Battlefield To Boardroom: The Veteran Founders Riding Defense Tech’s $32 Billion Boom

The force gets a vote, too. That subject aphorism took connected a chilling immediacy for Brandon Tseng erstwhile he was training for an Afghanistan deployment arsenic a Navy SEAL successful 2012. His squad was simulating clearing a location of force fighters erstwhile the Naval Academy postgraduate was abruptly changeable successful the face. Fortunately it was conscionable a paintball, not a existent bullet. “I’d followed my training precisely arsenic taught,” he remembers—but it didn’t matter. One constituent of the workout was that mentation isn’t ever enough, because adversaries are smart and unpredictable. “If that was real-life combat, I would’ve been killed.”

Clearing dispute buildings was portion of the regular grind for the United States subject post-9/11. It is extraordinarily vulnerable activity and killed aliases injured respective group Tseng knew. When he near the subject successful 2015 aft 7 years, he couldn’t extremity reasoning of ways that AI and autonomy tech could trim risks to troops, for illustration by letting them scan wrong structures earlier they barged in. Tseng convinced his older brother, Ryan, already a successful entrepreneur who had sold his wireless charging institution to Qualcomm, and Andrew Reiter, an technologist pinch a master’s successful robotics from Harvard, to subordinate him successful starting a drone institution they called Shield AI. (Tseng sewage his Harvard MBA concurrently.) Its first merchandise was a mini “Nova” quadcopter specialized for scouting and mapping buildings while sending unrecorded video backmost to frontline soldiers.

Today Shield AI is 1 of the astir valuable defense tech unicorns successful the nation, worthy $12.7 cardinal aft its astir caller fundraising successful March. Israelis utilized the much than $400 cardinal (revenue) company’s Novas to study Hamas tunnels successful Gaza and rescue hostages aft the attacks of October 7, 2023; Ukrainians are utilizing Shield AI’s bigger V-BAT drone to place targets heavy wrong Russian-held territory. Forbes estimates that the Tsengs, who are co-presidents, each person a liking worthy astir $400 million.

Tseng, 39, is the latest successful a agelong statement of veterans who person utilized lessons from the subject to build successful businesses. A number of companies that helped style the modern defense sector—such arsenic Pratt & Whitney (1925, now portion of RTX) and Grumman Aircraft Engineering (1929, now portion of Northrop Grumman)—were founded by vets. So excessively were non-defense family names for illustration Comcast, GoDaddy, Nike and Walmart. The work academies—West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy—have produced disproportionate numbers of America’s firm executives. World War II Navy aviator Jack Taylor named his rental car outfit Enterprise aft the vessel he served on. FedEx’s Fred Smith, who received 2 Purple Hearts successful Vietnam, often joked that he sewage his business grade from the Marine Corps. In a motion to this contented of achievement, and successful grant of America’s 250th birthday, Forbes will people a database celebrating 250 surviving veterans (plus 250 humanities greats) online connected Wednesday astatine forbes.com/forbes-250.

The caller procreation of ex-military entrepreneurs—ushered successful by the Ukraine warfare and the accelerated improvement of AI—are utilizing modern tech to build better, smarter weapons. This defense manufacture gyration started catching occurrence successful 2022 and is now backed by a monolithic warfare chest. In February, lawmakers approved an $839 cardinal defense spending measure for 2026, a 15% summation complete 2022. Next twelvemonth it will balloon to $1.1 trillion if President Trump has his way.

Venture capitalists are paying attention. Record sums are being plowed into buzzy defense companies for illustration Shield AI, naval drone shaper Saronic ($2.6 cardinal successful funding) and Palmer Luckey’s AI defense outfit Anduril ($11.9 billion). According to PitchBook, successful conscionable the first half of 2026, VCs pumped $12.8 cardinal into the defense sector, much than 5 times the magnitude they invested successful each of 2022. The number of defense companies founded annually, meanwhile, has astir quadrupled since then. Likewise, Y Combinator incubated 32 of them past year, up eightfold since 2020.

Another motion of these times: Initiatives to support vet entrepreneurship are booming. Participation successful the national government’s “Boots to Business” programme roseate 28% from 2017 to 2025. Applications to the Disabled American Veterans’ entrepreneurship “Patriot Boot Camp” accrued 37% from 2024 to 2025 and are already up different 33% truthful acold successful 2026.

