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Backswing Ventures: The SBIR Trap — When Non-Dilutive Capital Becomes a Distraction

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The Orlando-based defense venture capital firm warns that early-stage companies risk becoming outsourced R&D shops for the government if SBIR and STTR awards start dictating strategy instead of accelerating it.

ORLANDO, Fla., August 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SBIR funding is one of the most important levers for getting new defense technology off the ground, according to Backswing Ventures, an Orlando-based early-stage defense venture capital firm. For an early-stage company, the firm says, non-dilutive capital can be the difference between an idea staying on a whiteboard and a product reaching the warfighter — funding expensive R&D, validating technology, and building government relationships without giving up equity.

But the firm cautions that the model can become a trap. “The problem isn’t SBIR funding,” said Kyle Asman, Founder and Managing Partner of Backswing Ventures. “The problem is when SBIR funding becomes the business model.”

From Force Multiplier to Distraction

According to Backswing Ventures, the pattern is familiar across the defense tech landscape: a company wins a Phase I, builds a prototype, wins a Phase II, then starts eyeing the next solicitation. The government has another problem, and the company has the technical capability to solve it, so it builds something new, chases another award, and repeats. Over time, Asman said, that company can start to look less like a product business and more like an outsourced R&D shop for the Department of War — a dangerous place for a venture-backed company to land.

The distinction, Asman said, is subtle. A defense company can, and often should, derive most of its revenue from government customers, since they’re the market for many of the most important technologies being built today. “The issue isn’t where the revenue comes from,” he said. “It’s whether the company is building toward a repeatable product and a defensible position, or simply chasing whatever problem happens to have funding attached to it.”

When the Tool Becomes the Strategy

Used well, Backswing Ventures says, an SBIR accelerates a company’s existing strategy — funding a hard piece of R&D, validating a new capability, or pushing a product through testing without burning equity capital. Used poorly, the firm cautions, the funding starts setting the strategy instead.

“A company with a product that’s already 80 percent of what a customer needs might spend another 18 months chasing the remaining 20 percent simply because a new program is willing to pay for it,” Asman said. “On paper that looks like progress — another award, another prototype, another relationship. In practice, it can move the company further from commercialization. Every engineer on a one-off government prototype is an engineer not improving the core product. Every dollar chasing the next award is a dollar not spent on production, hiring, or the next customer.”

The SBIR program itself is built around this endpoint, according to the firm: Phase III exists specifically to move technology beyond SBIR/STTR funding and into federal or private markets.

The strongest defense companies, Backswing Ventures argues, treat SBIR funding as a force multiplier, not a destination. “They know what they’re building, who needs it, and why they’ll be hard to replace,” Asman said, “and they use government funding to accelerate that roadmap, not rewrite it with every new solicitation.”

The Right Question for Founders

For founders, Backswing Ventures says the right question isn’t “Can we win this SBIR?” It’s: “If we win it, does it make the company we’re already building more valuable?” Does it strengthen the core product, create proprietary technology, expand a real capability, put the product in an important customer’s hands, or open a path to production? If yes, the firm says, non-dilutive capital is a powerful tool. If no, another $1 million in funding may not be progress at all.

“At Backswing, we believe the best defense companies are defined by what they build, who buys it, and why they keep winning, not by how many government R&D awards they’ve collected,” Asman said. “SBIRs can be an exceptional tool for getting there. The key is making sure the tool doesn’t become the strategy.”

Backswing Ventures has backed several companies that illustrate this discipline in practice. The firm recently led Isengard Industries’ financing round to scale precision munitions manufacturing for allied militaries, and supported Orion Edge’s $3 million seed round to expand delivery of tactical electronic warfare systems to U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and international customers — investments the firm says reflect production-focused, revenue-generating businesses rather than research-stage dependency on government awards.

The firm’s broader investment philosophy has also translated into results: Backswing Ventures’ Fund II recently surpassed 1.0x DPI in under three years, a milestone the firm attributes in part to this discipline around what it funds and why.

Backswing Ventures has written previously about the importance of hands-on diligence in defense investing, noting in a recent post that its team makes it a policy to visit every portfolio company in person before investing — a practice it says extends the same principle of grounding decisions in what’s actually being built, not just what’s being pitched.

