If you spend any time talking to the people who buy or use security and defence technology or equipment – the operators, the commanders, the first responders – you will often hear the same complaint repeated in different accents:
“We would have used that tech, but it never made it to us in a way we could evaluate.”
The sector isn’t short on innovation. There’s more funding, more experimentation, more small companies pushing genuinely useful capabilities than ever before.
Yet, the pipeline between “built” and “adopted” can often be clogged, and not everyone seems especially satisfied with the state of things.
A new firm called Merlon Strategy is taking that problem head-on in full force.
Founded in late 2025, the team has established a presence in the US, Europe and the Middle East – but the more interesting part is how they think rather than where they sit geographically.
“We’ve lived the urgency of first response and the pressure of making operational decisions without perfect information,” said Eitan Charnoff, Co-Founder and CEO of Merlon and a seasoned first responder, originally from the Washington D.C. area.
“You see incredible solutions stall simply because they never get framed in a way buyers and end-users can act on,” Charnoff continued.
“We wanted to build something that fixes that for the whole defence and HLS ecosystem; not a generic marketing agency, but one that translates operational need into real traction.”
Charnoff isn’t exaggerating his background: Nearly two decades as a firefighter and medic, plus years in security policy roles and government advisory positions in the Gulf, have given him a practical sense of where communication fails.
That experience gives Merlon a tone that feels unusually grounded for a growth-focused firm.
Working alongside him is Shelley Golan, Co-Founder and COO, whose career runs through the venture-backed, next-gen technology and banking world.
She sees first-hand the growth trajectory of the new Frontiertech and Defensetech ecosystem as well as the capital and players that power it.
“A lot of brilliant technology loses momentum because the story is unclear,” Golan explained.
“Or the team doesn’t map the buyer journey in a way that matches how public-safety and defence agencies actually think. We spend a lot of time fixing that gap.”
Between the two of them is third Co-Founder, Igor Zvagelsky, a global marketing and advertising director with over 20 years of experience.
Speaking with the Merlon team feels less like a traditional ad agency and more like a hybrid between a tactical operators team and a strategic communications unit.
They describe it informally as “the agency we wished existed,” which is probably the most honest summary of their motivation.
Merlon Strategy’s work is built on one foundation: Laser accurate operational grade intelligence analysis that guides every campaign, every asset and every strategic decision.
The firm focuses on services that translate into traction for defence, HLS and public-safety companies.
Core offerings
Merlon Strategy deploys state-of-the-art marketing capabilities supported by security and defence veterans to help clients target the best buyers with strategic accuracy. It offers:
- Branding and positioning – Merlon Strategy builds or rebuilds a company’s narrative from the ground up so buyers instantly understand mission impact. Messaging is shaped by real-world operational research
- Asset production – websites, brochures, pitch decks, capability sheets and videos designed the way operators, procurement teams and commanders actually evaluate technology
- Targeted B2B and B2G lead generation – using intelligence-grade targeting, Merlon Strategy identifies the exact buyers, agencies, integrators and distributors that matter. Campaigns are built around mission sets, use-cases and threat environments
- Thought leadership and publication – Merlon Strategy positions founders as trusted voices. The team shapes articles, case studies and opinion pieces, placing them in credible defence and security outlets
- Market research and competitive intelligence – rapid, operationally informed assessments of markets, mapping and vetting potential distributors, integrators and end-users, procurement cycles, competitors and regional risks that help clients enter new geographies with clarity and confidence
- Trade show and event strategy – end-to-end support for exhibitions like Intersec, Milipol, IDEX and AUSA. Pre-event targeting, meeting scheduling, booth collateral and follow-up campaigns
- Crisis and sensitive communications – support for high-risk announcements, incidents and inquiries with clear, accurate, mission-aware messaging
Why a firm like this matters now
The security ecosystem is in an inflection moment: Innovation cycles are speeding up, but procurement timelines haven’t. Agencies are overwhelmed with options.
Many startups often know their tech cold but can’t articulate it in a way that resonates with people who think in terms of mission impact under impossible conditions rather than technical features.
Even established defence companies find themselves competing with newer entrants and more clutter.
This is the environment Merlon Strategy is stepping into, not to overhaul it, but to make the flow between “invented” and “adopted” smoother.
If that alignment is off, everything downstream suffers; communication, procurement, deployment, trust. Merlon believes that operational fluency paired with disciplined growth strategy can tighten that chain.
The heart of Merlon Strategy’s thesis is simple: The people branding and marketing mission-critical capabilities should actually understand the mission – because they have been there themselves in the trenches and command rooms.
To find out more information, please visit: merlonstrategy.com