Overview of:

Identify Customers

Identify Potential Customers

Identify Customers Overview

Identify Customers

Finding the right customer in the DoW is one of the most practical challenges a new entrant faces. The enterprise spans hundreds of organizations, thousands of program offices, and millions of personnel. The challenge is not just knowing who to approach, but how to approach them and where to start.

Be advised, there is no single front door into the DoW. Your entry point depends on the maturity of your technology, the mission problem it addresses, whether a requirement and funding already exist, and whether you are pursuing a direct Government award or a role on another contractor's team.

This section charts helps identify the key organizations where industry engagement produces results, explains who your actual "customer" is inside the DoW, and offers concrete guidance on how to start.

Not every organization with an interest in your technology is a viable customer. Focus your effort where several factors align: a real mission need, an organization responsible for that mission, a potential user or sponsor willing to engage, a plausible source of funding, and a path to acquisition or adoption. Also consider whether your capability is mature enough to meet the organization's timeline, security, integration, and operational requirements.

Prioritize organizations where you can answer four questions:

Need: Is there a specific mission problem your capability addresses?
Ownership: Who is responsible for solving that problem?
Resources: Is there existing or potential funding to act?
Path: Is there a realistic way to test, acquire, integrate, or field the capability?

An enthusiastic contact is valuable, but interest alone does not make an organization a customer.

Your Customer Is Not One Person

This is the single most disorienting aspect of defense business development for companies new to the space. In commercial markets, you find a buyer and close a deal. In the DoW, your “customer” is usually an ecosystem rather than a single buyer. Five roles commonly matter, and they may sit across several organizations or overlap in the same organization.

Understand each role before you begin outreach:

The User is the warfighter or analyst who will use your product. They are the best source of honest feedback on whether your capability solves the right problem. Engage them early. Their pain points will sharpen your value proposition more than any market research report.
Requirements / Mission Sponsor is the person or organization that can turn an operational need into a recognized requirement or advocate for the capability within the Government. They connect the user's problem to the requirements, funding, and acquisition organizations needed to move toward adoption.
The Decision Maker is a leader with the authority to support or approve pursuing a new capability. They are your closest analog to a commercial buyer. Without their commitment, an effort may struggle to move forward.
The Buyer is typically the contracting officer who has authority to enter into, administer, or terminate contracts on behalf of the Government. The contracting officer helps determine how the acquisition is legally executed and ensures it complies with applicable law, regulation, and policy. Treat the contracting officer as a partner in acquisition strategy and execution, not merely a gatekeeper.
The Funder controls or has access to the appropriated funds needed for the effort. This may be the same person as the decision maker, or it may be a separate organization entirely, such as an SBIR program office, a Service innovation organization, or a command with available funding. Know where the money comes from, because the source and type of funding can shape who has authority to act and what acquisition approaches are available.

These roles sometimes align to one or two people. More often they do not. Your business development effort is the connective tissue between them.

Potential customers and entry points exist across the DoW, but the right place to start depends on the maturity of your capability, the mission problem it addresses, and whether a requirement and funding already exist.

Innovation Organizations: A Common Entry Point for New Entrants

Across the DoW there has been a sustained push to engage commercial industry and harness American innovation. A starting point for companies new to defense business is the network of innovation organizations chartered specifically to bridge that gap. The Innovation Hubs page profiles the 10 most prominent of these organizations. A few deserve particular attention here.

Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) works with commercial companies to address national security challenges and accelerate adoption of commercially derived technologies. DIU can be particularly relevant for companies with mature commercial technologies that have potential defense applications.
Service innovation and rapid capability organizations, including AFWERX, the Army Applications Laboratory, and Naval Rapid Capabilities Office (NRCO) provide additional pathways for connecting commercial technology to Service needs. Their missions, authorities, and engagement models differ, so companies should identify the organization aligned to their technology and target customer.

If you have not yet won a defense contract, these organizations can be an effective entry point, particularly when your technology aligns with their mission areas and engagement models. They are structured to engage non-traditional companies and understand the challenges of crossing the commercial-to-defense divide.

Operational Commands: Where Needs Are Born

Operational commands, including Combatant Commands (INDOPACOM, CENTCOM, EUCOM, CYBERCOM) and Service component commands are where the warfighter experience lives. Leaders and operators in these commands understand their mission environment, their constraints, their threats, and their frustrations with current capabilities better than anyone in Washington does.

This makes them invaluable for customer discovery. Engaging operators before you refine your product can help distinguish between building something technically impressive and building something that solves a problem the DoW actually needs solved.

Urgent needs processes can accelerate action when operational commanders identify time-sensitive capability gaps. Separately, lower dollar purchases may be eligible for streamlined acquisition procedures depending on the value and circumstances of the procurement.

The FY26 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), established a new Combatant Command Experimentation Authority, expanding opportunities for combatant commands to conduct experimentation, prototyping, and technology demonstrations addressing operational needs. For industry, exercises and demonstrations can provide opportunities to validate capabilities with operational users and build evidence for future acquisition decisions.

See the DoW Organizations page for more context on engaging commands effectively.

DoW Labs and DARPA

The DoW's laboratories conduct basic research, support acquisition programs, and advance a wide range of technologies. The DoW Labs page provides a comprehensive list with filters by technology area, including links to the lab websites and key program contacts.

DARPA's mission is to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. It publishes a list of their program managers and key personnel, including their programs, organizations, and technologies of interest. DARPA is generally focused on high-risk, high-reward research with the potential for breakthrough national security impact rather than incremental improvements to mature technologies. If your work is early-stage, high-risk, and high-reward, DARPA is worth engaging directly through its website.

PAEs, PMOs, and Programs

Within the DoW's acquisition enterprise, Program Management Offices (PMOs) manage thousands of acquisition programs. These PMOs are grouped into capability portfolios run by Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAEs). The PAE page provides a regularly updated and comprehensive list of all PAEs, their organizations, bios, locations, and major programs.

PAEs and PMOs are responsible for acquiring and delivering capabilities, but operational requirements generally originate outside the acquisition organization. Program offices therefore become most actionable targets when your capability aligns to an established or emerging requirement, funded portfolio, or program need. A cold approach with a novel technology is less likely to gain traction if it is not connected to a recognized mission need, requirement, or funded program.

Past spending is another useful signal of customer fit. If an organization has repeatedly acquired or funded capabilities similar to yours, it may be a stronger prospect than an organization expressing general interest but with no apparent mission ownership, program connection, or funding history. Review DoW budget justification books, USAspending.gov, and SAM.gov to identify relevant programs, buying organizations, incumbent contractors, and historical procurement activity. Use this information to focus your outreach, but remember that past spending does not necessarily indicate a future opportunity.