{"id":642983,"date":"2024-10-31T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T13:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/space-ceos-talk-about-the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-selling-defense-tech\/"},"modified":"2024-10-31T16:37:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T13:37:00","slug":"space-ceos-talk-about-the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-selling-defense-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/space-ceos-talk-about-the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-selling-defense-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"#Space CEOs talk about the challenges and opportunities of selling defense tech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Space executives took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to talk about the challenges and opportunities of building out dual-use technology<\/a>, or tech that has both a defense and a commercial use case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dual-use strategy can be tricky for young startups to manage, however, because they run the risk of diluting their focus by trying to sell to both the Department of Defense (DOD) and commercial companies, True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers warned. True Anomaly, which is developing software and hardware to enable mobile satellite operations, \u201cis not a space company,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re a defense company.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But staying focused can get challenging for startups if their investors are not fully aligned with their mission, he said. \u201cWhen investors start to push the dual-use thesis\u00a0\u2026 it can dilute the focus, particularly at an early stage, and it just requires very open and honest conversations with investors and a very careful selection of who\u2019s around the table,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With the rapid industrialization of space, however, there are more commercial opportunities emerging for startups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no clear bright lines between commercial and government in space,\u201d Slingshot Aerospace CEO Tim Solms said. \u201cDual use is upon us.\u00a0\u2026 There are no defense-only or commercial-only operations out there right now.\u00a0There is a lot of blend in there, so you have to be able to navigate both.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both agreed that the term \u201cdual use\u201d is \u201cidiosyncratic,\u201d as Rogers put it, especially now that space is a strongly contested domain.<\/p>\n

For startups that are looking to sell to the government, there\u2019s been a huge effort inside the DOD to work with small businesses and procure technologies outside the traditional defense and aerospace primes. As Debra Emmons, CTO of The Aerospace Corporation, said onstage, the government has stood up the Defense Innovation Unit, the Office of Strategic Capital, and other funding mechanisms to bring private and public money together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of these programs are to assist companies at the early stage, however, so a dual-use strategy could be a hedge against the government\u2019s relative slowness to sign on new companies to programs of record.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think we are looking at a place where we need to really bring in more on those later stages,\u201d Emmons said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But startups that want to work with the government need to understand that there will be additional hurdles to jump and more relationship-building and trust that need to be established. The relationship-building is especially important; to some extent, the defense tech winners will be those companies that can navigate government most effectively, not necessarily those that have the best technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tech is table stakes,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cThe talent is table stakes. What you have to master is a go-to-market strategy that starts with operational advocacy, clarity about the operational requirements.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Solms agreed: \u201cNumber one, focus on the mission, understand the mission. Don\u2019t come to a point solution. You\u2019re not trying to solve a thing; you\u2019re trying to support a mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Space executives took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to talk about the challenges and opportunities of building out dual-use technology, or tech that has both a defense and a commercial use case.\u00a0 The dual-use strategy can be tricky for young startups to manage, however, because they run the risk of diluting their focus…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":642984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/54100789283_605f466d0f_o.jpg?resize=1200,800","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[152529,5019,151520,152530],"class_list":["post-642983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-slingshot-aerospace","tag-space","tag-techcrunch-disrupt-2024","tag-true-anomaly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}