Discovering a buyer to your product within the Division of Protection is difficult: Who do you have to speak to? How do you get their consideration?
On the lookout for DoD prospects
How have you learnt if they’ve cash to spend in your product?
It virtually at all times begins with a Program Govt Workplace.
The Division of Protection (DoD) now not owns all of the applied sciences, services to discourage or win a struggle – e.g. AI, autonomy, drones, biotech, entry to house, cyber, semiconductors, new supplies, and many others.
As we speak, a brand new class of startups try to promote these merchandise to the Protection Division. Amazingly, there isn’t a single DoD-wide cellphone e book accessible to startups of who to name within the Protection Division.
So I wrote one.
Consider the PEO Listing linked under as a “Who buys within the authorities?” cellphone e book.
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 Govt Workplaces. A Program Govt Workplace could also be accountable for a selected program (e.g., the Joint Strike Fighter) or for a complete portfolio of comparable packages (e.g., the Navy Program Govt 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 Govt Workplaces and their Program Govt Officers and Program/Challenge 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 – accountable for the fee, schedule, and efficiency of a serious system, or portfolio of methods, some price billions of {dollars}.
Beneath is a abstract of 75 Program Govt Workplaces within the Division of Protection.
You possibly can obtain the total 64-page doc of Program Govt Workplaces and Officers with all 602 names right here.
Caveats
Don’t rely upon 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.
The best way 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, lowering, or remaining the identical.
The perfect place to start out is by trying via an outline 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 $ Thousands and thousands.
Subsequent, check out the finances paperwork launched by the DoD Comptroller –
significantly 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 follow you possibly can translate the topline, account, or Program Factor (PE) Line adjustments right into a gross sales Go-To-Market technique, or no less than 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 possibly can establish targets for gross sales calls with DoD the place your product has one of the best likelihood of becoming in.
The folks and organizations on this record change extra ceaselessly than the cash.
Figuring out the folks is useful solely after you perceive their priorities — and cash is one of the best proxy for that.
Future Work
Finally 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 saved up to date by the Stanford Gordian Knot Heart 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 record is fragmented and irregularly up to date. Consequently, this sort of listing has not existed in a usable format – till now.
Filed beneath: Air Pressure, Gordian Knot Heart for Nationwide Safety Innovation, Hacking For Protection, Nationwide Safety, Navy |