Backswing Ventures said it continues to look for founders redefining defense and national security who understand this distinction — building real products rather than chasing whatever solicitation happens to be open.

About Backswing Ventures

Backswing Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on dual-use and defense technology companies. The firm invests in businesses building next-generation capabilities across aerospace, autonomy, defense systems, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and national security technologies. Backswing Ventures’ Fund II recently surpassed 1.0x DPI in under three years, making it among the top-performing 2023 vintage venture funds in the country.

Backswing Ventures | backswingventures@redbanyan.com 

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SOURCE Backswing Ventures

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Women in Revenue Launches AI Leadership Council to Ensure Women Help Shape the AI Economy, Not Just Survive It

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August 27, 2026

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Built to ensure women are set to thrive in an AI world, the Council comprises senior leaders from business, technology, academia, and public policy

DENVER, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Women in Revenue (WIR), the nonprofit membership organization dedicated to advancing women’s professional success and contribution to business growth and revenue generation, today launched its AI Leadership Council, a new working body of senior executives, researchers, and policy leaders. This collective was formed to answer a crucial question largely overlooked: can AI become the first force that meaningfully disrupts the structural barriers that prevent women from reaching maximum potential in the workplace?

“The claim that women are behind on AI gets repeated constantly and tested almost never. We are not going to argue with the narrative. We are going to test it,” said Cherilynn Castleman, Co-Chair of the AI Leadership Council, Managing Partner at CGI LLC, and Harvard Instructor.

Most of the current dialogue around AI focuses on disruption, automation, and risk. Far less attention has gone to a more consequential question: how do we actively steer AI’s trajectory, while there is still time, so that it closes gaps instead of hardening them? The AI Leadership Council was built to pursue that question through rigorous inquiry, original research, and interdisciplinary dialogue among leaders in business, technology, academia, workforce transformation, and public policy. The Council’s work will center on examining how AI is reshaping women’s paths to power, leadership and economic participation.

Inaugural members are:

Ginna Santy, PhD, Co-Chair and Executive Director of Women in RevenueCherilynn Castleman, Co-Chair, Managing Partner, CGI LLC, Harvard InstructorAmanda Van Nuys, Director, Outbound Product Marketing, Agentic CX Biz Applications and Agents at MicrosoftDina Habib O’Mara, Independent Advisor, employed at Microsoft, Global Industry Partner GTM Strategy LeaderDaniela Gorza, Co-founder and COO, MaigentMindy Honcoop, Founder and Executive Advisor/Coach, Agile HRSirisha Swahari, VP of US Global Operations, CGIDiana Brunelle, Chief People Officer, SnykUrvashi Batra, Co-founder and CEO, PrioriwiseBriar Harvey, Founder, Neurodiversity Media NetworkEmily Leahy, Founder, InPhase

“AI is not inherently neutral: it reflects the data, human inputs, and systems that shape it. In workplaces that were never designed for women to thrive, leaving those inputs unexamined risks automating and scaling existing inequities,” said Dr. Ginna Santy, Co-Chair of the AI Leadership Council and Executive Director of Women in Revenue. “Left unchallenged, AI won’t simply reproduce those inequities; it will automate them, scale them, and make them feel even more unassailable than they already are. This Council may be our last real opportunity to intervene before yesterday’s biases become tomorrow’s workplace infrastructure. Women will not win if they are the end users of an AI economy built without them.”

“The claim that women are behind on AI gets repeated constantly and tested almost never. We are not going to argue with the narrative. We are going to test it,” said Cherilynn Castleman, Co-Chair of the AI Leadership Council, Managing Partner at CGI LLC, and Harvard Instructor. “This Council is built on original research into how AI is changing who gets hired, whose work gets credited, and who gets promoted. The findings go where the evidence goes.”

The Council will hold its inaugural meeting on September 11 at Snyk’s Boston headquarters, opening with a session titled “The Operating System: What Is AI Actually Optimizing For?”

“AI will reshape opportunity at a scale few technologies ever have, which makes it essential that the people shaping its future bring a wide range of experiences and perspectives to the table,” said Diana Brunelle, Chief People Officer at Snyk. “Snyk is proud to support the Women in Revenue AI Leadership Council and its work to help ensure AI is developed and adopted in ways that are secure, responsible, and capable of expanding opportunity.”

