U.S. SecNav Del Toro on Defense

United States Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro set up a program management and engineering firm SBG Technology Solutions in 2004 with his wife out of their home in Virginia. Seventeen years later, SBG Technology Solutions is a company of 120 employees, making about $40 million in revenue.

Start-up strategies

During his visit to India in November 2022, Del Toro brought his experience as not just a defense expert and an official of the U.S. government, but also as a seasoned entrepreneur. During an interactive session with students and entrepreneurs at the American Center New Delhi, he explained that one of the keys to starting any business is a “desirable requirement” in the commercial market for the product, so that it can be sold and scaled. “For many companies, especially start-ups, it is important to have a broad market and to have different strategies to sell your products,” he said while responding to a question on a fire safety product developed by an alumnus of the U.S. Embassy’s Nexus Start-Up Hub. Del Toro also said that it is equally important to sell a product in the government or defense market, apart from commercial. “Of course, doing work with the government and the defense marketplace comes with, sometimes, a different set of regulations that you have to comprehend, embrace and understand…But I think the success of your company increases significantly with having as broad a market as possible that you can sell to. So, creating that product with both markets in mind makes a lot of sense,” he said.

In addition, Del Toro said that the United States is considering opening a branch of the Office of Naval Research in India, where entrepreneurs will be given the platform to expand their market access in both countries.