Event Summary
QLab’s second session featured QLab Founder Ryan Holte and Andrew Ermitano, Deputy Chief of Space Ventures at SpaceWERX, for a practical walkthrough of how dual use startups actually get adopted inside the Department of Defense. Ermitano framed the core challenge clearly: great technology does not fail because it lacks capability, it fails because the system is hard to navigate and founders do not align the right funding, the right contracting path, and validated demand.
The conversation focused on what founders can do differently. First, know your customer and understand the difference between the end user and the buyer. Founders need operator pull, but they also need to map who controls the budget and requirements, then build a path that connects the two. Second, plan for the budget reality. Getting into baseline funding takes time, so bridging strategies matter while longer budget cycles catch up. Third, choose the mechanism that matches your goal, whether that is speed for prototyping or a pathway that can actually scale.
The takeaway for QLab teams was simple: the “valley of death” is not mysterious. It is a set of predictable hurdles, and founders who design for adoption from day one give themselves a real shot at getting capability into the field.