Startups entering the U.S. national security arena face both extraordinary opportunity and systemic complexity. This primer maps where to focus and how to engage.

Why This Matters

This post summarizes insights from An OODA Network Primer for Startups: Navigating Exponential Disruption in National Security, a roadmap for how startups can engage with national security stakeholders and innovation engines. With geopolitical threats mounting and defense acquisition processes lagging behind technological advances, deep tech startups are increasingly seen as vital to competitive advantage for the United States.

Contextual reasons to care:

• Deep tech startups are now core to America’s national security innovation base.
• The defense-industrial complex is awakening to the need for commercial partnerships, but startups must learn how to navigate entrenched bureaucracy.
• Strategic investor and government relationships are now as critical as engineering talent.
• The OODA Network highlights key nodes of opportunity and resources for acceleration.

Key Points

• Engage Where Impact Is Highest: Align startup roadmaps with high-priority national security missions by tapping into national security innovation engines.
• Leverage Accelerators with Purpose: Hubs like AFWERX, DIU, NSIN, and NavalX help translate tech into deployable capabilities (each with different priorities and timelines).
• The OODA Network as a Compass: The OODA community curates resources, relationships, and frameworks that guide startups through both the strategic and operational terrain.
• Acquisition Cycles Are Broken but Evolving: DOD’s pace still lags the commercial sector, but startups can influence new pathways via SBIR, OTA, and pilot program engagements.
• Narrative Drives Outcomes: Founders who can articulate mission relevance (not just product specs) are more likely to gain traction with national security buyers and investors.

What Next?

• Deep Tech Will Define Deterrence: As strategic competition with China intensifies, national resilience will increasingly depend on commercial R&D velocity.
• Expect a Wave of Public-Private Fusion: From AI to autonomy to quantum, national security will require tighter integration with emerging tech founders.
• Startup Playbooks Are Being Rewritten: Success in this domain will demand new frameworks for go-to-market, contracting, and compliance.

Recommendations for Startups

• Study the Innovation Ecosystem: Use the OODA Loop primer to map key agencies, accelerators, and defense priorities.
• Build with Mission Fit in Mind: Focus R&D on problems that align with U.S. national defense and resilience goals (not just tech for tech’s sake).
• Join the Right Networks Early: Engage with OODA Loop resources and other mission-aligned communities that offer guidance and connectivity.
• Practice Narrative Warfare: Craft strategic messaging that positions your startup as a partner in national security, not just a vendor.

OODA Loop Resources

1. An OODA Network Primer for Startups: Navigating Exponential Disruption in National Security
   A comprehensive overview of how startups can navigate the national security environment. Focuses on decision-making frameworks, mission alignment, and stakeholder engagement at the intersection of deep tech and defense.
2. National Security Innovation Engines: Where Deep Tech Startups Can Engage for Maximum Impact
   Maps out key organizations (e.g., DIU, AFWERX, NSIN) that startups should consider engaging with. Outlines the differences in their missions, focus areas, and how startups can plug in effectively.
3. OODA Loop Resources for National Security Technology Startups: On Defense Industrial Base Innovation and Accelerating Acquisition Cycles
   Offers curated tools, playbooks, and insight to help startups understand the defense acquisition process and shorten time-to-impact. Includes commentary on key friction points in traditional DOD contracting and how to navigate around them.
4. Cybersecurity and Blockchain Convergence: Strategic Opportunities for Startups and Investors at Black Hat 2025
   As the OODA Network and the Black Hat community attend Black Hat 2025 in Vegas, we tailored this OODA Loop Original Analysis for startup leadership teams and investors attending the conference. It seems that market and regulatory conditions are now optimized for the innovation ecosystem to take the accelerated lead in addressing urgent problems, providing myriad competing solutions, for the market to then sort out the winners and losers.
5. Cybersecurity and AI Convergence: A Startup Ecosystem Playbook (Agentic AI, LLM Threats, and Red-Teaming at Scale)
   This playbook explains how cybersecurity, AI/ML, LLMs, adversarial AI, AI sovereignty, red-teaming, and agentic AI intersect—and what it means for startup teams who attended Black Hat USA 2025 and DEF CON 33.