The session will examine which behaviors AI systems reward and which they quietly devalue, where bias is being encoded versus erased, and who ultimately decides what “good” output looks like. It will produce the Council’s first thought leadership deliverable: a published framework naming the hidden defaults of enterprise AI, paired with a set of diagnostic questions every woman leader can ask of the tools in her stack. Additional sessions are in development and will be announced in the coming months.

Organizations and individuals interested in learning more about the AI Leadership Council, its research agenda, or membership should contact Sally Abdelnabi at sally@womeninrevenue.org.

About Women in Revenue

Women in Revenue (WIR) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers professional women to thrive in the revenue-generating roles crucial for individual and business success and long-term economic growth. With a community of 10,000+ members, WIR fosters growth through mentorship, networking, and professional development to help women advance their careers. WIR is supported by funding partner Tiger Global Impact Ventures and sponsors including Clari/Salesloft, Snyk, 6Sense, and others. All WIR research is conducted independently, without sponsor influence over its findings or conclusions. For more information or to become a WIR member, visit womeninrevenue.org.

Media Contact:

Stacey Paris-Bechtel

Breakaway Communications for Women in Revenue

sparis@breakawaycom.com

Media Contact

Stacey Paris-Bechtel, Breakaway Communications for Women in Revenue, 1 2126166003, tsheehy@breakawaycom.com, www.womeninrevenue.org

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SOURCE Women in Revenue

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TestMu Conference 2026: TestMu AI’s Flagship Event Marks a New Milestone in the World of Agentic Engineering and Quality

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August 27, 2026

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Over 75,000 Registrations, 145 Speakers, and Unprecedented Insights into the Future of Agentic Software Development and Autonomous Quality

SAN FRANCISCO and NOIDA, India, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest), the world’s first Agentic AI-powered Quality Engineering platform, concluded the fifth edition of the Testµ (‘TestMu’) Conference 2026, a 3-day virtual summit to discuss the future of agentic engineering and quality, and establish a clear, actionable vision for the industry’s shift to autonomous software development.

The conference had a massive global convergence of talent and ideas, attracting over 75,000 registrations from testers, developers, engineering leaders, AI/ML engineers, and community members from the software testing and development community across 120+ countries. The event saw outstanding engagement, with 10,000+ attendees, underscoring the critical importance of the topics and the conference’s role as an essential forum for the world’s top engineering talent.

The agenda was driven by a historic gathering of industry titans and enterprise leaders from the world’s most innovative companies, including Microsoft, Meta, Replit, Databricks, Glean, Hinge Health, Salesforce, Piramal Finance, and others. The speaker roster featured Luis Héctor Chávez, Chief Technology Officer, Replit; Francesca Lazzeri, Principal Group Director, Microsoft; Thomas Dohmke, Co-Founder and CEO, Entire; Dona Sarkar, Chief Troublemaker – Microsoft Enterprise AI Advocacy, Microsoft; Rushabh Mehta, Software Engineer, Meta; Nilesh Dalvi, Engineering Leader, Glean; Rashi Agrawal, Head of AI, Hinge Health; Viktoria Semaan, Principal Technical Evangelist, Databricks; and many others.

Three core industry imperatives emerged from the summit’s 96 sessions, panels, and workshops. First, trust must be engineered, not assumed, as AI agents take on a growing share of the engineering workload, rigorous evals, verification layers, and continuous validation are the only way to make autonomous systems trustworthy at scale. Second, agentic workflows must graduate from pilots to production, enterprises need production-grade quality gates, observability, and governance to move AI-driven engineering beyond experimentation and into mission-critical delivery. Finally, the human quality layer will define the winners of the agentic era, engineering leaders must build the culture, skills, and operating models that allow teams to adopt, supervise, and genuinely trust AI coworkers.

“This year, Testµ (TestMu) Conference marked the moment the industry moved from talking about agentic AI to engineering it responsibly,” said Asad Khan, CEO and Co-Founder of TestMu AI. “Across three days, we saw the world’s best engineering minds converge on a shared conviction: autonomous systems demand autonomous quality. The conversations and innovations unveiled here will define how software is built, tested, and shipped for the next decade. Our commitment is to continue empowering this community with the platform and vision needed to lead the agentic era.”

