Senior Advisor, AI Strategy & Technology Commercialization | vCAIO | vCTO
If you can’t explain in plain English how it enables mission success or prevents mission failure, how it makes money or saves money, it’s a science project and not a product or solution.
There are really two different problems depending on which side of the fence you’re on.
On the government side, the funding structure itself creates the “Valley of Death.” There’s money for R&D and money for procurement, but nothing in between for commercialization. The system simply doesn’t contemplate the work needed to turn a research breakthrough into something you can actually buy. Brilliant technology dies in that gap every day.
On the commercial side, the problem is a disconnect between engineering and the business. Too often, internal R&D is driven by what’s technically interesting rather than what the market actually needs. There’s no effective product management translating horizon demands into a technology roadmap.
Engineering builds impressive things that nobody asked for, and then the business can’t answer the only two questions that matter: Does this demonstrably make money, or does this demonstrably prevent losing money?
If you can’t connect R&D to one of those two outcomes, you’ve built a science project, not a product.
Most organizations know they need AI strategy but aren’t at the scale, or the moment of clarity, to justify a full-time executive hire.
A vCAIO gives you senior-level judgment on the questions that matter: where AI actually fits in your operations, what’s hype versus what’s real, and how to avoid building expensive solutions to problems you don’t have.
I help leadership cut through the noise, build a practical roadmap tied to business outcomes, and make sure technology decisions are driven by “does this make or save money” or “does this enable mission success/prevent mission failure” rather than “this seems cool.”
Think of it as having a seasoned technology executive on speed dial who’s done this across government and commercial markets without the overhead of a C-suite salary before you need one.
The biggest misunderstanding is that selling to government is just sales with more paperwork.
It’s not, it’s an entirely different discipline. Government “sales” is really “capture” with often long-cycle, relationship-driven, proposal-heavy, and measured in years, not quarters (no matter what they say about making it faster).
I’ve watched commercial companies walk in expecting to close deals the way they do in the private sector and get absolutely crushed by the timeline alone. Public sector buying cycles typically average 12-24 months from opportunity to payment.
The other mistake is assuming the government buyer cares about the same things a commercial buyer does. They’re buying to specifications and mission “R”equirements, not ROI. If you want to sell to government, invest in understanding why and how they buy before you spend a dime on what you’re selling.