Defense Tech BaseHow the course works
Every lesson below is free to read. Email delivers the same core material with examples selected for your goal, stage and product type. Choose daily, every two days or weekly. Lessons begin after you confirm your email and follow your chosen pace.
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Lesson 1 of 5
Tie the round to a specific milestone
A useful raise plan explains the result the capital buys, the dependencies along the way and the evidence that will show progress.
Choose the next milestone that changes your business position: a repeatable commercial deployment, a documented evaluation, a qualified production process or another result appropriate to your company. Avoid starting with a fashionable valuation or a peer’s round size.
Build your own cost assumptions for people, equipment, integration, external work and ongoing operations. Separate signed commercial commitments from pipeline and speculative future receipts. Consider what happens if a government purchasing dependency takes longer than expected.
YC’s fundraising guide emphasizes connecting the amount raised to a credible plan. Your defense-specific exercise is to make acquisition and delivery dependencies visible beside that plan. Record which costs you know, which require quotes and which assumptions need validation before discussing a round.
A worked example
Illustrative example: a component team’s milestone is a qualified manufacturing process with customer acceptance evidence. It separates that work from an unconfirmed future production order.
Put it to work
Write a milestone statement, a cost-input list and a slower-purchasing scenario.
- Round purpose tied to a result
- Costs come from your actual inputs
- Purchasing-delay scenario considered
Lesson 2 of 5
Separate traction from interest
An evidence register keeps contracts, evaluations, grants, discussions and product results from being presented as the same kind of traction.
List the claims in your deck and the evidence supporting each one. Distinguish signed agreements, paid work, completed evaluations, research funding, letters of intent and exploratory meetings. Retain the actual stage and date rather than collapsing them into a single headline.
Explain why the evidence matters to the business. A research award can validate technical work without establishing repeatable product revenue. A demonstration can support a technical claim without proving that integration or procurement has been approved.
For every important claim, record the source, permission to share, known limitation and next evidence needed. Use sanitized descriptions when a counterparty or project cannot be disclosed. The goal is an honest, inspectable business story, not a larger number created by adding unlike categories together.
A worked example
Illustrative example: a team reports one signed pilot and two exploratory discussions separately. Its next milestone is defined around completing the pilot, not counting all three as customers.
Put it to work
Audit ten deck claims and label their evidence type, date and limitation.
- Claims trace to evidence
- Different commercial stages remain separate
- Sharing permissions checked
Lesson 3 of 5
Research investors against your actual round
A shortlist should explain current fit with your stage, geography, product and round—not just include famous defense investors.
Start with the round you described in lesson one. For each potential investor, collect current first-party evidence of investment focus and relevant portfolio activity. Directory context can speed up research, but it does not establish an available check or current interest in your company.
Distinguish a generalist fund with one relevant investment from a specialist mandate, and distinguish an independent venture fund from a corporate strategic investor. A portfolio company is an example of past activity, not proof that every related product fits the investor’s thesis.
Keep shortlist columns for source date, relevant evidence, stage or geography question, potential conflict and a reason to investigate. Use “unknown” when public information does not support a conclusion. Narrowing to a defensible group makes outreach more useful than sending the same message to the entire directory.
A worked example
Illustrative example: a founder keeps a broad cybersecurity investor on the research list but asks whether its current mandate includes the hardware-heavy round being proposed.
Put it to work
Research five investors and write one source-backed fit reason plus one unresolved question for each.
- Fit uses current official evidence
- Investor type and stage questions recorded
- Unknowns are not converted into rankings
Lesson 4 of 5
Prepare a diligence index with controlled access
A diligence index makes material easy to locate while keeping sensitive information and unsupported claims out of broad distribution.
Organize company and ownership records, financial inputs, customer evidence, product materials, IP questions and relevant compliance records. Keep an index of what exists, where it is maintained, who owns it and what can be shared at each stage of a conversation.
Check consistency across the deck, financial plan and source documents. Dates, signed status, revenue categories and team roles should agree. Log discrepancies and assign a correction instead of hiding them in a longer presentation.
Do not place sensitive customer information, controlled technical material or confidential agreements in a public course form. This course needs no document uploads. Use your own approved storage and decide access deliberately with the relevant owners or advisers.
A worked example
Illustrative example: a team shares a customer-approved evaluation summary first and retains the full agreement in restricted storage pending the appropriate review.
Put it to work
Create a diligence index with document, owner, date, sharing status and missing-item columns.
- Key records have owners and dates
- Deck and supporting records agree
- Access and sharing decisions are explicit
Lesson 5 of 5
Write relevant outreach and track what you learn
A useful investor message connects your company’s evidence and milestone to a researched fit reason and a concrete conversation request.
Draft a short message containing the specific problem, what you can demonstrate, the milestone you are funding and why this investor is on the shortlist. Use one accurate fit reason rather than a generic compliment. Do not imply an introduction, endorsement or prior relationship that does not exist.
Link only to material cleared for that audience. Keep a record of outreach date, response, next action and the question you learned from the conversation. The course will not send messages or upload company material on your behalf.
Use feedback to update evidence and the plan. A repeated question about procurement timing may indicate that your milestone explanation needs more detail. A thesis mismatch may simply mean a different investor belongs on the list. Neither outcome should be turned into an invented likelihood of closing the round.
A worked example
Illustrative example: a founder cites a relevant published portfolio theme, describes a completed evaluation accurately and asks for a discussion of the next milestone.
Put it to work
Draft one researched outreach message and create a follow-up log with a next action for each conversation.
- Fit reason is supported
- Shared material is approved
- Follow-up records capture learning
Questions about this course
What should a defense-tech fundraising plan explain?
The next milestone, evidence of demand, purchasing dependencies, delivery risks and the capital needed to reach the milestone. Separate grants, contracts and investment rather than treating them as interchangeable revenue.
How do I choose investors to research?
Use current first-party evidence of stage, geography, thesis and relevant investments. Treat directory profiles as research leads and verify current fit before outreach.
Will the course generate investor introductions?
No. It helps prepare a shortlist and relevant outreach materials. It does not contact investors or claim they are currently accepting pitches.