India's defence indigenisation is usually debated in capital, policy, and platforms. The real constraint is narrower: whether a deep-tech company can attract and keep the engineers it needs. In sixteen months Sanlayan went from nine people to 105, and from a 2,500 sq ft office to over 15,000 sq ft in Bengaluru, with more than half of spend going into R&D. The numbers matter less than what they prove. In defence technology, the team is the capability, and the proving is still