Discovering a buyer to your product within the Division of Protection is tough: Who must you discuss to? How do you get their consideration?
In search of DoD prospects
How have you learnt if they’ve cash to spend in your product?
It nearly at all times begins with a Program Government Workplace.
The Division of Protection (DoD) not owns all of the applied sciences, services to discourage or win a warfare – e.g. AI, autonomy, drones, biotech, entry to house, cyber, semiconductors, new supplies, and so on.
Immediately, a brand new class of startups try to promote these merchandise to the Protection Division. Amazingly, there isn’t any single DoD-wide cellphone guide accessible to startups of who to name within the Protection Division.
So I wrote one.
Consider the PEO Listing linked beneath as a “Who buys within the authorities?” cellphone guide.
The DoD buys a whole lot of billions of {dollars} of services per 12 months, and practically all of those purchases are managed by Program Government Workplaces. A Program Government Workplace could also be liable for a selected program (e.g., the Joint Strike Fighter) or for a complete portfolio of comparable packages (e.g., the Navy Program Government Workplace for Digital and Enterprise Providers). PEOs outline necessities and their Contracting Officers purchase issues (dealing with the formal buying, issuing requests for proposals (RFPs), and signing contracts with distributors.) Program Managers (PMs) work with the PEO and handle subsets of the bigger program.
Present protection contractors know who these organizations are and have groups of individuals monitoring budgets and contracts. However startups? Most startups don’t have a clue the place to start out.
It is a basic case of info asymmetry and it’s not wholesome for the Division of Protection or the nascent startup protection ecosystem.
That’s why I put this PEO Listing collectively.
This primary model of the listing lists 75 Program Government Workplaces and their Program Government Officers and Program/Venture Managers.
Every Program Government Workplace is headed by a Program Government Officer who’s a excessive rating official – both a member of the army or a excessive rating civilian – liable for the price, schedule, and efficiency of a serious system, or portfolio of programs, some price billions of {dollars}.
Under is a abstract of 75 Program Government Workplaces within the Division of Protection.
You may obtain the complete 64-page doc of Program Government Workplaces and Officers with all 602 names right here.
Caveats
Don’t rely on this doc for accuracy or completeness.
It’s possible incomplete and incorporates errors.
Army officers usually change jobs each few years.
Program Workplaces get closed and new ones opened as wanted.
This implies this doc was outdated the day it was written. Nonetheless it represents a useful place to begin for startups trying to work with DoD.
Use The PEO Listing As A part of A Go-To-Market Technique
Whereas it’s useful to know what Program Government Workplaces exist and who staffs them, it’s even higher to know the place the cash is, what it’s being spent on, and whether or not the finances is growing, reducing, or remaining the identical.
The perfect place to start out is by trying by way of an outline of your complete protection finances right here. Then seek for these packages within the linked PEO Listing. You may get an concept whether or not that program has $ Billions, or $ Hundreds of thousands.
Subsequent, check out the finances paperwork launched by the DoD Comptroller –
notably the P-1 (Procurement) and R-1 (R&D) finances paperwork.
Combining the finances doc with this PEO listing helps you slender down which of the 75 Program Government Workplaces and 500+ program managers to name on.
With some observe you possibly can translate the topline, account, or Program Aspect (PE) Line modifications right into a gross sales Go-To-Market technique, or a minimum of a speculation of who to name on.
Armed with this system description (it’s filled with jargon and 9-12 months outdated) and the Excel obtain right here and the Appendix right here –– you possibly can establish targets for gross sales calls with DoD the place your product has the perfect probability of becoming in.
The individuals and organizations on this listing change extra steadily than the cash.
Understanding the individuals is useful solely after you perceive their priorities — and cash is the perfect proxy for that.
Future Work
Finally we wish to give startups not solely who to name on, and who has the cash, however which Program Workplaces are receptive to new entrants. And which have transformed to portfolio administration, which have tried OTA contracts, in addition to highlighting those that are doing one thing novel with metrics or outcomes.
Going ahead this mission shall be stored up to date by the Stanford Gordian Knot Middle for Nationwide Safety Innovation.
Within the meantime ship updates, corrections and feedback to sblank@stanford.edu
Credit score The place Credit score Is Due
Clearly, the U.S. authorities intends to speak this info. They’ve revealed hyperlinks to DoD organizations right here, even itemizing DoD social media accounts. However the listing is fragmented and irregularly up to date. Consequently, any such listing has not existed in a usable format – till now.
Filed underneath: Air Drive, Gordian Knot Middle for Nationwide Safety Innovation, Hacking For Protection, Nationwide Safety, Navy |
