New Defense Technology

YC argues traditional US defense contractors have grown slow under cost-plus contracts, and that startups selling to the DoD can do far better, as SpaceX did in launch.

YC wrote that the US was engaged in large-scale conflicts in several regions, and that while the country had historically led the world in defense technology, its contractors had grown slow and inefficient, bloated by decades of cost-plus contracts.

YC points to SpaceX, which it says showed a private space company could be far more effective than the publicly funded United Launch Alliance, and to Palantir and Anduril as DoD suppliers showing the same holds for defense.

Why now: YC recalls that Silicon Valley began in the early 20th century as an R&D area for the US military, and that its early companies built radar, code-breaking equipment and atomic bomb components during WWII. It argues this decade is the time to return to those roots.

The ask: new defense technology companies.

Read the full request on YC →