The Other SBIR Problem: Phase III Has No Money and Nobody Tells You
Phase III SBIR has no congressionally appropriated funding, and that gap quietly kills defense startups that survive Phase I and II.
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Critical Tech Ventures
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Critical Tech Ventures covers deep tech / defense tech venture capital, strategic investment. We publish original analysis, frameworks, and commentary for practitioners and decision-makers.
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S. VanceThe DARPA-to-Program-of-Record Gap Nobody Budgets For
DARPA funding gets defense startups to TRL 6. Getting to a Program of Record costs far more than founders or investors expect.
S. VanceThe SaaS Pricing Model Has No Business Being in a Defense Contract
Defense startups copying SaaS pricing into government contracts are setting themselves up for margin collapse. Here's what actually works.
S. VanceThe Modular Open Systems Architecture Bet: Why MOSA Is the Defense Tech Investment Thesis You Can't Afford to Ignore
MOSA mandates are reshaping how the Pentagon buys technology. Here's what that means for defense tech investors and the startups positioned to win.
S. VanceThe MultiDomain Operations Gap: Where Defense Tech Investors Should Actually Be Looking
Multi-domain operations expose the Pentagon's deepest integration failures, and the startups solving those gaps represent some of the most overlooked defense tech investment opportunities.
S. VanceThe Classified-to-Commercial Transfer Problem: Why Deep Tech IP Rarely Survives the Journey
Why transferring classified or defense-derived IP into commercial products is harder than founders think, and what investors need to verify before writing a check.
S. Vance