Castellum (CTM) Risk Factors

The members of our team do not all have significant prior experience working in their roles for a public company, including our CEO, COO, and CFO. The management team also has limited experience working together as a team. The inability of any member of our management team to operate effectively in their position, or for the management team to effectively work together, could materially and adversely affect our operating results and future prospects.

To help control our overall long-term costs associated with employee health benefits, we began maintaining our employee medical insurance benefits on a self-insured basis effective June 1, 2024. To limit our exposure, we have third party stop-loss insurance coverage which sets a limit on our liability for both individual and aggregate claim costs. We record a liability for our estimated cost of claims incurred but unpaid as of each balance sheets date. Our estimated liability is based on assumptions we believe to be reasonable under the current circumstances and will be adjusted as warranted based on changing circumstances. It is possible, however, that our actual liabilities may exceed our estimates of losses. We may also experience an unexpectedly large number of claims that result in costs or liabilities in excess of our projections, which could cause us to record additional expenses. Our self-insurance reserves could prove to be inadequate, resulting in liabilities in excess of our available insurance and self-insurance. If a successful claim is made against us and is not covered by our insurance or exceeds our policy limits, our business may be negatively and materially impacted. These fluctuations could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. We have modified the following risk factors disclosed in Part I, Item 1A., Risk Factors included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023:

As a contractor to the USG, as well as state and local governments, we are heavily regulated in most fields in which we operate. We deal with numerous USG agencies and entities, and when working with these and other entities, we must comply with and are affected by unique laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration, and performance of government contracts. Some significant law and regulations that affect us include the following: - the FAR, and agency regulations supplemental to FAR, which regulate the formation, administration, and performance of USG contracts;- the False Statements Act, which imposes civil and criminal liability for making false statements to the USG;- the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Statute (formerly known as the "Truth in Negotiations Act"), which requires certification and disclosure of cost and pricing data in connection with the negotiation of certain contracts, modifications, or task orders;- the Procurement Integrity Act, which regulates access to competitor bid and proposal information and certain internal government procurement sensitive information, and our ability to provide compensation to certain former government procurement officials;- laws and regulations restricting the ability of a contractor to provide gifts or gratuities to employees of the USG, including the FCPA which prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests;- post-government employment laws and regulations, which restrict the ability of a contractor to recruit and hire current employees of the USG and deploy former employees of the USG;- laws, regulations, and executive orders restricting the handling, use, and dissemination of information classified for national security purposes or determined to be "controlled unclassified information" or "for official use only," and the export of certain products, services, and technical data, including requirements regarding any applicable licensing of our employees involved in such work;- laws, regulations, and executive orders regulating the handling, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information in the course of performing a USG contract;- international trade compliance laws, regulations, and executive orders that prohibit business with certain sanctioned entities and require authorization for certain exports or imports in order to protect national security and global stability, including The International Traffic in Arms Regulations that controls the manufacture, sale, and distribution of defense and space-related articles and services as defined in the United States Munitions List);- laws, regulations, and executive orders governing organizational conflicts of interest that may restrict our ability to compete for certain USG contracts because of the work that we currently perform for the USG or may require that we take measures such as firewalling off certain employees or restricting their future work activities due to the current work that they perform under a USG contract;- laws, regulations, and executive orders that impose requirements on us to ensure compliance with requirements and protect the USG from risks related to our supply chain such as compliance with CMMC;- laws, regulations, and mandatory contract provisions providing protections to employees or subcontractors seeking to report alleged fraud, waste, and abuse related to a USG contract;- the Contractor Business Systems rule, which authorizes DoD agencies to withhold a portion of our payments if we are determined to have a significant deficiency in our accounting, cost estimating, purchasing, earned value management, material management and accounting, and/or property management system; and - the Cost Accounting Standards and Cost Principles, which impose accounting and allowability requirements that govern our right to reimbursement under certain cost-based USG contracts and require consistency of accounting practices over time. Given the magnitude of our revenue derived from contracts with the DoD, the DCAA is our relevant government audit agency. The DCAA audits the adequacy of our internal control systems and policies including, among other areas, compensation. The DCMA, as our relevant government contract management agency, may determine that a portion of our employee compensation is unallowable based on the findings and recommendations in the DCAA's audits. In addition, the DCMA directly reviews the adequacy of certain other business systems, such as our purchasing system. We are also subject to audit by Inspectors General of other USG agencies. The USG may revise its procurement practices or adopt new contract rules and regulations at any time. When operating outside the U.S., we are subject to special USG laws and regulations (such as the FCPA), local government regulations and procurement policies and practices, including regulations relating to import-export control, investments, exchange controls, and repatriation of earnings, as well as varying currency, political, and economic risks. USG contracts are, by the terms, subject to termination by the USG either for convenience or default by the contractor. In addition, USG contracts are conditioned upon the continuing availability of Congressional appropriations. The U.S. Congress usually appropriates funds for a given program on a September 30 fiscal year basis, even though contract performance could take many years. As is common in the industry, our Company is subject to business risk, including changes in governmental appropriations, national defense policies, service modernizations plans, military base reductions and closures, and availability of funds. Any of these factors could materially adversely affect our Company's business with the USG in the future. The USG has a broad range of actions it can instigate to enforce its procurement law and policies. These include proposing a contractor, certain of its operations or individual employees for debarment or suspending or debarring a contractor, certain of its operations or individual employees from future government business. In addition to criminal, civil, and administrative actions by the USG, under The False Claims Act, an individual alleging fraud related to payments under a USG contract or program may file a qui tam lawsuit on behalf of the government against us; if successful in obtaining a judgment or settlement, the individual filing the suit may receive up to 30% of the amount recovered by the government. If we are subject to an enforcement action by the USG, it could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. Significant judgments and estimates are required to be made in determining our provision for income taxes. Changes in estimates of projected future operating results, loss of deductibility of items, recapture of prior deductions, limitations on our ability to utilize tax net operating losses in the future, or changes in assumptions regarding our ability to generate future taxable income could result in significant increases to our tax expense and liabilities that could adversely affect our financial condition and profitability. We have in the past and may in the future take tax positions that the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") or other tax authorities may contest. We are required by an IRS regulation to disclose particular tax positions to the IRS as part of our tax returns for that year and future years. If the IRS or other tax authority successfully contests a tax position that we take, we may be required to pay additional taxes, interest, or fines that may adversely affect our results of operations and financial position.

At December 31, 2023, our backlog included cost reimbursable, T&M, and FFP contracts. Cost reimbursable and T&M contracts generally have lower profit margins than FFP contracts. Our earnings and margins may therefore vary materially and adversely depending on the relative mix of contract types, the costs incurred in their performance, the achievement of other performance objectives and the state of performance at which the right to receive fees, particularly under incentive and award fee contracts, is finally determined.

Our annual revenue and operating results may fluctuate significantly and unpredictably in the future. If the USG does not adopt, or delays adoption of, a budget for each fiscal year beginning on October 1, or fails to pass a CR, federal agencies may be forced to suspend our contracts and delay the award of new and follow-on contracts and orders due to a lack of funding. Further, the rate at which the USG procures technology may be negatively affected following changes in presidential administrations and senior government officials or by "divided government" where one political party controls the White House and another party controls Congress. Therefore, period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be a good indication of our future performance. Our annual operating results may not meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors, which in turn may have an adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.