StratBot: Your Guide to Military Ground Robotics
Contact: Kent Massey (610) 453-7893		StratBot helps companies that are new to the military robotics community understand the military development process and move their technology forward. For small companies, getting development funding from the military makes good sense: it doesn’t dilute your equity and you generally keep your intellectual property. Of course, the “home run” is a successful development that results in product sales to military users, and provides a production base to expand into commercial sales. The difficulty is that the military robotics community is large, complex, and highly fragmented. It can take years to learn how to navigate this market and find development funding. Kent Massey is the founder of StratBot. He has been active in military ground robotics since the first ground robots were deployed to Iraq. He has seen the field grow enormously, and has been an active leader in that development. Kent was a founding member of the Robotics Technology Consortium (RTC), and was a member of the RTC Steering Committee that negotiated the OTA contract with the military. He has served on the Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (JGRE) Technical Advisory Board (TAB) since it started. Kent has also taken a robotic product from a sketch in a lab notebook through to successful commercialization: getting SBIR and Commercialization Pilot Program funding, ruggedizing the product, MIL STD 810F testing, making initial sales to the military and commercial customers, and then licensing the product for commercial production. What StratBot can do for you: StratBot can cut years off your development process by: •   getting you quickly up to speed with how your technology matches the military’s requirements •   telling you which DoD lab is funding Research and Development in your technology area and who are the decision makers you need to reach •   helping you write proposals and navigate the funding process •   helping you with the transition of your technology into a rugged military product that is ready for fielding •   helping find someone in the military who will procure your product, which is very different from finding someone who will provide development funding   Large Community The military ground robotics community is surprisingly large. There are hundreds of people inside government and industry who are potential decision makers about your technology. Almost all of them are busy and overworked. They don’t have much free time for meeting new companies. Even with the right introduction, you still need to know how to quickly get your point across. You need to connect with the specific needs of that particular decision maker. StratBot can help you do that. Complicated Process From a small company’s point of view, the military’s process for funding development of new technology is absolutely byzantine. Unfortunately, government program managers don’t have the time to explain it to you. You can easily spend years learning how to navigate through the process. While you’re stumbling along, you’ll miss a lot of important opportunities. Once you finally master the development funding process, then you have to tackle the procurement process, which is far harder. StratBot can help you through these mazes much faster and more effectively than someone who has never been there before. Understanding Requirements Nothing in the military gets developed or procured unless there is a validated requirement. If you have the greatest technology in the world, which creates a revolutionary new capability, you are almost guaranteed that there isn’t validated requirement for your technology. Since you were the first one to think of it, that usually means that nobody else knew they could ask for it. StratBot understands the needs of military users and knows how to make the requirements process work for you, rather than against you. What StratBot can’t do for you There Is No Magical Inside Track - you must have a great technology that uniquely meets a military requirement. There are no shortcuts or guarantees. StratBot can’t magically convince someone in the military to buy your product. The truth is that there’s a lot of hard work ahead of you. If someone tells you that they do have a magic wand, don’t believe them. Kent Massey Bio A 1982 graduate of MIT, Kent started his career in the aerospace industry, including military communication satellites and the International Space Station. His experience in robotics includes both vehicles and sensors. Kent has spent most of his career in start-up companies, several of which he founded and sold. He understands small businesses and their needs.