DARPA for Chickens

In 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik, seemingly vaulting ahead of the US in the space race. The stakes of this event extended far beyond demonstrating scientific prowess: the ability to reach space carried profound national security implications that compelled both superpowers to invest billions in research and development. What stung most for the United States was being caught completely unprepared.

The American response was to recommit to winning the space race, and to double down on investing in innovation. The following year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was founded with an explicit mission to prevent technological surprise and maintain American superiority. This new agency became a seemingly endless source of breakthrough innovations, contributing to pioneering research in the internet, GPS, modern semiconductor design, renewable energy, and machine learning. Competition, it turns out, breeds excellence.

The outsized productivity of DARPA as a hub of technological innovation is often partially attributed to its unique organizational structure. Rather than operating as a hierarchical bureaucracy like most government entities, DARPA functioned as a relatively loose federation of maverick inventors, innovators, engineers, and entrepreneurs, each granted significant autonomy and resources. The underlying HR thesis was to hire exceptional people and let them cook. By no accident, this philosophy would later become a cornerstone of Silicon Valley’s approach to talent.

DARPA’s success inspired numerous attempts to replicate its model. The US government created several spinoffs focused on domains beyond defense: ARPA-E for energy, IARPA for intelligence, and ARPA-H for health. Other countries followed suit, with the UK establishing ARIA and Europe launching JEDI. More recently, ARPA-inspired structures have caught hold outside of government, with organizations like Convergent Research, and Speculative Technologies.

ARPA is also foundational to Innovate Animal Ag, the organization I founded and currently run. Innovate Animal Ag exists to accelerate breakthrough innovation in animal agriculture, with a focus on animal health and welfare. Given this focus, we sometimes aspirationally refer to ourselves as the DARPA for chickens.

Organizations adopting ARPA-like models vary considerably in their implementation, so when I say Innovate Animal Ag is inspired by DARPA, here are some things I mean specifically:

• We’re organized largely into discrete program verticals, each consisting of small teams with significant autonomy and accountability for success within their domain. These verticals operate mostly independently while still creating opportunities to share strategic lessons, networks, and expertise across the organization.

• We focus on high-risk, high-reward

...