One fundamental change to how the government contracting ecosystem functions centers on technology development and fielding: all of that must happen quicker and on a different cadence than before.

Steve Lefkowitz and Raj Kanodia, co-founders and leaders of Sagewind Capital, join for this episode to shed light on how the private equity firm’s portfolio companies have responded to that government-wide push for quicker and different forms of tech development and fielding.

The handful of contractors owned by Sagewind have made technology core to their strategies and prioritize making decisions on what is often called an “OODA Loop” methodology. By Light, Sabel Systems, Sigma Defense and Tria Federal are in the Sagewind portfolio.

Lefkowitz and Kanodia also provide our Ross Wilkers their perspectives on private capital trends in GovCon, plus homework for business leaders to do before looking for an investment partner like Sagewind.

PSA: We are going on hiatus until mid-September. Keep a lookout for an announcement of our return with new episodes and conversations about the market from all angles.

DOD’s move to ‘wartime footing’ demands new contracting models

The military's acquisition reform push means 85% ready is good enough to start

Shield AI closes $1.5B Series G round and moves on acquisition

Aechelon lands Sagewind's backing

By Light acquires another simulation, training tech outfit

Sigma Defense acquires Aries Defense to boost tactical edge capabilities

Sabel Systems expands space domain work with Centil acquisition

Growth, legal and operations leadership moves across the market

WT 360: Tria Federal and its pair of priority areas

Greg Barbaccia’s impending departure from the federal chief information officer role after 18 months in it is one of a handful of headline topics that got industry’s attention over the past six weeks.

As NextGov/FCW’s executive editor, Jessie Bur captains a team of reporters who cover developments across the government landscape with an eye toward those that overlap with our areas of interest here at WT.

Jessie joins Nick and Ross for this episode to take a tour around the world of Fed Tech news and happenings, starting with Barbaccia’s pending exit from government and ending with the CMMC security standard’s very murky future.

Their discussion agenda also includes the GovExec news team’s sit-down discussion with Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Virginia), whose district includes many federal employees and contractors. Artificial intelligence storylines and the OneGov technology acquisition program enter the chat too.

Greg Barbaccia to leave federal CIO role at end of August

HUD CIO tapped to lead Interior tech shop, people familiar say

Interior CIO Paul McInerny exits position

Transportation’s tech chief Pavan Pidugu to depart in September

Inside the federal CIO’s culture-first approach

Lawmaker warns of administration’s ‘fetishization’ of Silicon Valley startups

Connolly's successor, James Walkinshaw, looks to carry on his IT and workforce legacy

Energy expects $74M in annual savings from new AI and data tools

AI, once relegated to helping hackers with certain tasks, can now power every stage of a cyberattack

7 tech companies commit to protect consumers from rising electricity prices

Anthropic hires Teresa Carlson as public sector lead

Anthropic held cyberthreat briefings with agency CIOs last month

GSA is eyeing OneGov savings beyond software and tech, official says

OneGov’s discounted deals are ‘a first step’ to longer-term contracts, officials say

Nearly 3.4M users across government can use AI through OneGov, GSA official says

CMMC suspension caught industry off guard, but the reasons did not

Not again! CMMC's comprehensive review is déjà vu all over again

DOD suspends CMMC Phase 2, launches 60-day ‘reform’ review

LMI touts itself as a provider of “commercial-grade, mission-ready technology” as a description of its goal to bring fast-moving technology into federal environments with strict requirements on security and other key matters.

But how does LMI define that technology and how do they bring it forward to agencies?

Alex Adamczyk – vice president of sales, engineering and rapid prototyping at Company No. 73 on our 2026 Top 100 – joins for this episode to answer those questions and more about LMI’s approach to innovation and integration.

Culture is everything, to the point that LMI reorganized the company to emphasize that every employee plays a role in innovation. Adamczyk takes our Ross Wilkers through the company’s new structure to achieve that aim.

Adamczyk also explains how the unique, bespoke nature of certain government problems does not necessarily prevent industry and agencies from embracing more commercial-like development and integration approaches.

