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Crossing the ValleyLessons from the trailblazers who forged a path from Research to Production in the Department of Defense Author: Frontdoor Defense
Few companies make it from pilot to production in the defense market. Those who do often change the industry in the process. How do they do it? What lessons can startups take from their trials, successes, and failures? Crossing the Valley tells the stories of the trailblazers who are forging a new path for America's defense. www.valleycrossers.com Language: en Genres: Government, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Ep. 65: Pryzm's Quest to Help DOW Pass an Audit
Wednesday, 17 December, 2025
About Nick LaRovereNick is the CEO and Co-founder of Pryzm. As a software engineer at Palantir Technologies, Nick worked on both Gotham and Foundry platforms, gaining firsthand exposure to building federal contracting systems and understanding the critical intersection of technology and national security missions.A graduate of Colby College, Nick’s experience selling Palantir’s solutions to DOD and three-letter agencies provided him with intimate knowledge of the procurement pain points that would eventually inspire Pryzm’s founding mission.Nick is part of a core founding team of four Colby College grads, each of whom experienced the pain of government acquisition: Matt Hawkins (president & COO), Justin Deckert (chief growth officer), and David Istrati (chief technology officer).About PryzmPryzm emerged from a deceptively simple observation: government procurement was drowning in PDFs and Excel spreadsheets. What started as a document processing solution has evolved into a comprehensive capture and relationship mapping platform that serves the entire defense contracting ecosystem.The product’s core function is transforming traditional capture processes through intelligent automation and visualization. Their “Orion constellations” feature allows users to map influence networks, parse opportunities, and understand organizational relationships in ways that replace traditional whiteboards and Figma diagrams with dynamic, data-driven insights.Pryzm serves both commercial defense contractors seeking to win government business and government agencies looking to improve their procurement processes. This dual-market approach creates network effects that strengthen the platform’s value proposition for all users. Their recent Seed funding ($12M+ led by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism team) puts them on an accelerated path across both commercial and federal segments. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.valleycrossers.com
