US Secretary of Defense Secretary Ash Carter has made clear that tapping into national innovation hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston is a top priority for a military he has warned is losing its technological edge. 

However, critics have already begun to whisper that entrepreneurs in these regions have no interest in working with the military because the commercial opportunities are too enticing to worry about enduring Pentagon bureaucracy.

Those criticisms are premature.

The interest exists if the Pentagon can reach these innovators. National security agencies have made progress toward reaching out to startups and innovators, and it's not limited to the creation of the Pentagon's new outpost next door to Google in Mountain View, California.

Standing up the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) will allow the Pentagon to make connections with key entrepreneurial networks and financiers. This, combined with tangible investments, like the $75 million for wearable tech announced in August, has the Pentagon moving in the right direction.

But there's more to this movement.

Leaders in different branches and agencies of the military and government have quietly launched efforts to engage innovators with new contract vehicles and unprecedented access to development programs. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the US Army Research Laboratory, the Department of Homeland Security, the Combating Terrorism Technical Service Office and the Department of Veterans Affairs have all taken significant steps forward.

DARPA, for example, stood up the Robotics Fast Track Pprogram to make it easier for roboticists to receive government funding to build prototypes. The leader of the program, DARPA Program Manager Mark Micire, understands the challenge startups and small businesses face. He started his own robotics company before joining the agency and knows the pressure founders feel to find funds to pay for employees and equipment.

The program was modeled after the Cyber Fast Track Pprogram, which was an experimental program that received over 400 applications from cybersecurity firms that injected new cyber research as well as software and hardware prototypes from many companies that had not worked with the government. 

DARPA created the Robotics Fast Track Pprogram with the aid of BIT Systems and the Open Source Robotics Foundation. The program allows companies and individuals to apply for a contract worth up to $150,000 to build a robot prototype in about one year.

The "fast track" aspect of the program looks to speed up the process of getting funding into the hands of innovators. The team set up a sleek website to ease the application process and provide feedback to applicants in under two weeks.

Micire and the Robotics Fast Track team also worked on a grassroots promotional campaign (which my company Tandem National Security Innovations helped organize) to spread the word about the program. The campaign has included face-to-face meetings with roboticists and entrepreneurs in places these groups frequent, like co-working spaces (The Maker’s Space in Seattle) or workshops (TechShop in Arlington, Virginia). In fact, Micire and the Robotics Fast Track team spent Nov. 17-19 a week in November on a West Coast tour visiting Seattle, San Diego, Redwood City, California, and Livermore, California, on Nov. 17-19.

The Robotics Fast Track team did not just post a notice to FedBizOpps.gov and hope the entrepreneurs would find it. Instead, the team went out and engaged with these groups. What they found were rooms packed with entrepreneurs and innovators excited at the opportunity to work with DARPA.

Gary Kurek attended the Redwood City event at TechShop on Nov. 18. Kurek is the type of innovator critics have said wouldn't want to waste his time working with a government agency. He's worked with some of the top names in the Valley after he won a grant from Peter Thiel's foundation, the co-founder of PayPal, to start GET Mobility Systems, which developed robotics mobility aids for the disabled.

Kurek said he was interested in working with DARPA because of the hard problems the agency can offer and the instant credibility his company could receive by earning a DARPA contract. Kurek is now the chief executive officer of Kügar Systems, a firm developing robotics factory automation.

Hansol Hong, the CEO of Robolink, attended the San Diego event. He founded the San Diego Robotics Club and said many of his group's members see the value in working with national security agencies like DARPA. He left the Nov. 19 Robotics Fast Track event saying he expected many in attendance to apply for the contract.

Innovators like Hong and Kurek want to work with the government. Plenty of roadblocks still exist with the US military's antiquated acquisition system, but it's wrong to say the interest is not there.

The key is reaching those innovators through networks and channels where they are comfortable and knocking down some of the cultural barriers that exist between the military and the tech community.

Michael Hoffman is the director of marketing and executive editor for Tandem National Security Innovations, a firm dedicated to connecting innovators to national security projects. His email is He is also a former senior writer at Defense News. Hoffman can be reached at mhoffman@tandemnsi.com.

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