The 21st Century Offset

Let's attract more entrepreneurs and private capital to bolster the defense industrial base

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

For decades, Silicon Valley, the symbolic heart of venture capital, has driven commercial innovation. Venture capitalists have provided essential funding to emerging companies, including giants like Facebook, Google, and eBay, facilitating their growth from mere ideas to trillion-dollar publicly listed enterprises.

What's sometimes forgotten is how Silicon Valley helped shape one of our country's most pivotal moments in U.S. history and earned its name. In the 1960s, President Kennedy launched the Apollo space program with the goal of landing a man on the moon. NASA, leading the project for the government, contracted with IBM to develop the newly invented integrated circuit, or silicon "chip" as we now know it, to power the Guidance and Navigation systems aboard the spacecraft. As they say, the rest is history.

From there on, the defense industry and Silicon Valley found themselves in an on-again, off-again relationship. The Nixon years saw defense budget cuts hampering growth, but the sector experienced expansion after Reagan increased Pentagon funding, devoting resources to next-generation technologies like microelectronics, space missiles, and other aircraft. However, amidst the rise of the digital age, Silicon Valley again drifted away from defense projects.

After the famous "Last Supper," defense contractors largely consolidated into what we now call the "Primes," referring to the top five defense contractors. Over the years, these companies either absorbed smaller innovators or collaborated directly with the government to develop new products. This business model has been criticized for its inflexibility, protracted timelines, and cost to taxpayers—Norm Augustine’s Law #16 predicted similar outcomes.

Enter Marlinspike.

For decades, the U.S. Department of Defense deployed an offset strategy, seeking to compensate for a disadvantage by changing the playing field. The first offset was in the 1950s with the nuclear offset, the development of nuclear weapons to counter Soviet numerical advantages. The 1970s saw a second offset with the development of advanced technologies to counter shrinking defense budgets. In the 2010s, we entered the third offset with Long Range Research and Development Programs. However, we at Marlinspike believe that our defense industrial base needs to fundamentally change and attract new entrepreneurs and private capital to the industry. We call this initiative the 21st Century Offset.

Comprised of veterans and VCs, Marlinspike aims to restore the synergy between the innovation of Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., reigniting the excitement that helped America lift off into space. With an eye toward the future and a focus on the boldest ideas, we are on a relentless quest to discover the next technology that will revolutionize or birth an entirely new industry.

For more information, visit Marlinspike.us.