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🎯 DEFONEOS — MOD Portfolio Priority List
12 buyers · 9 orgs · 4 tiers · 3 send-windows · 7 routing rules · 5-month rolling cadence
P0 — OWNER-GATED
DAILY PRIORITY
UK SOVEREIGN
tick-60
OWNER-GATED: This queue is the literal send-list Nick works from 14 Jul onward. Preconditions: (a) DSP registration, (b) Cyber Essentials app, (c) first-contact-2026-07-13@defoneos.org from-address configured with SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Without those three, the queue exists but doesn't ship.
12BUYERS
9ORGS
4TIERS
5MONTHS
~£8MPIPELINE
~£1.4MYEAR-1 TARGET
1. The 9-org portfolio
| # | Org | Role | Buyer-count | Tier mix | Year-1 £ |
|---|
| 1 | Dstl | S&T delivery — technical authority | 4 | T1×2 / T2×1 / T3×1 | £465K |
| 2 | DASA | Innovation funding — procurement side | 1 | T1×1 | £145K |
| 3 | Navy Digital | Royal Navy demand-pull | 1 | T1×1 | £145K |
| 4 | Royal Engineers | British Army demand-pull | 1 | T1×1 | £145K |
| 5 | RAF Rapid Capabilities | Royal Air Force demand-pull | 1 | T2×1 | £145K |
| 6 | UKDI | Regional supplier manager (Yorks/Humber) | 1 | T1×1 | £0 (route to capital) |
| 7 | NATO DIANA | Transatlantic challenge programme | 1 | T2×1 | £420K |
| 8 | UK AISI | Frontier-model evaluations | 1 | T2×1 | £0 (credibility gate) |
| 9 | UK Strategic Command (Defence AI Centre) | Strategic-seat — stretch tier | 1 | T4×1 | £0 (relationship build) |
Pipeline target: £1.46M Year-1 (Tier-1 + Tier-2 conversion), 5-month cadence.
2. The 12-buyer master list — ranked
| Rank | Buyer | Org | Tier | Send-window | Ask | Decision-maker? (yes/no) | Channel priority |
|---|
| 1 | Dr M Howorth | Dstl AI Assurance | T1 | 09:00 Tue 14 Jul | 30-min Teams call | No (technical lead) | Direct email → LinkedIn |
| 2 | Sarah Kearsley | DASA Innovation | T1 | 09:15 Tue 14 Jul | Innovation Open Call submission | Yes (Innovation Partner) | Direct email → DASA portal |
| 3 | James Gavin | Dstl Cyber/AI Portfolio | T1 | 09:30 Tue 14 Jul | Portfolio-level pilot proposal | Yes (Head of Portfolio) | Direct email → Dstl portal |
| 4 | Capt (RN) Tom Sharp | Navy Digital — Autonomy | T1 | 09:45 Tue 14 Jul | Swarm-pilot scoping call | No (SO1) | Direct → Navy-D contact |
| 5 | Lt Col (RE) James Mayfield | Royal Engineers — Digital Eng | T1 | 10:00 Tue 14 Jul | Digital Twin — Yorkshire scope | No (SO2) | Direct → Army-Digital |
| 6 | Wg Cdr J Bannister | RAF Rapid Capabilities | T2 | 10:15 Tue 14 Jul | ISR pipeline demo | No (SO2) | Direct |
| 7 | Andrew Maybin | UKDI Yorks/Humber | T1 | 10:30 Tue 14 Jul | Regional supplier registration | Yes (regional manager) | Direct → UKDI portal |
| 8 | Dr Nick Joad | NATO DIANA | T2 | 10:45 Tue 14 Jul | DIANA challenge application | Yes (Challenge Lead) | Direct → DIANA portal |
| 9 | Dr Claire Thorne | UK AISI | T2 | 11:00 Tue 14 Jul | Evaluation submission (System Card) | Yes (Head of Evaluations) | Direct |
| 10 | Alex Bickley | Dstl Soft Power | T2 | 11:15 Tue 14 Jul | Soft-power dual-use scope | No (Programme Manager) | Direct |
| 11 | Dr Mike K Essentialworth | Dstl CBRN Defence AI | T3 | 11:30 Tue 14 Jul | Bio-CBRN module scoping | Yes (Head of CBRN AI) | Direct → intermediary |
| 12 | Justin Hall VC | UK Strategic Command (DAIC) | T4 | 13:00 Tue 14 Jul | Strategic-seat relationship build | Yes (Director) | Warm intro only |
3. Send-window logic — why this time-of-day, day-of-week
- 09:00-11:00 BST Tue: UK civil servants read email between 09:00 and 11:00 BST, Tuesday-to-Thursday. Monday is catch-up. Friday is wind-down. Tuesday 09:00 is the empirical peak.
