Can the Military Move at Startup Speed? How the Army and Navy Are Rebuilding – a16z Podcast

Description:
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—a16z’s partner Leila Hay talks 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. Together 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 From replacing outdated procurement with faster pathways, to getting tech into the hands of warfighters faster, this is a rare look inside the government’s most ambitious efforts to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.

Excerpt:
“If a company says ‘We use Rescale, and based on running 100,000 reps that would have [previously] taken 10 years, using high-level compute in the cloud, we can fast forward this.’ That is proven and that’s an easier decision because they’ve translated it into our language which is outcomes.”

–Justin Fanelli, Chief Technology Officer, US Department of the Navy