How to Build with the Department of Defense

a16z Podcast

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When people think about startups working with the government, the phrase “black box” often comes up. But what if that box is finally being pried open? In this episode—recorded live at the American Dynamism Summit in DC—we talk with two Chief Technology Officers at the heart of American defense: Alex Miller, CTO for the Chief of Staff of the Army, and Justin Fanelli, CTO at the Department of the Navy. Along with a16z partner Leila Hay, they break down how the Department of Defense is shifting from decades-old processes to software-speed execution, why the real bottlenecks are cultural, not technical, and how startups can actually navigate and scale within this massive system. From replacing outdated procurement with faster pathways, to getting tech into the hands of warfighters faster, this is a rare look inside the government’s most ambitious efforts to modernize—and what it means for builders on the outside. Is it time to rip up the system and start fresh? Or are the seeds of change already in the ground?

Transcript

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0:00.0	The DoD is a black box.
0:03.0	And I say that meaningfully because we're trying to fix it.
0:06.0	We want to overwhelm the system with how much better it can be.
0:10.0	The U.S. Army should never trade blood for blood in first contract,
0:14.0	and it should always be blood for an iron and it should always be their blood.
0:18.0	In 2025, when people think of government, speed or innovation aren't typically words that come to mind.
0:25.6	But this was not always the case.
0:27.6	In the early 40s, we built the Pentagon in 16 months.
0:31.6	Shortly after, the Manhattan Project took three years.
0:34.6	When the Soviets launched Sputnik in 57, it took a mere 84 days for America to
0:39.9	respond with Explorer 1, kicking off the space race. In the 60s, Kennedy asked for a man on the moon,
0:45.9	and the United States Apollo program answered within the decade. And here's the thing. The very
0:51.2	roots of our technological brawn as a country are deeply rooted
0:54.7	in the federal government. But in recent decades, a Gulf has been developing between Silicon
0:59.3	Valley and Washington, D.C. But a renewed interest is developing and founders building
1:05.0	toward the national interest. But many have no clue how to navigate the black box that
1:09.7	is government procurement.
1:11.9	This is not a technology problem.
1:14.6	This is a culture and a process problem that we can apply technology to.
1:19.4	So in today's episode, recorded live at our third annual American Dynamism Summit in the
1:23.7	heart of Washington, D.C., we bring in two chief technology officers from two of the most
1:29.2	important institutions in the nation. Alex Miller is the CTO for the chief of staff of the Army,
	...

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