Unit X
The Pentagon and Silicon Valley transforming each other.
Shah and Kirchhoff recount the founding of DIU — the Defense Innovation Unit — and the slow, friction-heavy process of connecting the world’s most advanced technology ecosystem to the world’s largest institutional buyer. The institutional translation problem they describe is exactly fintech’s: the technology that could transform an institution is usually available; the constraint is the procurement culture, the risk tolerance, and the internal incentives of the institution that needs to adopt it.