In an era when global instability has become the new normal, America faces a pivotal choice: adapt our manufacturing and defense industrial base to the speed of modern threats, or risk falling behind adversaries who are moving faster than our acquisition systems can respond. The question isn't whether we have the innovation, but whether we have the policy framework to scale it.

America's innovators are ready to deliver. They're building robotic depots for austere environments, breaking bottlenecks in key component production, and accelerating software workflows across the industrial stack. What they need now is a modernized policy framework and the political support that underpins it. Their ambition needs to be matched by clear national purpose and the commensurate policy action that has unlocked previous generations of defense innovation. 

At the General Catalyst Institute (GCI), we’re proud to support the founders making this transformation possible. Just as importantly, we are committed to working across government and industry to ensure the policies, platforms, and partnerships are in place to deliver results. Last week, we brought seven visionary CEOs and leaders to Washington, DC, using our convening power to bring the best minds into the heart of power and policymaking in our nation’s capital. 

These leaders, building everything from autonomous manufacturing systems to mission-critical defense software to hardware that has been optimized with artificial intelligence, delivered a collaborative message to senior decision-makers across the Pentagon, White House, and Congress: it's time to work hand-in-hand to scale production, modernize acquisition, and remove the outdated barriers holding back America's next generation of national champions.

The Urgency of National Resilience

Our geopolitical environment has fundamentally shifted. We're witnessing unprecedented technological transformation coinciding with rising global conflicts, supply chain vulnerabilities, and threats to democratic institutions worldwide. In this context, building resilience across defense, manufacturing, healthcare, and energy isn't just strategic, it's existential.

The companies we brought to Washington understand this urgency intimately. They're not building for a distant future; they're solving today's bottlenecks while preparing for tomorrow's challenges. And, vitally, they are creating the modern tools that can uphold peace and solidify American geostrategic competitiveness.  

The Innovators Leading the Charge

Each company in our delegation represents a critical component of our national resilience, including: 

Those revolutionizing manufacturing for platforms on land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace: Re:Build Manufacturing is bringing world-class manufacturing capabilities back onshore through vertically integrated models that strengthen domestic supply chain resilience. Senra Systems is revolutionizing wire harness manufacturing, a critical chokepoint in aerospace and defense production. By digitizing legacy technical drawings and scaling production workflows, they are enabling faster support for platforms like the C-130 and F-16.

Companies building robotic systems augmenting labor: Cobot and Standard Bots are creating robotic systems that augment human workers safely and productively, whether on factory floors or in military logistics operations.

And software AI companies transforming the entire lifecycle of defense; from designing hardware, deploying hardware and making battlefield decisions: Nominal brings modern software rigor to complex hardware development, from design to deployment, making defense and aerospace programs more repeatable and faster to execute. Onebrief offers mission planning software that radically accelerates command decision-making, reducing planning timelines and empowering more agile military operations when every minute counts. PhysicsX equips engineers with AI-powered, real-time simulation tools that accelerate design cycles and enable automated optimization for complex defense systems.

A Clear Policy Agenda

Our conversations with policymakers centered on five actionable priorities that GCI believes can unlock homegrown innovation and advance our national security and resilience: 

1. Scale the Defense Industrial Base: Move beyond prototypes to modular manufacturing platforms and vertically integrated facilities. Support initiatives like the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), Accelerate the Procurement of Innovative Technologies (APFIT), and AFWERX's Manufacturing Challenge. Capitalize on the $150 billion in defense spending included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by ensuring that the Pentagon invests this money in the best commercially available capabilities and that Congress does effective oversight to verify that the Department of Defense (DoD) is buying the technologies that our warfighters.
2. Remove Compliance Barriers: Streamline Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) access, and personnel clearance processes that remain too slow and expensive for non-traditional vendors. Legislation like the Fostering Reform and Government Efficiency in Defense Act (FoRGED) Act and Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery (SPEED) Act would reform and modernize acquisition that can keep pace with today’s threats.
3. Modernize Sustainment and Logistics: Embrace autonomy in battlefield logistics—from robotic depots to digital twin-based inventory tracking—creating operational readiness while demanding new industrial partners who deliver speed and scale.
4. Ensure Transparency and Competition: As funding expands for non-traditional vendors, implement guardrails that allow emerging companies to compete fairly.

In addition to the solutions discussed in each of our meetings at the Pentagon, White House, and Capitol Hill, we heard common themes around supply chains, critical minerals, and meeting the moment by injecting innovation into the core of our defense industrial base. Every senior official we met was deeply curious about each company and welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with the private sector. Throughout all the meetings, there was an open willingness to support these ambitious start-ups creating transformative technologies to solve challenges faster, more efficiently, and with better precision. It was clear that the desire is there, the need is great, and the time is right. 

A Generational Inflection Point

This Washington engagement reflects the broader mission of GCI: serving as a collaborative bridge between breakthrough technologies and the public policies needed to deploy them for homegrown resilience. 

We're not just advocating for our portfolio companies; we're advocating for a fundamental shift in how America approaches defense innovation. Our geopolitical competitors aren't waiting for perfect acquisition processes or decades-long procurement cycles. They're moving at the speed of technology. So must we.