Discovering a buyer in your product within the Division of Protection is difficult: Who must you discuss to? How do you get their consideration?
On the lookout for DoD clients
How are you aware if they’ve cash to spend in your product?
It nearly 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 battle – e.g. AI, autonomy, drones, biotech, entry to area, cyber, semiconductors, new supplies, and so on.
At this time, a brand new class of startups are trying to promote these merchandise to the Protection Division. Amazingly, there isn’t any single DoD-wide cellphone e book 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 e book.
The DoD buys a whole lot of billions of {dollars} of services per yr, and practically all of those purchases are managed by Program Govt Workplaces. A Program Govt Workplace could also be liable for a particular program (e.g., the Joint Strike Fighter) or for a whole portfolio of comparable applications (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 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/Mission Managers.
Every Program Govt Workplace is headed by a Program Govt Officer who’s a excessive rating official – both a member of the army or a excessive rating civilian – liable for the fee, schedule, and efficiency of a serious system, or portfolio of techniques, some price billions of {dollars}.
Under is a abstract of 75 Program Govt Workplaces within the Division of Protection.
You may 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 probably incomplete and accommodates errors.
Army officers usually change jobs each few years.
Program Workplaces get closed and new ones opened as wanted.
This implies this doc was old-fashioned the day it was written. Nonetheless it represents a useful start line for startups trying to work with DoD.
Easy 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 funds is rising, lowering, or remaining the identical.
The perfect place to begin is by wanting by means of an outline of your entire protection funds right here. Then seek for these applications within the linked PEO Listing. You will get an concept whether or not that program has $ Billions, or $ Hundreds of thousands.
Subsequent, check out the funds paperwork launched by the DoD Comptroller –
notably the P-1 (Procurement) and R-1 (R&D) funds paperwork.
Combining the funds 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 possibly can translate the topline, account, or Program Ingredient (PE) Line adjustments right into a gross sales Go-To-Market technique, or at the very least a speculation of who to name on.
Armed with this system description (it’s filled with jargon and 9-12 months old-fashioned) and the Excel obtain right here and the Appendix right here –– you possibly can determine targets for gross sales calls with DoD the place your product has one of the best probability of becoming in.
The individuals and organizations on this listing change extra ceaselessly than the cash.
Understanding the individuals is useful solely after you perceive their priorities — and cash is one of the best 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 undertaking will likely be saved up to date by the Stanford Gordian Knot Middle for Nationwide Safety Innovation.
Within the meantime ship updates, corrections and feedback to [email protected]
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, any such listing has not existed in a usable format – till now.
Filed beneath: Air Power, Gordian Knot Middle for Nationwide Safety Innovation, Hacking For Protection, Nationwide Safety, Navy |
