<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacksonmoses/"><u>Jackson Moses</u></a>, Founder and Managing Partner at <a href="https://silentvc.com/"><u>Silent Ventures</u></a>, spent a decade building companies before he started backing them. He founded Silent Ventures to invest exclusively at the pre-seed and seed stage in aerospace, defense, and national security, specifically because he believed most early-stage investors didn&#39;t understand what it actually took to survive inside the defense contracting system.</p><p>Jackson makes the case that most defense tech companies fail on go to market, not technology, and that a program of record is the only outcome that turns a defense tech startup into a real business. He also gives a direct take on why dual use is a hedge word, why SBIR dollars prolong the valley of death instead of crossing it, and why diversification is the wrong thesis for anyone investing seriously in this space.</p><p><strong>Topics discussed:</strong></p><ul><li><p>Why SBIRs prolong the valley of death instead of solving it</p></li><li><p>Dual use as a hedge word, not a strategy</p></li><li><p>Program of record as the only real success metric for defense tech</p></li><li><p>What Silent Ventures looks for in a founding team at pre-seed</p></li><li><p>Go-to-market as the primary failure point in defense tech</p></li><li><p>Why diversification kills alpha in defense tech investing</p></li><li><p>Biggest funding gaps: electronic warfare and affordable drone mass</p></li><li><p>The case against building a defense tech company around non-dilutive funding </p></li></ul>