Different organizations need different conditions for desired growth. Our work spans Emerging Technology & Dual-Use, Market Expansion & Soft Landing, Federal & Defense, and Cross-Sector Innovation.
The contexts change. The work may look different. What remains consistent is attention to what must exist for meaningful movement toward the desired future to become more possible.
Spark Growth does not begin with a predetermined solution. We begin with the future being pursued, the opportunity or constraint, and the conditions surrounding it.
That means the work can take different forms across technology transition, market entry, organizational capability, cross-sector alignment, applied research, or complex implementation. The examples on this page show where we have worked and what the work required without forcing every engagement into the same pattern.
What matters is not the activity. It is what becomes possible because the right conditions were created or strengthened.
Spark Growth has worked across organizations, technologies, operating environments, and cross-sector initiatives where meaningful progress depends on more than a single strategy, capability, or relationship.
The examples below show how that work takes shape in different contexts, and the kinds of conditions, capabilities, relationships, and decisions that can influence what becomes possible.
Defense innovation where mission, technology transition, capital, and mission adoption move together.
Spark Growth’s federal and defense experience builds on founder Sara Hand-Herald’s work across defense innovation, technology transition, commercialization, and cross-sector collaboration.
Through UCF METIL / IST, Sara contributed to Central Florida Tech Grove initiatives involving NETC, NAWCTSD, and SERDP/ESTCP. That experience later led to a direct Spark Growth engagement supporting a PEO STRI initiative through Tech Grove.
Her broader defense innovation leadership includes recurring contributions to the SOFWERX Small Business Bootcamp, creation of TiE Tampa Bay’s Defense & Capital event in July 2026, and leadership of the upcoming TiE Tampa Bay Defense Innovation Summit: Future of National Security Innovation, bringing together founders, investors, defense leaders, industry, and technology innovators around the pathways that move capabilities toward mission and market impact.
Relevant experience: UCF METIL / IST • Central Florida Tech Grove • NETC • NAWCTSD • SERDP/ESTCP • PEO STRI • SOFWERX • Defense & Capital • TiE Tampa Bay Defense Innovation Summit.
From promising technology toward commercialization and scale
Spark Growth has supported dual-use and emerging-technology companies including SubUAS Naviator®, Blue Fusion, and advanced materials and manufacturing companies. The work focuses on the conditions surrounding commercialization and growth, connecting technical capability with customers and mission needs, market positioning, partnerships, capital readiness, and the organizational capability required for the next stage.
Building the conditions for market entry
Entering a new market requires more than introductions. Spark Growth helps leaders understand the market and ecosystem they are entering, develop trusted relationships, navigate cultural and operating context, identify customer and partner pathways, and determine how entry should be sequenced as new information is learned.
Aligning organizations and institutions around shared challenges
Spark Growth has developed and supported initiatives where business, government, education, research, investment, and community organizations need to work across institutional and disciplinary boundaries around shared challenges and opportunities.
That experience spans university and research environments, the development of the Smart Cities Accelerator with the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, Station 2 Innovation, Toward Smarter Communities, entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives, and earlier work across local government, public works, industry, mitigation, and recovery.
The common challenge is not simply bringing different organizations together. It is creating the understanding, relationships, structures, and conditions that allow them to learn, decide, and act more effectively across boundaries.
The examples below show Spark Growth working across different growth contexts—where technology, organizations, markets, institutions, and communities face different challenges but progress depends on understanding and strengthening the conditions surrounding what comes next.
Each story looks beyond the activity itself to what was being pursued, what conditions mattered, how Spark Growth contributed, and what was clarified, strengthened, connected, advanced, or carried forward.
Activity is visible. Consequence is what matters.
Growth Scaffolding™ is the discipline of intentionally creating the conditions that enable desired growth. The work shown here varies because the conditions surrounding each desired future vary.
Growth Perspective™ is the starting point for determining what the situation requires. From there, the work may call for a distinct Phase Two pathway or another appropriate form of support. The Work page should demonstrate that range without turning the evidence into another process diagram.
Different work. A consistent discipline.
In-person training and workshops are currently suspended to ensure maximum compliance with COVID-19 safety precautions. Check out our social media channels for updates on virtual training and our COVID-19 response portfolio.
What can you really do? You can change the world! That may sound scary, but it starts by showing up, taking action, making your voice heard.
At Spark Growth – we start by showing up. It’s funny how much success in life comes simply by showing up. If you don’t show up, you don’t get to play.
We take action. Thinking big doesn’t mean you have to start big – by starting small and building trust, you can do bigger things. You may have heard the old adage, “How do you eat an elephant?” And the answer is, “One bite at a time.”
Read our post on 5 Often Overlooked Issues That Can Keep You from Reaching Your Goals.
We participate in the conversation. This is the conversation of collaboration, asking “What Could We Do Together?”
By thinking big, you can reach for your ultimate. Your Massive Transformative Purpose is the higher, aspirational purpose of your organization. With your MTP big enough to rally around, it inspires and it moves people and hearts. Start small, build trust by doing little things, and move forward toward BIG!
A Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) is the higher, aspirational purpose of the organization, capturing the hearts and minds of those both inside and (especially) outside of the organization. (Don’t miss this video about MTP)
“Most people overestimate what they can do in two years and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Bill Gates, entrepreneur and philanthropist
After years of working across business, technology, education, funding, community, government, arts and non-profit sectors; we at Spark Growth aren’t constrained by the silos that many people live and work in. Our global context and consortium of thought leaders provides us with a unique vantage point for creative problem solving. At Spark Growth we Think Big, and we can show you how too.