TOP 100: LMI's commercial tech approach hinges on the business model

LMI promotes Wilson to chief executive

How LMI incubated its own generative AI tool before going to market

WT 360: LMI's logistics heritage also informs its present and future

If 2025 and 2026 have told us anything, it is that the government no longer sees the decades-long status quo of acquisition as acceptable anymore because the world is too different now.

Matt Kasberg, chief executive of Company No. 73 on our 2026 Top 100, joins for this episode to explain how Odyssey Systems works with the defense acquisition community and provides an industry point-of-view on all the changes to that function of government.

In Kasberg’s words, “acquisition is a warfighting function” and that requires a keen understanding of demand signals from operators. The Pentagon’s emphasis on speed and a different setup of decision authorities are part of the equation too, as Kasberg explains to our Ross Wilkers.

How did Odyssey expand from 300 to 1,500 employees over a decade? Kasberg tells the growth story as one that required a mix of moves he calls “Stress and Stretch” and “New Horizons.”

WT 360: Defense One's Lauren Williams on the new world order of acquisition

Unveiling acquisition overhaul, Hegseth tells industry to get with the program

DOD’s move to ‘wartime footing’ demands new contracting models

The military's acquisition reform push means 85% ready is good enough to start

DOD seeks industry feedback on acquisition reform push

By joining Constellis as CEO in February, Dan Gelston took the helm at a company with a vision of moving beyond a reactive security model to a more proactive and tech-enabled one.

Gelston joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to provide an update on the rollout of that strategy, which centers around integrating predictive analytics and other artificial intelligence-driven technologies into Constellis’ core business lines of training and risk management.

“Guards, gates, guns and dogs” have long defined security operations over many decades. But as Gelston explains, that is no longer enough in a more complex world where adversaries also can use high-end tech.

Gelston outlines what he believes the security perimeter can and should look like with technology complementing operators and helping them see more activity.

The 2026 Washington Technology Top 100 rankings are now live for everyone to use in their own research of the federal market’s largest technology and services contractors, plus the industry’s major overarching themes.

For this episode, Nick and Ross huddle up to overview edition number 32 of WT’s flagship project that certainly does have an element of “Who’s Up and Who’s Down” to it.

One question we posed in our breakdown of 2025’s rankings was whether 2026 would look noticeably different in light of the Trump administration’s cuts to contract spending and the federal workforce. The Department of Government Efficiency’s impact to the industry is real, but quantifying it is only part of the discussion about DOGE.

Here are the other items for this episode’s discussion agenda:

Introducing the 2026 Washington Technology Top 100

The 2026 Top 100 shows a market that bent, but did not break

DOGE was government contracting's biggest story of 2025 — and it's not close

WT 360: All about the paths forward for SAIC, Anthropic, resellers and 8(a) companies

How consulting firms acquire to iterate, and sometimes reinvent themselves

GSA wants answers from resellers about markups and equipment maker relationships

CACI's outlook on the government's commercial acquisition push

SAIC's CEO highlights mission IT, engineering work as priorities

Oracle wins $396M federal HR systems overhaul contract

How DHA plans to end Leidos’ run as the military's health record integrator

GSA drops 'disadvantaged' from small business office name

Small businesses face upheaval under the acquisition overhaul and agency cuts

WT 360: Key points (and questions too) from Trump’s fixed-price contracting and AI orders

Astrion hires former Sierra Space CEO Vice as new leader

OMB seeks details from agencies on their commercial buying, or lack thereof

SpaceX's S-1 lays out its government work and market ambitions

SpaceX’s governance structure is built for one person: Elon Musk

The second Trump administration has outpaced the first one in terms of executive orders signed by the president, but this current tenure has put more focus on government contracting than before.

Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, starts out this episode with Nick and Ross by providing historical context to that statement. Then the discussion turns to President Trump’s newest executive orders that focus on fixed-price contracts and artificial intelligence.

Neither of those topics are new to the GovCon ecosystem, but executive orders bring them to the forefront like few other actions can. Kostro explains what contractors are looking to understand from those orders and how they likely will affect work with their customers.

Also on the agenda: the Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul, small businesses in today’s landscape and the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act.

We have taken a deeper dive into the government market’s private investment landscape in recent weeks by hearing the viewpoints of a banker and then a venture capital specialist.

Kirk Konert, managing partner at AE Industrial Partners, joins for this episode to continue the conversation by weighing in on private capital trends across the market and explaining what goes into aligning business decisions with the government priorities.

