Disintermediating the Major Defense Contractors

Innovative and cost-effective altogether? Think SpaceShipOne, a commercial space ship that didn't come from a major defense contractor, not even NASA but from a competition won by a privately run company. How to disintermediate yet innovate? Become a venture capitalist, or an angel investor and optimistically hope the academic-to-commercialization process would happen with one of your investments. The DeVenCI project aims to connect sellers with buyers and seems like a sound short-term objectives oriented idea compared with In-Q-Tel the CIA's VC fund emphasizing on long-term R&D :

"Some companies have already profited from the program. In 2003, when DeVenCI was in its experimental phase, the Defense Information Systems Agency was looking for ways to protect computer networks. After speaking to several companies through DeVenCI and evaluating their technology, the agency wound up working with ArcSight, a software company based in Cupertino, Calif., which won $3.6 million in related contracts over the next few years, DeVenCI officials said. Mr. Novak of Novak Biddle said he brought with him to the March DeVenCI meeting two executives from a small start-up developing biometric technology that could be used for things like advanced fingerprinting or eye scans. Mr. Novak said the chief executive and chief technology officer from the Virginia company, which he declined to name for competitive reasons, gave a presentation to the roughly 50 assembled procurement agents."

Here's In-Q-Tel's investment portfolio so far -- Google used to be among them.

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