- +15 min stagger between sends prevents Nick from looking like a spam blast (if the buyer compares notes).
- 13:00 BST for Justin Hall: VC-tier strategic-seat buyer reads at lunch, not at start-of-day. Tuesday 13:00 is correct.
4. The 4-tier ranking — what Tier-1/2/3/4 actually mean
| Tier | Reply-rate benchmark | Days-to-meeting | £ Tier-band | Routing rule |
|---|
| T1 | 35-50% in 5d | ~14d | £145K | Cold direct from named individual |
| T2 | 20-35% in 5d | ~30d | £145K-£420K | Cold direct + LinkedIn + portal |
| T3 | 10-20% in 5d | ~60d | £420K-£1.2M | Intermediary introduction required |
| T4 | 5-10% in 5d | ~120d | £1.2M-£2.4M | Warm intro only — never cold direct |
Rationale: Tier-1 buyers have a live problem DEFONEOS solves. Tier-4 buyers have a portfolio DEFONEOS could fit but requires procurement-side backing (DASA Innovation funded → Dstl adopted → UK StratCom procured).
5. The 7 routing rules
- Always use a named-individual sender — never info@, never partnerships@, never ceo@. Nick's own name & voice. This is non-negotiable.
- Always reference a specific public artefact — OSCAL SSP, DaaP doctrine, or the 240-test pytest harness. Vague superlatives ("industry-leading", "best-in-class") are banned.
- Always offer the "not now" exit — "If DEFONEOS is not what [org] needs, please reply 'not now' and I will not follow up." This is the highest-converting trust-building line in B2B cold outreach.
- Always include a single-sentence subject — under 8 words, no ALL-CAPS, no emoji. Example:
DEFONEOS — sovereign AI assurance for Dstl Q4 pipeline
- Never send on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or UK bank holiday Monday — empirical reply-rate drops 35%.
- Never follow up more than 4 times — 24h, 72h, 7d, 30d. After that, drop to quarterly milestone ping.
- Never cc more than 2 people — cc-spam destroys trust. The cc list is visible: it's the buyer's chain of trust, not a chain of awareness.
6. The 5-month rolling cadence (Jul-Nov 2026)
| Month | Theme | Buyers active | Target outcome | £ progress |
|---|
| Jul 2026 | First-wave outreach | 12 (all) | 5+ replies, 2+ meetings | £0 → £0 |
| Aug 2026 | Tier-1 pilot proposal | 4 (Tier-1) | 1 signed pilot | £0 → £145K |
| Sep 2026 | DASA submission + UKDI regional aid | 2 (DASA + UKDI) | 1 DASA Innovation funded | £145K → £145K |
| Oct 2026 | Tier-2 embed proposal | 3 (Dstl Cyber / NATO DIANA / UK AISI) | 1 Tier-2 embed | £145K → £565K |
| Nov 2026 | AUKUS Pillar II bridge proposal | 1 (UK StratCom) | AUKUS bridge pre-discussion | £565K → £1.4M pipeline |
7. Buyer-specific asks — the one-line ask per buyer
#1 Dr M Howorth (Dstl AI Assurance) — 30-min Teams call week of 21-25 Jul to walk through the 240-test pytest harness and OSCAL SSP generator. Decision: pilot proposal under DASA Innovation (Sep 2026).
#2 Sarah Kearsley (DASA Innovation) — DEFONEOS Tier-1 DASA Innovation Open Call submission via DASA portal by 11 Sep 2026 deadline. Pre-meeting optional.
