Steve Blank: The Playbook for Defense Innovation, from the Classroom to the War Room

While Steve Blank might be best known for his ultra-popular Lean Startup methodology that has inspired a generation of American entrepreneurs, he’s spent much of the past decade working to infuse that thought leadership in the defense innovation ecosystem, largely at the academic level. Through his work as a founding faculty of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation and the school’s Hacking for Defense program, Blank is helping shape a new class of startups dedicated to defense-aligned missions. And most recently, he launched a PEO Directory that he refers to as “a phonebook for the Pentagon” that’s meant to make it easier for those founders to do business with the Department of Defense. The legendary Blank joins CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE for a wide-ranging discussion about the state of defense innovation, why budding entrepreneurs are turning to defense problem sets at greater rates, and how startups can navigate the bureaucracy of the Pentagon amid a variety of Trump administration reforms.