{"id":40939,"date":"2018-09-17T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T00:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/17\/air-force-aims-to-move-startups-from-pitch-to-contract-award-in-24-hours\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:18:13","slug":"air-force-aims-to-move-startups-from-pitch-to-contract-award-in-24-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/air-force-association\/2018\/09\/17\/air-force-aims-to-move-startups-from-pitch-to-contract-award-in-24-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force aims to move startups from pitch to contract award in 24 hours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 A fledgling five-person software start-up<\/a> has just wrapped up their pitch to what could be a key investor. The pressure has been intense, but the customer decides to bite, sliding a credit card through a Square reader to award money to the company\u2019s Paypal account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t an episode of Shark Tank, or a successful bid to get investment dollars from a Silicon Valley angel investor. The customer in this scenario is the Air Force \u2014 or at least, its acquisition executive would like it to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Air Force Association\u2019s annual conference, Will Roper<\/a>, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, will announce a series of \u201cStartup Days\u201d targeted toward involving startup companies in Air Force acquisition<\/a> by rapidly awarding contracts in less than 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the company\u2019s view, it will be a single day. From our view, we could probably turn it as quickly as a few days to a week \u2014 we put a call out, someone submits their idea, we analyze their idea, we check their company profile, we then invite a subset that have met the criteria,\u201d he told Defense News in an exclusive Sept. 7 interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\t