You want to create a market, not chase it.
Market creation and segmentation.
Most defense consultants do the same thing: log into a government portal, find a solicitation that already exists, and help you write a proposal to compete against twenty other firms for money that is already spoken for. That isn't strategy. It's standing in a queue — and charging you for the privilege.
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The solicitation is the last page of a book someone else wrote.
Two years in the making. Thirty days to answer.
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You're not missing context — the document is. It was written for people already in the conversation.
I work in the chapters before the conclusion gets written. I trace where funding actually originates, how requirements are generated at every level from authorization to obligation, and I let you know how to pull the right levers to move value to you and to your customer. By the time a solicitation is published, your name should already be synonymous with the market.
If you are looking for someone to chase opportunities, I am not your consultant. If you are building something the government needs and you want the landscape shaped around it, we should talk.
From authorization to obligation.
Most consultants have never seen the inside of the system they claim to navigate with ease. They've memorized the acronyms, but they don't know why or how much work actually goes into legally bringing technology to market.
I do.
Federal money travels a long, deliberate path before it becomes a contract — and I know that path: where it starts, where it stalls, and where one well-placed move changes the outcome.
The trace, in three movements:
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Where authorizations and appropriations are written, and how the language that governs your market gets made.
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How authorized intent becomes requirements, programs, and budget lines inside the Pentagon and the services.
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How requirements become solicitations, vehicles, and obligated dollars — and how to position a technology to be the answer that pathway is built to buy.
I have generated requirements at every one of these levels — from inside Defense Acquisition to commercial robotics that win Programs of Record.
Knowing how the system creates demand is what lets me help create it on your behalf.
Real Experience.
A new program is the Military’s newest market.
Different technologies. Different buyers that move every 2 years. Different budgets. Different politicians. The Valley of Death is never crossed the same way twice. Those generic playbooks floating around? Worse odds than a cold first SBIR — because every program is a different animal. The acquisition pathways have endless depth and breadth — once you work with that knowledge instead of against it, your relationship with the government can go from transactional to mutually beneficial.
What I Bring to the Table
West Point engineer. Carnegie Mellon MBA. TS/SCI security clearance.
A career inside Defense Acquisition: Early-stage R&D; product management from ACAT III to ACAT IC ($4B AUM) within a Program Executive Office; $655M portfolio management of "Big R" requirements (new Programs of Record); a founding seat on the Army's AI Task Force; and urgent requirements management in the Pentagon.
In industry: Leader of deep tech product development that created strategic openings to extend funding and enter Programs of Record.
Choose Deliberately
Build your company, don't memorize the FAR. Pay for outcomes, not a place in the stack of twenty white papers. Skip the freshly retired Pentagon hire who can't relate your income statement to an acquisition plan — and skip the months spent luring experience out of a prime. You don't have to choose me. But choose someone who lives in both the business and defense worlds — not someone who’s only memorized the map.
How we work together.
Engagements are structured, not hourly guesswork. Most clients enter with an assessment and grow into a standing relationship.
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A scoped diagnostic: where the funding is (or isn't), where your technology fits the path to obligation, and a clear go/no-go.
Winning the wrong market costs more than losing the right one — a year and six figures of engineering aimed at a customer who lacks the authority to buy.
The cheapest thing I do is make sure that isn't you, and I can make that call because I used to be the one who made it.
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Priority access and continuous monitoring of the funding landscape as it moves.
You’ve planted a thousand flowers, but now you know which ones to water when it is time for them to bloom.
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A defined campaign to stand up a funding line, shape a requirement, or carry a technology across the "Valley of Death."
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A deep, time-boxed embed during a critical window.
A deliberate fit.
I work best with:
Firms that know their roadmap and understand how public funding can accelerate it.
Real technology with a credible path to a defense mission — not a slide deck looking for a market.
Leaders ready to invest in building a market — not just stacking the next award.
I'm not the right fit for:
Teams looking for a proposal writer to compete on an existing solicitation.
Anyone seeking contingency or "win-fee" arrangements (and there are good legal reasons I decline them).
Already winning awards? That doesn’t mean you have to stop pursuing government money to get off the treadmill. The grants stay on — we just aim them, so every award builds toward a program that outlives it.
Frequently Asked Questions
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I shape the conditions that make a solicitation winnable — or unnecessary. The proposal treadmill keeps you competing inside a queue; my job is to get you off it. Pen should go to paper only when your strategy and the government's line up.
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No. Paying a consultant a contingent fee to obtain a federal contract raises serious compliance problems under the FAR. I structure engagements as fixed fees, retainers, and — for early-stage firms — milestone-vested equity.
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From pre-seed through established primes. Structure and compensation scale with your stage.
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For early-stage firms, yes — as part of a cash-plus-equity structure, tailored per company.
I take equity because I only win when your transition does.
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With a Funding Position Assessment, after a qualifying conversation.
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You're not being asked to. Switching off the money that keeps your lights on would be malpractice — and it isn't the play.
The grants stay on and we aim them. Every award you chase from here gets chosen and shaped to build toward one thing: a program that outlives that one grant. The same revenue you already win — pointed at an exit from the treadmill instead of another lap on it.
The faucet keeps running while we dig the well. The goal is not to turn the faucet off — it is to get you to the well it draws from.
And the part nobody says out loud: staying on the treadmill isn't the safe choice. Topics change, programs sunset, and a company that always wins and transitions nothing is one budget cycle from the lights going out with nothing behind them. Crossing over is what makes the money durable.
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Then I tell you — and that's the most valuable answer you can get.
Winning the wrong market costs more than losing the right one: a year and six figures of engineering aimed at a customer who lacks the authority to buy. A Funding Position Assessment is built to catch that before you spend it. A clear "no" early is worth more than a hopeful "maybe" three years in.
Schedule an engagement.
An hour now might save you more than a year of discovery learning.
A few questions first — they help me show up to our conversation prepared. Wherever you are in your journey, even if you are still in ideation, share your context and you'll get my calendar to book a time. I read every inquiry myself.