SXSW 2023

Using Defense Money to Grow your Unicorn

Description:

The U.S. Defense Department (DoD) has one of the largest budgets in the world, awarding $445 billion in contracts. Compare that to the private sector where start-up creation and investment was estimated at $105 billion. The DoD represents great opportunities for startups. The defense marketplace is also one of the most complex and bureaucratic landscapes that make navigating it extremely challenging. But lucrative defense contracts that can be landed. Early-stage non-dilutive defense funding has proved pivotal to scale market success. With money available from government programs, startups can actually get paid to develop commercial products. Learn how to navigate the complex Department of Defense and create dual-use companies that can land funding & lucrative DoD contracts.

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Takeaways

  1. Learn about lucrative funding opportunities with the Department of Defense, such as SBIR, STTR, STRATFI & TACFI, NSIC, the Army’s xTechSearch and NSIC
  2. Dual-use products that have both commercial appeal and solves a DoD problem have huge potential to get funding for product development and scaling.
  3. Peter Thiel's Palantir, Palmer Luckey's Anduril, are examples of dual-use companies scoring big with the Department of Defense. Learn how they did it.

Speakers

  • Jeff Decker, Program Director, Hacking for Defense at Stanford University, Stanford University

Organizer

Jenifer Howard, Pr Director, Hacking for Defense at Stanford University

Meta Information:

  • Event: SXSW
  • Format: Presentation
  • Track: Startups
  • Track 2
  • Level: Intermediate
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