Automated Defense Manufacturing Workflows

Pitch Deck

Team Accio (now known as Pensa Technologies) wasn’t building slides. They were building a vertical AI tool aimed at one of the most brittle links in the defense industrial base: small and mid-sized manufacturers producing mission-critical hardware with outdated, manual processes.

Formed by students from Harvard Business School and the MIT School of Engineering, Accio took on a quiet crisis inside the Pentagon’s supply chain. 70% of U.S. aerospace and defense manufacturing is done by SMEs—most of whom don’t have access to modern tooling, workflow automation, or AI-driven optimization. Delays, errors, and inefficiencies abound. These friction points don’t just affect delivery—they affect deterrence.

What Was at Stake 

In today’s environment, American industrial readiness is national defense. Manufacturing bottlenecks—especially in casting, QA, and build preparation—slow down critical hardware like aircraft components, missile housings, and satellite interfaces. Many of these bottlenecks are caused not by physics or materials, but by people manually translating CAD files into build instructions, patching together spreadsheets for QA, and hoping for consistency.

Accio’s thesis was bold: build a purpose-built AI agent that plugs directly into manufacturers’ workflows, speaks their language, and automates the most painful, error-prone steps in production—without asking them to change their core systems.

From Foundry Floor to Funded Startup 

With CMP Innovation Fund support and a background in dual-use venture development, the team launched their MVP during the H4D semester.

Their AI-powered platform automates the translation of engineering files into build-ready documentation, generates QA protocols, and supports rapid iteration by integrating into existing shop floor systems.

They weren't guessing—they were testing. The team had already conducted discovery with dozens of machine shops and fabricators, and were actively engaged with three pilot partners. Their waitlist exceeded 100 customers. During the semester, they also secured placement in the NSF Spark I-Corps program and placed in both the Harvard Business School New Venture Competition and the MIT/HBS National Security Conference pitch competition.

Operators of Another Kind 

• Alex Zannos, an MBA candidate at HBS with defense venture experience, served as team lead and market architect. 

• Sam Ballantyne, also from HBS, supported customer validation, onboarding workflows, and the enterprise sales pipeline. 

• Kaitlyn E., a technical founder from MIT, brought deep domain knowledge in aerospace systems and built the model architecture underpinning Accio’s first deployable agents.

This cross-functional team brought more than tech chops—they understood how manufacturing decisions are made, funded, and scaled across the defense enterprise.

Next Moves and Lasting Impact 

With three paid pilots now underway and an angel-backed seed round initiated, Accio is scaling into a full venture. Their software is built for production—not just for prototyping—and is already generating revenue. They’re not trying to replace manufacturers. They’re making them faster, more resilient, and harder to ignore.

Advice to Future Students

 “Don’t chase the shiny. Chase the pain,” Alex said. “There’s nothing more valuable than solving a boring problem that breaks systems every day.”