The conference was supported by a rich ecosystem of partners, including Accenture, Capgemini, LTIMindtree, Microsoft, Persistent, Wipro, and many others.

Building on this monumental success, TestMu AI has announced that the sixth annual Testµ Conference will return from August 24-26, 2027, promising to once again gather the world’s brightest minds to push the boundaries of technology.

To learn more, visit: https://www.testmuai.com/testmuconf-2026/

Register for TestMu Conference 2027 here: https://www.testmuai.com/testmuconf-2027/ 

About TestMu AI
TestMu AI (Formerly LambdaTest) is a Full-Stack Agentic AI Quality Engineering platform that empowers teams to test intelligently and ship faster. Engineered for scale, it offers end-to-end AI agents to plan, author, execute, and analyze software quality. AI-native by design, the platform enables testing of web, mobile, and enterprise applications at any scale across real devices, real browsers, and custom real-world environments.

For more information, visit www.testmuai.com

Media Contact
Nikhil Saxena
Corporate Communication Manager
TestMu AI
nikhils@testmuai.com
+919870981968

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Dr. Monica Parrish Trent Named Executive Director of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation

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August 27, 2026

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation today announced Monica Parrish Trent, PhD as the organization’s next Executive Director. Dr. Trent will advance the Foundation’s strong legacy while advancing its mission to empower people from all backgrounds with the training and education needed to succeed in the restaurant, foodservice, and hospitality industry.

Dr. Trent has more than 25 years of experience across higher education, workforce development, and national nonprofit leadership, focused on building pathways that connect education and training to meaningful careers and economic opportunity. Her professional journey includes faculty and leadership roles at diverse, multi-campus community colleges before moving into executive leadership in the national nonprofit sector. Throughout her career, she has led complex initiatives through distributed partner networks and built collaborations among educators, employers, funders, and community partners to translate strategy into programs that can be implemented and scaled.

Most recently, she served as Chief Program and Network Officer at Achieving the Dream (ATD), where she led national program and workforce strategy across a network of more than 300 community colleges.

“Monica is an exceptional leader who cares deeply about the power and opportunity in getting people into the right job,” said Michelle Korsmo, CEO of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. “Her ability to tell a powerful story around an organization’s mission and developing partnerships and programs to bring it to life will benefit the Foundation as it provides experienced career exploration and workforce readiness in the restaurant industry to young people seeking these workplace entry roles.” 

“The restaurant and hospitality industry creates opportunities for millions of people, and its workforce growth depends on ensuring they have clear pathways to develop the skills, credentials, and experience employers need,” said Dr. Trent. “I have spent my career bringing educators, employers, and communities together to strengthen career pathways and help people move from learning to meaningful careers. I’m excited to bring that experience to the Foundation and help more people turn the skills they gain and credentials they earn into greater possibilities for advancement. Having worked in restaurants while I was a student, I saw firsthand how the industry opens doors for people from a wide spectrum of life experiences and how a job can grow into a lifelong career that supports a family and strengthens a community.”

The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation invests in individuals throughout their career journeys, equipping them to grab ahold of industry opportunities to create a better future for themselves, while building communities that foster their growth and development. With a people-first focus, the Foundation empowers the restaurant and foodservice industry to maximize its potential as America’s second-largest private employer. Learn more here.

About the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF): As the supporting philanthropic foundation of the National Restaurant Association, the NRAEF’s charitable mission includes enhancing the industry’s training and education, career development, and community engagement efforts. The NRAEF and its programs work to Attract, Empower, and Advance today’s and tomorrow’s restaurant and foodservice workforce. NRAEF programs include: ProStart® – a high-school career and technical education program; Restaurant Ready/HOPES – Partnering with community based organizations to provide people with skills training and job opportunities; Military – helping military servicemen and women transition their skills to restaurant and foodservice careers; Scholarships – financial assistance for students pursuing restaurant, foodservice and hospitality degrees; and the Restaurant & Hospitality Leadership Center (RHLC) – accredited apprenticeship programs designed to build the careers of service professionals. For more information on the NRAEF, visit ChooseRestaurants.org. 

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SOURCE National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation

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