If you haven’t — stop reading. Go watch it. Come back.

For those who have: you remember the scene. Two guys in their twenties. No connections, no reputation, no shot at the big Pentagon contracts. So they go on a government bidding website and look for the contracts nobody else wanted. The scraps. The overlooked line items that the big defence companies didn’t bother submitting for.

They won a $300,000 contract to deliver ammunition to a US military base in Afghanistan. From a small apartment in Miami.

That scene changed how I think about business. Because I had already made every mistake it exposes — twice. Once in hospitality. Once in tech.

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The Mistake I Made (That Movie Made Famous)

Here’s the pattern I kept falling into:

I’d identify a big client — a large hotel group, a government agency, a corporate tech buyer — and I’d go straight for the main contract. The flagship project. The big number.

I’d pitch hard. Build decks. Follow up.

And I’d lose. Or worse — I’d get ghosted.

What I didn’t understand then, and War Dogs explained better than any mentor did: the big players aren’t looking for new vendors at the top. They’re locked in. The entry point is always at the bottom — in the parts of the contract that everyone else considers beneath them.

The crumbs.

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What the Remora Actually Does

There’s a fish called the remora. It doesn’t hunt. It doesn’t compete. It attaches itself to a shark — cleans the parasites, eats the leftover scraps from the shark’s meal — and in return, goes wherever the shark goes.

The shark doesn’t mind. The remora is useful. Low friction. Zero threat.

That’s the startup strategy nobody teaches in business school.

Don’t try to be the shark. Be the remora — until you understand the ocean well enough to swim on your own.

In hospitality, I spent years chasing the headline partnerships. Big event tie-ups. Flagship collaborations. I wanted Musee Art Cafe to be taken seriously as a destination, so I aimed at the big names first.

What actually worked? Solving the small, ignored problem for a mid-size client. Handling the piece of their event that their main vendor didn’t want to manage. Being present, reliable, and excellent at the unglamorous part.

That got us in the room. Once you’re in the room — you prove, then you expand.

In tech — building AI video intelligence solutions — the same pattern repeated. The large enterprise clients weren’t going to hand a new vendor a six-figure integration contract. But they had messy, unsolved sub-problems inside existing projects. Pieces that fell through the gaps between their big vendors.

That’s where we entered. Small scope. Fast delivery. Visible results.

And then we asked for more.

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The Mistake I Kept Making

Here’s where I got it wrong — repeatedly:

I proved value and then waited to be noticed.

I thought doing good work was enough. That the client would naturally expand the engagement. That being excellent at the crumb would automatically lead to a seat at the main table.

It doesn’t work that way.

The remora doesn’t wait for the shark to invite it to dinner. It positions itself. Deliberately. Consistently. Every single time.

The lesson I had to learn the hard way, across both industries:

• Get in through the crumb — the sub-contract, the ignored scope item, the small pilot
• Deliver so well that cutting you out would create a visible gap
• Then ask. Clearly. Specifically. Early.

Don’t hint. Don’t hope. Don’t wait for the annual review.

Say: “We’ve delivered X. Here’s what we can do next. Here’s what it’s worth to you.”

The upsell doesn’t happen because you deserve it. It happens because you ask for it at the exact moment your value is undeniable.

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The War Dogs Principle, Applied

Those two guys from Miami didn’t win the Pentagon contract by being the most qualified.

They won by:

1. Going where no one else was looking
2. Doing the work everyone else thought was too small
3. Building a track record that opened the next door
4. Scaling up from there — contract by contract

That’s not a movie plot. That’s a business model.

The Afghan ammunition contract led to bigger contracts. Which led to a $300 million deal with the US government.

From scraps. From the parts nobody wanted.

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What I’d Tell Every Early-Stage Founder

Stop pitching the main contract to clients who don’t know you yet.

Find the crumb — the small, unglamorous, overlooked piece of work that exists inside every large client relationship. The thing their primary vendor doesn’t prioritize. The gap between two departments that nobody owns.

Own that gap. Completely. Quietly. Excellently.

Then expand.

The biggest mistake isn’t starting small. The biggest mistake is starting small and staying small because you were too polite — or too passive — to ask for what comes next.

The remora doesn’t stay a remora forever.

It learns the ocean.

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The Real Question

Are you chasing contracts you haven’t earned the right to win yet?

Or are you finding the crumbs — the small, real, solvable problems — that get you inside the room where the real decisions are made?

The ocean is full of sharks. Most new ventures try to fight them.

The smart ones attach — prove themselves useful — and grow from there.

Nobody invites the remora.

It shows up useful. That’s the whole strategy.