Army Futures Command and Venture Capitalism

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This article is being republished from 2018 due to viewer interest

Futures Command Use of Venture Capitalism

By Lieutenant Colonel Scott E. Rutter – columnist and senior contributor to Warrior Maven — U.S. Army (Retired)

The U.S. Army has seized the initiative with its future command and its pending urban location in order to capitalize on tech and academic cultures to reform and modernized the Armed Services. With the same energy, the Army should exploit new and innovative contract and acquisition methods to include streamlined procedures and lessons from venture capitalism. As a Fort Benning and combat trained entrepreneur, this essay captures my thoughts and ideas to match innovation with risk and opportunity focused on getting superior solutions to our Warfighters in a timely and efficient manner.

There are huge differences between “contracting” and “venture capital (VC).” I personally think it is a very unique idea to start up a government venture capital fund, but the “process” needs to be approved outside the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) restrictions that limit and delay much contracting activity. This can be done with the idea that this is actually not a “contract” but an “ownership” interest by the government. Venture capitalists make investments for one purpose only and that is to make money. If the government is interested in some other moral or ethical objective, i.e. increase job opportunities for Veterans, funding certain types of research for the betterment of mankind, or just stimulating business, this is not the right way to go as it will conflict with the underlying goal of a venture capitalist. All decisions must be made based on the future marketability and sale of the products\services\technology created. Of course, there could be dual purposes such as:

The mission of the US Army Advanced Technology Partners (for example) is to incubate new research and development activities and businesses in order to develop solutions to modern day warfare threats and to ensure growth and social equity as a result of these innovative investments and partnerships.