Joyce Sidopoulos

Ok, hear me out, I have a new idea for price proposals on software… So, one of the challenges with selling Software, particularly new emerging sw tech in GovCon is pricing. Gov tends to think of price as a proxy for time. I.e. if they pay you for some new cool software on a 6-month contract, with an agreed upon price, but you turn around and deliver it in two weeks, many Gov folks feel ripped off, as if delivering it over 6 months it would have been fair to charge that price, but if you could turn it around in two weeks, then clearly you’re over-charging. The retort from the industry side is almost always “you’re not paying for time, you’re paying for value!” But that’s the rub, Gov has great price models for labor hours that go into a product…but value…not so much… So how do you determine “fair and reasonable” if you can’t price the “value”? Here’s my pitch, 1. What problem does your software solve? 2. How do you quantify that problem? (Labor hours , lost equipment, pissed off employees who end up leaving, failed missions) 3. How much does that qualified problem cost the government? 4. Now make a neat little model for how much of that cost is saved/avoided with your sw per unit of your sw 5. Discount that 50% and you have a fair and reasonable price Does this fit in the ProPricer format? No, probably not. But hey, we’re supposed to be doing CSOs for sw now, so maybe it shouldn’t. FWIW…this is basically how you sell commercial software to commercial businesses…so why isn’t it how we sell to gov?

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The U.S. DoD is preparing changes that will radically alter acquisition and shift it from hardware centric to software centric: Once rolled out at scale this will be a game changer at the DoD and will also change how companies go to market. Despite everybody talking about software, a lot of companies have defaulted to a hardware-led go-to-market because of the friction in acquisition. At Auterion we're taking the long view: We have resisted to build drones, which puts us in a position now to help the warfighter to break vendor lock, avoid stove pipes and create true interoperability on the edge. https://lnkd.in/ehU8QpJf

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Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has established its Blue Manufacturing Marketplace as a pre-vetted catalog of trusted advanced manufacturing companies for scaling defense technology production. Trusted manufacturing partners will be grouped into six categories: - Parts Production: Large-format metal additive - Parts Production: Small-format metal additive  - Parts Production: Composite or ceramic additive - Parts Production: Automated metal machining and forming  - Automated and advanced post-processing - 3D-printed tooling "Today, DIU is proud to announce its first formal effort in this space, Blue Manufacturing, which aims to qualify advanced commercial manufacturers and enable them to rapidly connect with cutting-edge technology companies. Through these relationships, Blue Manufacturing seeks to develop and integrate commercial technology with a trusted manufacturing innovation base in advanced areas like 3D printing, automation, and high-rate production to scale production quickly, securely, and globally." https://lnkd.in/eECyPAB8 #defensetech #DIU #defenseinnovation #advancedmanufacturing #addititive #3Dprinting #defenseindustry

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In a dynamic world, why are we still anchoring defense programs to outdated Acquisition Program Baselines (APBs) set when uncertainty is highest? Matt MacGregor and I challenge the status quo and propose a new approach to managing acquisition programs. APBs, set at Milestone B, rely on optimistic estimates with incomplete data. This leads to: • Misaligned incentives that prioritize outdated targets over warfighter needs. • Bureaucratic paralysis when baselines need revising. • Stifled innovation, discouraging the agility needed for AI, hypersonics, or cyber. The DoD needs to shift to rolling capability targets, warfighter feedback loops, and adaptive management. Imagine dynamic baselines that evolve with new data and mission needs. Continuous warfighter input through prototyping and real-time dashboards. Flexible funding and streamlined oversight to empower program managers. Data-driven decisions using digital twins, AI, and predictive analytics. Success should be measured by mission impact—delivering what warfighters need, when they need it—not adherence to early guesses. From fighter jets to cyber defenses, this approach could transform how we deliver capability. Is it time to rethink APBs? What barriers do you see in adopting a more flexible, outcome-focused model? Read our post and share your thoughts below! https://lnkd.in/eKcJjQ9u

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⚓ 🚀 BREAKING NEWS: Saronic Technologies announces $600M Series C, valuing the company at $4B. And, they're following in Anduril Industries' footsteps, and announcing a major manufacturing facility called Port Alpha. Fundraising in defense tech is not the thing to celebrate... but significant traction in a critical industry is exciting and important. U.S. commercial shipbuilding has declined dramatically since its peak during World War II. Today, despite having the world's largest navy, America builds less than 1% of global commercial vessels. Our warships take 4-7+ years to build, on average. We don't need to fight yesterday's wars; we need to modernize to meet new challenges. This news puts Saronic in the pole position among newcomers vying to be the one to carry us into the future. And more competition in this space is a good thing.

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We live and operate in a highly interconnected world, defense supply chains are incredibly brittle and not resilient, very intricately tied to foreign suppliers—a reality that recent defense industry analysis confirms. Critcal question isn’t just about identifying foreign dependencies, but about achieving true Supply Chain Illumination (SCI): the analytical process that provides complete transparency and visibility into supply chain entities, products, parts, and raw materials to identify risks and enable proactive mitigation. We operate today in an environment where roughly half of critical parts have at least one major risk factor, yet most organizations lack the end-to-end visibility needed to understand who or what is touching their supply chains. The parallel to our aviation infrastructure is striking. The brand new air traffic control system unveiled in May 2025 replacing decades-old technology with state-of-the-art fiber, wireless, and satellite technologies across 4,600+ sites—demonstrates how critical infrastructure modernization requires complete transparency and real-time visibility. Just as the new ATC system will provide controllers with unprecedented situational awareness to ensure aviation safety, supply chain illumination is key critcal to give organizations the visibility needed to secure their critical dependencies. We can’t secure what we can’t see. Supply chain illumination isn’t just good business practice—it’s a national security imperative. #SupplyChainSecurity #SupplyChainIllumination #BNATCS #ReadyNow #weareparsons

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Mercury Systems, Inc. has signed two agreements with a European defense prime contractor to enhance production of processing subsystems and components for radar and electronic warfare missions. In June, Mercury extended this decades-long customer relationship with a five-year agreement that will enable faster, higher-volume production of sensor processing subsystems powered by Mercury’s HDS6605 6U OpenVPX multiprocessing boards for airborne, land-based and sea-based radar systems. #MercurySystems #InnovationThatMatters https://lnkd.in/eccJGqPr

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Defense contractor Anduril is acquiring Numerica Corp.'s radar and command and control businesses, according to a company press release published today. Terms of the deal were not disclosed to Inside Defense in emails with an Anduril spokesperson. As part of the deal, Numerica’s short-range air defense Spyglass and Spark radars are set to join Anduril’s existing portfolio of automated sensing solutions, according to the release. Anduril also plans to manufacture Spyglass and Spark at its future Arsenal-1 manufacturing facility aimed at “hyperscaling” the production of critical defense technology, according to the release.

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