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Former defense/intel contractor here (currently co-founder of a start-up): Fuck No! The Federal acquisition process is an absolute nightmare that favors incum

by JPKab 5y ago

Former defense/intel contractor here (currently co-founder of a start-up): Fuck No! The Federal acquisition process is an absolute nightmare that favors incumbents. Innovation in this sector is extremely difficult, because contracts are super specific, down to requesting/stating the exact technologies to be implemented, rather than a higher-level capabilities based RFP. https://www.acq.osd.mil/DPAP/dars/dfarspgi/current/index.html https://www.acq.osd.mil/DPAP/dars/dfarspgi/current/index.htm... It's a nightmare, it's a quagmire, and it needs to be fixed. Until then, anyone who invests in a start-up in this space is out of their minds.

Jerrrry 5y ago
Second this. The only room for innovation is ambiguity in some legalese. proactivity is either immediately repudiated or heralded as the new status quo.
jcadam 5y ago
Private equity firms are involved in the space, mostly to profit from the acquisition of smaller (but still somewhat established) defense firms by larger ones :/ In any case, I recently left the defense industry after a 20-year career and am working in the private sector (financial-sector stuff using Clojure) now. It's a completely different world. Tech that was just being introduced in the govt space is old hat out here in the real world -- and my last defense job was working in the R&D space on ML/AI projects where we were allowed to experiment with "cutting edge" (i.e., only 5 years behind state of the art, rather than the usual 10-20) tech. I had a brief stint as a SETA contractor several years ago, during which I learned what a clownshow the acquisition process is. I was supposed to be providing technical expertise and evaluating proposals - but really I was there to justify decisions that had already been made, and to be the "technical guy" that decision makers brought along to meetings to support them :)

by JPKab 5y ago

Jerrrry 5y ago

Second this. The only room for innovation is ambiguity in some legalese. proactivity is either immediately repudiated or heralded as the new status quo.

jcadam 5y ago

Private equity firms are involved in the space, mostly to profit from the acquisition of smaller (but still somewhat established) defense firms by larger ones :/ In any case, I recently left the defense industry after a 20-year career and am working in the private sector (financial-sector stuff using Clojure) now. It's a completely different world. Tech that was just being introduced in the govt space is old hat out here in the real world -- and my last defense job was working in the R&D space on ML/AI projects where we were allowed to experiment with "cutting edge" (i.e., only 5 years behind state of the art, rather than the usual 10-20) tech. I had a brief stint as a SETA contractor several years ago, during which I learned what a clownshow the acquisition process is. I was supposed to be providing technical expertise and evaluating proposals - but really I was there to justify decisions that had already been made, and to be the "technical guy" that decision makers brought along to meetings to support them :)