Those feelings escalated when she became a mother and needed some flexibility. For her, it was critical that Zulu Pods was a place where people could truly bring their whole selves to the job — without the “facades” often found in corporate environments. Zulu Pods offers a more flexible work environment and a better paid parental leave policy than the norm.

Zulu Pods’ team has grown to 27 employees. The startup opened a manufacturing facility in Massachusetts, an experience the Sladens shared with their children, who spent a summer watching the manufacturing facility being built. Zulu Pods is poised for growth, with ongoing testing on real engines and work on new applications, such as an anticorrosion pod that helps prevent engine rust during maintenance, as the company is looking to expand in the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) market. Zulu Pods also is exploring expanding its manufacturing capabilities.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, Sladen’s advice is to get out there and network, pitch your business and ask for meetings. “Every person that we’ve spoken to in the beginning left us with a little bit of advice or a different perspective to think about, and that helped shape where we’re going,” she says. The army of supporters you are attracting will also keep you going, she adds. “They’re rooting for you.”

Name Game

Where did the name come from? Zulu is the last letter in the military’s phonetic alphabet. “Bravo Zulu” also is a phrase the military uses for job well done. Pods is an acronym for packaged oil delivery system.

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