Discovering a buyer in your product within the Division of Protection is difficult: Who must you discuss to? How do you get their consideration?
How have you learnt if they’ve cash to spend in your product?
It nearly all the time begins with a Program Govt Workplace.
The Division of Protection (DoD) now not owns all of the applied sciences, services and products to discourage or win a struggle – e.g. AI, autonomy, drones, biotech, entry to house, cyber, semiconductors, new supplies, and many others.
Right this moment, 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 obtainable 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 tons of of billions of {dollars} of services and products per yr, and practically all of those purchases are managed by Program Govt Workplaces. A Program Govt Workplace could also be chargeable for a particular program (e.g., the Joint Strike Fighter) or for a whole portfolio of comparable packages (e.g., the Navy Program Govt Workplace for Digital and Enterprise Companies). 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.
Current 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 begin.
This can be a traditional case of data 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 Govt Workplaces and their Program Govt Officers and Program/Undertaking Managers.
Every Program Govt Workplace is headed by a Program Govt Officer who’s a excessive rating official – both a member of the navy or a excessive rating civilian – chargeable for the associated fee, schedule, and efficiency of a serious system, or portfolio of techniques, some value billions of {dollars}.
Under is a abstract of 75 Program Govt Workplaces within the Division of Protection.
You’ll be able to obtain the total 64-page doc of Program Govt Workplaces and Officers with all 602 names right here.
Caveats
Don’t rely on this doc for accuracy or completeness.
It’s doubtless incomplete and comprises 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.
Methods to Use The PEO Listing As A part of A Go-To-Market Technique
Whereas it’s useful to know what Program Govt 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 most effective place to begin is by wanting by means of an summary of your entire 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 Govt Workplaces and 500+ program managers to name on.
With some apply you’ll be able to translate the topline, account, or Program Ingredient (PE) Line adjustments right into a gross sales Go-To-Market technique, or at the least a speculation of who to name on.
Armed with this system description (it’s stuffed with jargon and 9-12 months outdated) and the Excel obtain right here and the Appendix right here –– you’ll be able to determine targets for gross sales calls with DoD the place your product has the perfect likelihood of becoming in.
The folks and organizations on this listing change extra regularly than the cash.
Understanding the folks is useful solely after you perceive their priorities — and cash is the perfect proxy for that.
Future Work
In the end we need 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 venture 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 data. 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, this kind of listing has not existed in a usable format – till now.
Filed beneath: Air Pressure, Gordian Knot Middle for Nationwide Safety Innovation, Hacking For Protection, Nationwide Safety, Navy |
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