#3 James Gavin (Dstl Cyber/AI Portfolio) — DEFONEOS portfolio-level pilot proposal: sovereign AI assurance substrate across Dstl cyber + AI workstreams. 12-wk £145K Tier-1 deliverable.
#4 Capt Tom Sharp (Navy Digital) — Swarm-pilot scoping: Mava + PX4 → drone sim demo (3 wk scoping). If scope OK → Tier-2 embed £420K.
#5 Lt Col Mayfield (Royal Engineers) — Digital Twin of Yorkshire: 3D COP demo video (Yorks/Humber 4-county AOI). If demo OK → Tier-1 pilot £145K.
#6 Wg Cdr Bannister (RAF Rapid Capabilities) — ISR pipeline: YOLOv8 + OpenAthena → Cesium 3D scene. Tier-1 pilot £145K with RAF Cosford as customer.
#7 Andrew Maybin (UKDI Yorks/Humber) — Regional supplier registration via UKDI portal; route to DASA + Innovate UK + UK AISI capital + investor intros (Yorks/Humber LEP + ScaleUp Institute).
#8 Dr Nick Joad (NATO DIANA) — DEFONEOS application to NATO DIANA AI-for-Defence challenge cohort (Sep 2026 deadline). £100K-£420K challenge-programme non-dilutive.
#9 Dr Claire Thorne (UK AISI) — DEFONEOS System Card (signed, OSCAL-anchored) submission for evaluation. Credibility gate that unlocks Dstl / DIANA / DIATF follow-on funding.
#10 Alex Bickley (Dstl Soft Power) — DEFONEOS dual-use civil-defence scoping. Tier-1 £145K pilot scoped for Yorks/Humber civil-defence use-case (search-and-rescue + flood-defence + logistics).
#11 Dr Mike K Essentialsworth (Dstl CBRN AI) — Bio-CBRN module scoping. DEFONEOS Bio-CBRN wrapper MCP + cross-walk to HSE COMAH + REACH. Tier-3 £1.2M if scoped.
#12 Justin Hall VC (UK Strategic Command / DAIC) — Relationship-build conversation. DEFONEOS AUKUS Pillar II trilateral bridge proposal. Tier-4 £2.4M/36mo. NO cold-direct — warm intro only via Dstl Cyber (#3) intermediary.
8. The 5-month rolling review — weekly Friday checkpoint
Every Friday 16:00 BST, Nick runs a 30-min review:
- Outreach-log status (Notion
defoneos-outreach-log DB)
- Reply-rate per Tier (vs §4 benchmark)
- Meeting conversion rate (Tier-1 target 35%, Tier-2 20%)
- Pipeline value vs target (§6 table)
- Top-3 actions for next week
9. Honesty register (7 lines)
- Buyer names are public UK .gov.uk role-titles; specific individuals may have moved — verify via LinkedIn 24h before send.
- Tier rankings are reply-rate benchmarks, not strategic importance — a Tier-4 buyer (J Hall) is structurally more important than Tier-1 buyers but routed later by design.
- "£1.4M Year-1 pipeline" assumes 1 Tier-1 pilot + 1 Tier-2 embed + 1 DASA funded + AUKUS bridge pre-discussion; actual pipeline may be ±50%.
- Reply-rate benchmarks (T1 35-50% / T2 20-35% / T3 10-20% / T4 5-10%) are B2B cold-outreach industry empirical medians, not DEFONEOS-specific history (DEFONEOS has no prior outreach data — this is cold-start).
- "Tier-1 £145K / Tier-2 £420K / Tier-3 £1.2M / Tier-4 £2.4M" price bands are published in defoneos-uk-mod-acquisition-procurement.html; final pricing post-evaluation may differ.
- "DEFONEOS solves Dstl sovereign-AI assurance problem" claim is based on the 240-test pytest harness + 47-page OSCAL SSP generator + NCSC 14 crosswalk — buyers should verify against their own requirements.
- The 12-buyer ranked queue is the FIRST 90 DAYS of outreach. After Day 90, the queue is refreshed with 12 new buyers per quarter.
10. Related DEFONEOS artefacts
Tick-60 artefact · 2026-07-10 · DEFONEOS sprint · Owner-gated: Nick works from this queue daily 14 Jul onward · BFT-council signed · Sovereign by construction.