Asserting the 2025 version of the DoW PEO Listing. On-line right here.
Consider this PEO Listing as a “Who buys within the authorities?” cellphone e book.
Discovering a buyer on your product within the Division of Warfare is difficult: Who do you have to speak to? How do you get their consideration? What’s the proper Go-To-Market Technique? What’s a PEO and why ought to I care?
Ever since I co-founded Hacking for Protection, my college students would ask, “Who ought to we name within the DoW to allow them to know what drawback we solved? How can we present them the answer we constructed?” In the previous few years that query saved coming, from new protection startups and their buyers.
On the identical time, I’d get questions from the brand new wave of Protection Buyers asking, “What’s one of the best “Go-To-Market (GTM)” technique for our startups?
PEOs, PMs, PIAs, PoRs, Consortia, SBIRs, OTAs, CSOs, FAR, CUI, SAM, CRADAs, Primes, Mid-tier Integrators, Tribal/ANC Corporations, Direct-to-Operator, Direct-to-Subject Items, Labs, DD-254… For a startup it’s a completely new language, new buzzwords, new companions, new guidelines and it requires a brand new “Go-To-Market (GTM)” technique.
The way to Work With the DoW
Beneath are simplified diagrams of two of the various paths for the way a startup can get funding and income from the Division of Warfare. The primary instance, the Affected person Capital Path, illustrates a startup with out a working product. They journey the normal new firm journey by way of the DoW processes.
The second instance, the Impatient Capital Path, illustrates a startup with an MVP and/or working product. They ignore the normal journey by way of the DoW course of and go on to the warfighter within the discipline. With the rise of Protection Enterprise Capital, this “swing-for-the fences” full-speed forward strategy is a Lean Startup strategy to change into a subsequent technology Prime.
(Notice that in 2025 promoting to the DoW is prone to change – for the higher.)
Promoting to the DoW takes time, however a well-executed protection technique can result in billion-dollar contracts, sustained income, and technological influence at a nationwide scale. Current protection contractors know who these DoW organizations are and have groups of individuals monitoring budgets and contracts. They know the trail to getting an order from the Division of Warfare. However startups?
Why Write the PEO Listing?
Most startups don’t have a clue the place to begin. And promoting to the Division of Warfare is in contrast to any enterprise or B-to-B gross sales course of founders and their buyers could also be accustomed to. In comparison with the industrial world, the language is totally different, the organizations are totally different, the tradition of threat taking (in acquisition) is totally different, and most significantly the go-to-market technique is totally totally different.
Amazingly, till final yr’s first version of the PEO listing there wasn’t a DoW-wide cellphone e book out there to startups to determine who to name within the Warfare Division. This lack of understanding made sense in a world the place the DoW and its suppliers had been a intently knit group who knew one another and expertise innovation was occurring at a sedate decades-long tempo. (And assumed our adversaries didn’t have entry to our DoW net pages, LinkedIn and ChatGPT.)
That’s not true. Given the speedy tempo of innovation exterior the DoW, and new distributors in UAS, counter UAS, autonomy, AI, quantum, biotech, et al, this lack of transparency is now an impediment to a whole-of-nation strategy to delivering innovation to the warfighter.
(This lack of understanding even extends internally to the DoW. I’ve began receiving requests from employees at a number of Combatant Instructions for entry to the PEO Listing. Why? As a result of “…it could be highly effective to incorporate a database of PEOs to hyperlink to our database of Necessities, Gaps, and Tracked Applied sciences to particular PEOs to name.”)
It is a traditional case of info asymmetry, and it’s not wholesome for both the more and more pressing wants of the Division of Warfare or the nascent startup protection ecosystem.
Our adversaries have had a whole-of-nation strategy to delivering innovation to the warfighter in place for many years. That is our contribution to assist the DoW compete.
2025 PEO Listing Version Notes
The primary version of this doc began solely as a PEO listing. Its emphasis was (and is) the worth of a startup speaking to PEOs early is to get alerts on what warfighter issues to unravel and whether or not the DoW will purchase their product now or sooner or later. These early conversations reply the questions of “Is there a necessity?” and “Is there a market?”
This 2025 version of the PEO Listing makes an attempt to seize the main modifications which might be occurring within the DoW – in organizations, in processes and in individuals. (For instance, the PEO places of work of the three largest new protection acquisition packages — Golden Dome, Sentinel and Columbia – will report on to the Deputy Secretary of Warfare, somewhat than to their respective Providers. And the SecWar killed the cumbersome JCIDIS necessities course of.)
What this implies is that in 2025 the DoW will develop a brand new necessities and acquisition course of that can determine probably the most pressing operational issues going through the U.S. army, work with trade earlier within the course of, then quickly flip these into fielded options. (That additionally means the Go-to-market description, individuals and organizations on this doc can be old-fashioned, and why we plan to replace it repeatedly.)
What’s New?
This 2025 version now contains as an introduction, a 30-page tutorial for startups on how the DoW buys and the varied acquisition and funding processes and packages that exist for startups. It supplies particulars on the best way to promote to the DoW and the place the Program Government Places of work (PEOs) match into that course of.
The Listing now additionally contains details about the components of the federal government and the rules that affect how the DoW buys – the White Home Workplace of Administration and Price range (OMB), and the Federal Acquisition Rules (FAR). It added new places of work akin to Golden Dome Direct Reporting Program, DIU, AFRL, DARPA, MDA, CDAO, OSC, IQT, Military Transformation and Coaching Command, SOCOM, and others.
To assist startups perceive the DoW, for every service we added hyperlinks to the group, construction, and language, in addition to an inventory of every Service’s Common Officers/Flag Officers.
Appendix B has a linked spreadsheet with the names on this doc.
Appendix C has an inventory of Enterprise Capital corporations, Company Buyers, Non-public Fairness corporations and Authorities businesses who put money into Protection. As well as, the Appendix contains particulars concerning the varied DoW SBIR packages, an inventory of OTA Consortia, Partnership Middleman Settlement (PIA) Organizations, and Tribal/Alaska Native Company (ANC) Corporations.
Appendix D now lists and hyperlinks to the army and state FFRDC check facilities the place startups can conduct demos and check gear.
Appendix E added an inventory and hyperlinks of Protection Publications and Protection Commerce Exhibits.
Appendix F has an inventory of all Military system contractors.
Just a few reminders:
- That is not an official publication of the U.S. authorities
- Don’t depend upon this doc for accuracy, completeness or enterprise recommendation.
- All information is from DoW web sites and publicly out there info.
Because of this yr’s companions serving to to take care of and host the Listing: Stanford Gordian Knot Heart for Nationwide Safety Innovation, America’s Frontier Fund and BMNT.
This version of the PEO Listing is on-line so it may be up to date as the newest modifications change into out there.
Ship updates and corrections to updates@americasfrontier.com
You may entry and obtain the complete doc right here.
Filed below: Company/Gov’t Innovation, Gordian Knot Heart for Nationwide Safety Innovation, Hacking For Protection, Nationwide Safety, Know-how Innovation and Nice Energy Competitors, Enterprise Capital |