Intelligence

Articles from the alliance

Field notes on capital, contracts and scale — written by operators, investors and advisors inside the Founders & Ventures Alliance network.

Dual-Use Technology

The Commercial-First Playbook Has Limits

Build commercially, sell to government later. The strategy has produced real winners and it does not generalise. Where the commercial-first playbook holds and where it quietly fails.

September 2026 · 6 min read

Featured briefing

Dual-Use Technology

What "Dual-Use" Actually Costs You

Dual-use is pitched as commercial upside plus government stability. In practice the two markets pull the product, the org and the cap table in different directions. What that actually costs.

September 2026 · 7 min read

Logistics

Resilience Became a Line Item

Supply chains were optimised for cost for thirty years. Disruption made resilience a funded requirement. What that changes about which logistics ventures get bought.

September 2026 · 6 min read

Logistics

Why Logistics Pilots Do Not Convert

Logistics has thin margins, brutal integration requirements and a buyer who has been burned before. Why successful pilots stall and what separates the technology that gets adopted.

September 2026 · 6 min read

Energy

Load Growth Changed Who Buys Power

After two decades of flat demand, electricity load is growing again. The buyer is now a corporate developer with a deadline, and that changes what energy ventures are worth building.

September 2026 · 6 min read

Energy

The Interconnection Queue — Why Your Project Waits Years

For most energy and large-load projects, the binding constraint is not technology or capital. It is a place in line to connect to the grid. How the queue works and what it does to a venture.

August 2026 · 7 min read

Advanced Manufacturing

Reshoring Is a Capacity Problem, Not a Policy Problem

Policy has made domestic manufacturing attractive. Capacity, qualified suppliers and skilled labour decide whether it happens. Where the real constraints sit.

August 2026 · 6 min read

Advanced Manufacturing

The First Article Problem

A working prototype and a qualified production line are different achievements separated by years and capital. What qualification actually requires and why hardware companies underestimate it.

August 2026 · 7 min read

Cyber

Your Supplier's Security Is Now Your Balance Sheet

Supply-chain compromise moved third-party risk from an IT concern to a commercial one. What flow-down requirements do to a small supplier, and where the opportunity sits.

August 2026 · 6 min read

Cyber

How Security Products Actually Get Bought

Security founders build for the analyst and sell to the CISO. The budget, the veto and the renewal each sit with someone different. A map of who actually decides.

August 2026 · 7 min read

Aerospace

Launch Got Cheap. Everything Else Did Not.

Falling launch costs opened the space market and moved the bottleneck somewhere less visible. Where the hard constraints sit now, and what that means for underwriting a space venture.

August 2026 · 6 min read

Aerospace

Export Control Is the First Architecture Decision

For aerospace and space ventures, export control shapes hiring, cloud architecture, investors and international revenue. What ITAR and EAR actually restrict, and when the decision gets expensive.

August 2026 · 7 min read

Compute Is Now a Cap Table Question

For AI ventures, compute has moved from an operating expense to a structural constraint that shapes dilution, margin and defensibility. What investors are actually underwriting.

August 2026 · 6 min read

Selling AI Into Regulated Buyers — What Actually Gates the Deal

For AI companies selling into government, defense and regulated industry, the gate is rarely model quality. It is authorization, data handling and the ability to explain a decision.

August 2026 · 7 min read

Defense

The Program of Record Problem

Capital is flowing into defense technology. Most of it is funding companies stuck between a successful pilot and durable revenue. What actually moves a company across that gap.

August 2026 · 7 min read

Defense

What CMMC Actually Requires — and When It Starts Costing You Contracts

CMMC became a contract requirement in November 2025. What the three levels mean, which one applies to you, what the phased rollout does to your pipeline, and what it costs to get ready.

July 2026 · 8 min read

Membership

Why Investors Join the Alliance

Deal flow is abundant. Curation is not. Why investors in defense, AI and advanced industry join a private alliance rather than working an open marketplace.

July 2026 · 6 min read

Membership

Why Founders Join the Alliance

Most ventures are not rejected on the idea. They are rejected on evidence. Why founders in defense, AI and advanced industry join a private alliance instead of working the open market.

July 2026 · 6 min read

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