Crossing the Valley of Death: SBIR Phase III Success in National Security Space
The so-called "Valley of Death"—between Phase II SBIR completion and scaled adoption—remains a stubborn gap for dual-use technologies. Integrate's journey from a Phase II SBIR with the U.S. Space Force to a $25M Phase III and preferred platform for NSSL mission management provides a roadmap for others. This panel brings together voices from defense contracting, acquisition offices, and commercial founders to dissect what worked, what didn’t, and how early-stage companies can translate innovation into program-of-record adoption. Epsilon3 and other SBIR alumni will weigh in on what it takes to build software that’s both secure enough for national defense and intuitive enough for commercial scale.