Defense Innovation & Venture Capital

Andy Yakulis explores how the US Department of Defense has an innovation problem, threatening our competitive advantage with our adversaries. Risk aversion, bureaucracy, red tape, heavy regulation, and a culture that values the status quo over change are stalling the pace of innovation. The simple reality is that innovative thinking gets squashed by the "this is the way we've always done things" mentality. DoD must prioritize this self-inflicted innovation crisis to streamline advanced technology to the warfighter when needed most; an institutional culture shift must occur. DoD must focus on new collaborations with startups, venture capital (VC) and overall, start taking measured acquisition risk in the same way our operational force takes calculated but necessary risk.