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.

I work upstream of the queue. 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:

  • Where authorizations and appropriations are written, and how the language that governs your market gets made.

  • How authorized intent becomes requirements, programs, and budget lines inside the Pentagon and the services.

  • 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. So that "playbook" you saw online gives you a lower probability of success than a cold first SBIR. Once you accept that the acquisition pathways have endless depth and breadth, 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; 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. The shorter path is someone who already lives in both worlds. You don't have to choose me — but you owe it to yourself to choose somebody like me and unlike the others.

How we work together.

  • A scoped diagnostic: where the funding is (or isn't), where your technology fits the path to obligation, and a clear recommendation.

  • 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.

  • A defined campaign to stand up a funding line, shape a requirement, or carry a technology across the "Valley of Death."

  • A deep, time-boxed embed during a critical window.

Engagements are structured, not hourly guesswork. Most clients enter with an assessment and grow into a standing relationship.

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 creating a market, not in proposal volume.

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).

Frequently Asked Questions

  • I shape the conditions that make a solicitation winnable — or unnecessary. Proposal mills compete inside a queue; I work to keep you out of it.

    Pen should only go to paper when your strategy aligns to that of the government.

  • 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.

  • From pre-seed through established primes. Structure and compensation scale with your stage.

  • For early-stage firms, yes — as part of a cash-plus-equity structure, tailored per company.

  • With a Funding Position Assessment, after a qualifying conversation.

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.