WASHINGTON — As investment pours into defense and space startups, the U.S. Space Force is trying to draw more of those companies into the national security market.
After hundreds of startup pitches, the head of the Space Force’s commercial office offers a candid assessment of what companies get right — and wrong — when approaching government buyers.
Speaking May 27 at the State of the Space Industrial Base conference hosted by NewSpace Nexus in New Mexico, Col. Tim Trimailo shared what he described as personal observations from those interactions. His central message for startups: Build something that solves a real problem. Explain why it matters. Be candid about what has gone wrong. Understand how government buying works. Keep commercial customers in the picture.
“Start with the ‘why’ … Why do we need it? Tell the story,” Trimailo said. “We have some founders who jump in, and they are incredibly intelligent. They understand their technology better than anybody else, but you have to start with the story. Why is your technology important? What capability does it deliver to the warfighter? Start there.”
The advice reflects a broader tension playing out across the defense space sector. Venture funding has poured into companies developing satellites, communications networks, software, sensors and other systems, many of them built around the expectation that military demand will grow. Yet converting technical promise into government contracts remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges.
