The success stories of Palantir and Anduril have paved the way for a new breed of defense tech companies aiming to compete with industry giants like Boeing and Lockheed.
But there’s also a new kind of startup emerging—one that supports these tech innovators in navigating the complex world of government contracts.
Enter Pryzm, a company that’s changing the game by helping others win it.
Founded in 2022, Pryzm was created to streamline the labyrinthine process of government contracting.
The company just secured $2 million in a pre-seed round led by XYZ Venture Capital and Amplify.LA.
Nick LaRovere, a co-founder of Pryzm, says, “Our main focus has been on VC-backed defense tech startups.”
Pryzm’s client roster already includes Forterra, a leader in autonomous vehicle technology with $243 million in funding, SysGit, a coding startup, and Decisive Point, a venture firm specializing in defense tech.
LaRovere, who cut his teeth at Palantir, joined forces with Matt Hawkins, a Lockheed Martin veteran, and David Istrati, a former cloud engineer at Colby College.
Together, they witnessed firsthand the frustrations of securing military contracts.
The process, they found, required sifting through countless government websites to identify viable opportunities and key decision-makers.
Pryzm offers a solution by aggregating data from a range of sources, including contracts, congressional hearings, and news reports, and then delivering it in a customized dashboard.
This tool highlights unallocated funds, identifies who controls these resources, and details previous contract winners, allowing startups to understand how competitors have won in the past.
LaRovere explains, “We’re pulling all this data together to create a highly targeted heat map of where opportunities lie and who you need to connect with.”
The concept might sound familiar—think Palantir, but for contracting. LaRovere doesn’t shy away from the comparison. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s too far off,” he admits.
Pryzm’s platform not only simplifies the contracting process but also helps companies navigate the subtler aspects of government work.
The Department of Defense’s opaque nature means contracts often go to firms with established relationships, not necessarily those with the best tech.
Startups, traditionally excluded from this loop, now have a fighting chance to influence decision-makers early in the process.
As LaRovere puts it, by the time a contract is publicly posted, “It’s kind of an unspoken truth that it’s already too late.”
That’s why DC is plastered with ads from the likes of RTX (formerly Raytheon), Boeing, and General Dynamics. Even Anduril has taken to advertising on buses around the capital.
“You need to get ahead of the curve,” LaRovere emphasizes. “You need to be influencing.”
Pryzm aims to put Silicon Valley’s rising stars on the radar of those controlling the purse strings in Washington.
But the company’s ambitions don’t stop at data dashboards.
Pryzm is developing tools to help companies manage their data throughout the contracting process and plans to expand beyond defense, targeting all government contractors.
This approach could significantly impact how business is conducted in the defense sector and beyond.
Ross Fubini of XYZ Venture Capital, who co-led Pryzm’s pre-seed round, sees broader implications for the company’s success.
Fubini, who spent over 14 years advising Palantir and was an early investor in Anduril, believes that empowering startups like Pryzm will have a positive ripple effect on the nation.
“Better products for the government create a more stable society,” he says. “And we all get better served as citizens.”
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