EP 113 — 3Wire Partners' Anita Antenucci On Why 80% Of VC-Backed Defense Suppliers Could Disappear

Anita Antenucci, Founder and Managing Partner of 3Wire Partners, has spent three decades and roughly five hundred deals watching the defense capital stack evolve. Venture capital typically funds ten companies knowing only one or two will survive. As more defense suppliers depend on VC money, government risks inheriting that attrition, potentially losing 80% of those providers.

Anita explains why proving a prototype in the field is scarcer than the ability to scale, where she sees the strongest deal flow, and why she asks every founder whether they want to be bought or backed.

Topics discussed:

• Matching founder timelines to the right class of private capital
• Venture capital attrition risk inside the defense supply chain
• Why battle-tested proof matters more than ability to scale
• How family offices fill a gap fixed-timeline funds cannot
• The "messy middle" of connectivity, compute, and cyber protection
• Space as a military domain driving deal flow and capital
• Programs of record competing with faster acquisition pathways
• Demand signal clarity as the biggest capital inefficiency

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