I almost passed on Perseus Defense because they had zero ARR. That would have been the worst mistake of my career. Applying SaaS metrics to defense hardware is like judging a nuclear submarine by its app store rating. Perseus was founded by an engineer who led NASA's Titan Dragonfly program and another who built autonomous systems for Boeing and USV swarms for the Navy. The Ukraine conflict proved that $500 drones can destroy $100M military assets. Perseus was solving that problem at speed - a functional micro-UAS prototype in one week, two guided missile versions a month later. The DoD at the table is the early customer. That's not a pipeline. That's a market validation no ARR dashboard can replicate. Stop asking hardware founders about recurring revenue. Start asking whether the problem they're solving can afford to wait.