Erik Bethel

It would also make a great long-range cruise missile.

Exactly.

Or logistics platform.

But

Consider if you're a founder, you're a startup founder, and somebody says, hey, sell to the Defense Department.

It's so overwhelming.

The ultimate, the desired end state is to get to what's known as a POR, a program of record.

So the Navy or the Army will give you a 10-year contract for $100 million each, whatever, each year.

To get there, though, you have to navigate through this very complex world, and you never know how you're going to get there.

So maybe there's a Navy group out of Jacksonville that can give you a SIBR.

Well, what's a SIBR?

It's basically a small grant.

Oh, DIU, the Defense Innovation Unit, might be able to fund you over here.

And so they're living on nickels and dimes to ultimately get to program of record.

Even to the combatant commander.

If it takes 10 years to get to a program of record and the program of record folks say, well, gosh, we can't give you a program of record unless you can scale, but you can't scale unless you've got like a contract with the government, right?

It becomes this crazy catch 22.

What you're suggesting, Eric, is that we democratize... Purchasing.

Purchasing.

Yep.