The Startup Junkies Podcast

Small businesses, not the big defense primes, are where the Department of Defense is looking for its next breakthrough. Here's how to get noticed, and how to be ready when you do.

In this entrepreneur interview, Chip Laingen breaks down what it really takes for a small business or startup to sell to the government. Chip is executive director of the Defense Alliance, a 21-year Navy veteran, and has advised defense-tech companies for two decades.

In This Episode:
✅ Why the DoD is turning to small-business innovation
✅ Navigating government contracting as a startup
✅ Teaming with partners to leverage past performance
✅ Preparing for a five-minute pitch with a buyer
✅ Technology readiness vs. business readiness
✅ OTAs and Defense Production Act funding
✅ Servant leadership lessons from the Navy

⏱️ Chapters:
0:38 Introduction
1:13 From Navy helicopter pilot to defense contracting
4:26 How the Defense Alliance helps small businesses
5:47 Why selling to the government isn't logical
8:42 Leveraging partnerships and past performance
10:30 How to prepare for a five-minute pitch with a buyer
12:36 Servant leadership lessons from the Navy
16:34 What it takes to build a defense innovation cluster
19:09 Technology readiness vs. business readiness
21:02 How defense procurement is changing: speed and scale
22:47 How one startup got a $50M factory funded
24:19 Advice to his younger self
25:54 How to connect with the Defense Alliance

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About Chip Laingen:
Chip Laingen is executive director of the Defense Alliance, an SBA-funded regional innovation cluster. It helps small businesses navigate defense contracting at no cost, and it has members in 38 states. 

Join free at https://www.defensealliance.com/

Connect with Chip - https://www.linkedin.com/in/laingen/

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The Startup Junkies Podcast is brought to you in part by RISE, helping Arkansas tech and tech-enabled startups grow with no-cost coaching, capital navigation, and expert connections.

What is The Startup Junkies Podcast?

Candid conversations with the founders, operators, and investors building companies in Northwest Arkansas and beyond.

The Startup Junkies Podcast is hosted by Jeff Amerine, founder of Startup Junkie, a Northwest Arkansas organization that has provided no-cost consulting, programs, and events to entrepreneurs for more than 15 years. Each week Jeff and the Startup Junkie team sit down with people who have actually done it: first-time and serial founders, small business owners, investors, accelerator alumni, and the ecosystem builders working alongside them.

Expect real stories, not lectures. How they got started, how they found their first customers, how they raised money or chose not to, what nearly broke them, and what they would do differently. Topics range from validating an idea and finding capital to hiring, marketing, leadership, scaling, and selling the business.

With more than 450 episodes since 2015, the back catalog covers nearly every stage of building a company in Arkansas and the Mid-South. If you are starting something, growing something, or helping founders do either, this show is for you.

This feed also carries Querido Emprendedor, our Spanish-language founder series, and the Fuel Podcast, featuring companies from Startup Junkie's Fuel Accelerator.

New episodes weekly. Show notes, transcripts, and the full archive at startupjunkie.org/podcast.

Startup Junkie's mission: improving lives through innovation and entrepreneurship, from Northwest Arkansas around the globe.