Stacy L. Chin explains how dual-use contracts and SBIR/STTR grants let startup founders build faster, expand markets, and protect equity without heavy fundraising. She covers five technology trends for 2026 and tactics to win these federal opportunities.
3, securing one of these contracts can help you strengthen your dual-use positioning. Landing one of these competitive funding opportunities not only lets you develop prototypes that can both meet commercial and defense requirements, but this can serve as a launchpad to help you expand to other markets even faster. And finally, but most importantly, securing one contract can compound to longer-term growth. Every award builds upon another and also your past performance records., which is a key asset when competing for future federal grants or even follow-up SBIR and STTR applications. 5, it also protects your equity when scaling mission impact. The founders who win in this space aren't the ones that are raising the most money, but rather are the ones that are building technologies most efficiently. And one strategy to do so is to stay capital light and equity strong. And with that, have I caught your attention just yet? If so, let's break down the 5 dual-use tech trends that will define 2026, the policies behind them, and how you can position your startup to win these opportunities.
