Financing Hard Things: The Art of Lending to Defense Startups

While most banks steer clear of early-stage defense contractors, Leonid Capital Partners runs toward them. Founding Partner James Parker explains how his team evaluates risk through contract data—not pitch decks. Leonid advances 50–75% of the remaining value on government contracts, prioritizes executed work over speculative awards, and rejects the “hyper-growth at all costs” mentality that defines many venture portfolios.

Tune in to learn how Leonid’s acquisition-financing model uses stacked contracts as collateral to drive consolidation among small primes and SBIR winners. This conversation is a masterclass in financial engineering—revealing how to turn government backlogs into liquidity, resilience, and lasting enterprise value.

This episode is sponsored by Every.io.

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