We’re operators first
Amherst Consulting Group is a defense tech advisory firm founded by people who’ve served and now build companies.
Our Story
We started Amherst because we kept seeing founders and investors run into the same avoidable problems.
Founders chasing the wrong customers. Misreading the competitive landscape. Building operations that don’t scale. Telling their story in ways that don’t land with defense-focused investors.
The advice available was either too theoretical, coming from people who’d never built a company or too stale, from people who hadn’t touched a program office in years.
We’re different. Our team has experience executing DoD contracts, standing up BD and operations infrastructure, raising institutional capital, and navigating the messy early stages of defense startups. We’ve served in uniform, worked inside venture-backed companies, and seen what actually moves the needle with government customers.
We take on a small number of clients at a time.
What We Believe
Operators make the best advisors. We’re not career consultants. We’re people who’ve done the work and are still doing it. That means our advice is grounded in what actually works, not what sounds good in a slide deck.
Defense tech is a different game. The playbooks from enterprise SaaS don’t translate. We help founders and investors navigate the specific challenges of selling to DoD, working with primes, and building companies in a heavily regulated, relationship-driven market.
Clarity beats complexity. We don’t deliver 100-page reports full of padding. We give you the information you need to make decisions. Clearly, directly, and without the fluff.
Small is intentional. We work with a handful of clients at a time because that’s how we do our best work. We’d rather go deep with a few than spread thin across many.
Want to work together?
We’re selective about the clients we take on, but we’re always happy to talk. If you’re building or investing in defense tech, reach out.