[excuse-me]

Almost exactly the same with military equipment.

Design a product that saves the lives of front line troops, demo it to the troops and they love it.

Then try and sell it to the government and you are told that you have to form a consortium with an established supplier - Boeing/Lockheed-Martin/General Dynamics in the US, Thales/BAe/EADS in europe.

Now imagine the sort of deal you are offered as a startup negotiating with a trillion $$ global defense company with a stranglehold on the market!

[gscott]

And if you try to export it the Government can block the sale of any military use equipment. I know a person who developed an external coating for submarines but the US Military didn't want to use it, so he found a (friendly) country that did but was denied the license to sell it.

[excuse-me]

But not if you simply manufacture it abroad.

We found a nice friendly country in the middle east who were more interested in their troops have good equipment than keeping lobbyists in business. They took the idea, made it for us and buy them from us.

(don't worry - it was the one full of beard wearing, no-pork eating, religious fundamentalists that like us)