AE Industrial is also at the heart of the investment action, which in recent months has included initial public offerings of two portfolio companies. Konert takes our Ross Wilkers through that process and the reasoning behind listing Firefly Aerospace and York Space Systems on the public markets.

Konert also provides advice for company owners, founders and architects on how to go about their search for external capital partners. Knowing what you want going in is the starting point.

WT 360: Defense tech investing is cool again, but can it stay that way?

WT 360: A pulse check on GovCon’s capital market landscape

AE Industrial Partners unveils its third investment fund

Firefly captures $868M in IPO proceeds

Firefly seeks software, defense growth with $855M SciTec acquisition

York Space Systems raises $629M in public offering

Anduril, X-Bow and York detail their newest space acquisitions

York Space Systems to acquire terminal maker in $355M transaction

York Space Systems to acquire solar cell maker

L3Harris to sell majority ownership of space propulsion unit to AE Industrial

If it feels like investors everywhere have some curiosity about the defense tech landscape, then it’s because more of them both want to increase their knowledge and sometimes involvement in the ecosystem.

Steve Brotman, founder and managing partner of the growth equity investment firm Alpha Partners, fits into that category as an observer and participant that works with venture capital firms to be involved in promising tech companies.

Steve joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to answer the questions laid out in the title, namely how it became cool again for investors to get involved with defense tech companies and markers that indicate how long this boom of interest could last.

SpaceX’s initial public offering and corporate VC funds feature in the chat too. Also listen out for Steve’s tips and suggested homework for business leaders to do before venturing out into VC networks.

US investors warm to Ukrainian defense startups—but export laws slow cooperation

Budget would cut Pentagon research by one-third. Can industry compensate?

Meet the startups trying to build military-specific AI

Venture investing is part of the M&A conversation too

The defense tech ecosystem gives investors many opportunities

Public offerings put GovCon in a new spotlight as SpaceX's listing looms

SpaceX's S-1 lays out its government work and market ambitions

SpaceX’s governance structure is built for one person: Elon Musk

SpaceX’s biggest risk factor might be Elon Musk

Lockheed boosts its venture investment fund to $1B

Booz Allen commits $400M to Andreessen Horowitz's late-stage fund

Booz Allen gives big boost to its venture arm

WT 360: For Lockheed's ventures team, its investments are merely step one

WT 360: RTX Ventures casts its net wide and far across an expanding tech ecosystem

WT 360: Booz Allen’s roadmap for collaborating with startups after an investment

WT 360: SAIC Ventures’ methods for investing in and working with tech startups

The window for government contractors, especially those in defense and space technology, to go public is open again as several listings over the past 12 months show and SpaceX’s own offering this year will illustrate.

Dave Khalsa, head of mid-cap defense and government technology investment banking at J.P. Morgan, works on transactions of many different types and observes all of them to help companies in the market figure it all out.

In starting out this episode, Dave explains what all companies can take away from the handful of initial public offerings over the past 12 months and SpaceX’s listing. This is true of whether they plan to go down the IPO path or not.

The rest of the conversation between Dave and our Ross Wilkers focuses on how government priorities shape merger-and-acquisition activities by companies under different ownership models, including private equity and venture capital.

Public offerings put GovCon in a new spotlight as SpaceX's listing looms

HawkEye 360's public offering hauls in $416M

AEVEX fetches $320M in IPO proceeds

Firefly captures $868M in IPO proceeds

York Space Systems raises $629M in public offering

Merlin Labs’ public offering collects $200M to build an AI autopilot for any aircraft

L3Harris to spin off its rocket motor business with the Pentagon as an anchor investor

AeroVironment's tech and business blueprints with BlueHalo now in the fold

Veritas Capital's ninth fund grows to $15.3B

OceanSound Partners hauls in $3.4B for third fund

Arlington Capital fetches $6B for its seventh fund

Government equity investments open a new frontier for industry

Venture investing is part of the M&A conversation too

Anduril hauls in $5B for Series H round

Shield AI closes $1.5B Series G round and moves on acquisition

Saronic wraps up $600M Series C round

Sierra Space and Vast detail their Series C investment rounds