The Defense Department is getting down startups successful a measurement it hadn’t successful caller decades. Just 5 contractors—Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX—had travel to predominate the industry, peculiarly successful awesome weapons systems. In 2020, the U.S. subject had only 3 airplane suppliers, down from 8 successful 1990, and 90% of its missiles came from conscionable 3 companies, according to a Pentagon report. The “Big Five” are very bully astatine building highly analyzable and costly hardware for illustration combatant jets and atomic submarines. But those things are becoming little relevant. As the conflict successful Ukraine has amply demonstrated, the early of warfare is much inexpensive drones, less costly tanks.

The Pentagon is scrambling to adapt. It has sped up its contracting systems and embraced innovative reasoning and accelerated prototyping of caller weapons. Many founders opportunity that a authorities procurement strategy celebrated for its rigidity and inertia is becoming friendlier astatine last. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan argumentation organization, “nontraditional” firms (effectively, those that don’t person longstanding business pinch the government) received $122.6 cardinal successful defense contracts commitments successful 2025, double the magnitude of a decade earlier, and immoderate 10,000 caller businesses person joined the defense business guidelines complete the past 2 years.

“I deliberation the logic we’re seeing much veterans [starting businesses successful defense tech] now is because we’ve gotten retired of their measurement to fto them travel backmost and serve,” says U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who led a cavalry scout platoon successful Iraq. He admits that successful the past the situation was beautiful dispute for caller companies. “It’s not pejorative to opportunity that you request a large equilibrium expanse to beryllium capable to create a caller vessel aliases a caller helicopter. But immoderate you deliberation you will request for the early conflict you won’t have, because it’s intolerable to foretell really your adversary will adapt. And that’s wherever startups travel in; they tin innovate truthful quickly.”

Driscoll predicts that the magnitude of U.S. task superior successful the defense assemblage will “triple aliases quadruple” successful the coming years, which is awesome news for entrepreneurial veterans, who understand the measurement the subject works. “A batch of the veterans who served successful Iraq and Afghanistan and person been retired successful the commercialized sector, arsenic they’re returning to defense and bringing the champion of the lessons that they’ve learned, I would conjecture that task capitalists will find that those will beryllium the astir successful bets to present lasting worth to investors.”

Take Austin Gray. In the military, Gray was a Navy intelligence officer, completing 3 tours, including 1 during the withdrawal from Afghanistan and different successful which he helped negociate a high-profile Covid-19 outbreak connected the USS Theodore Roosevelt. In 2021, he utilized the GI Bill to enroll astatine MIT Sloan. Gray first considered a consulting profession (“a sane, safe profession path”). But MIT was soon buzzing astir opportunities successful defense tech. By the clip he graduated from Sloan, he was moving a student nine focused connected defense that hosted astir 30 recruiting events, up from 2 erstwhile he first arrived connected campus.

“It’s astonishing to spot really location was benignant of nary path, and past it wholly took off,” says Gray, 32, who spent a summertime aft graduating astatine a Ukrainian drone factory. After a short stint astatine Providence, Rhode Island–based Havoc—another drone vessel startup founded by Navy vets—he launched Blue Water Autonomy successful Boston successful 2024 pinch Rylan Hamilton, a Navy vet who had worked astatine Amazon Robotics. (A 3rd cofounder, who built Roomba vacuuming robots, joined soon after.) His thought was that the Navy needed ship-sized drones large capable to transverse the Pacific and transportation large payloads for illustration missiles. The company, which has raised $64 cardinal astatine an estimated $180 cardinal valuation, intends to create a afloat autonomous warship.

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It wasn’t agelong agone that task firms weren’t excessively keen connected backing defense tech. John Goodson recalls having problem getting backing for his San Antonio–based aerial drone startup, Darkhive, aft its 2021 founding. “I’m not a financier, I’m not a banker. I don’t travel from task capital,” says Goodson, who served arsenic a main petty serviceman successful the Navy. “I only cognize subject and defense and authorities contracting. It’s each I’ve done successful my full master career.”

After the Navy, he’d taken a occupation moving authorities contracts astatine CTI, a mini defense package company. He learned really to place which projects to bid on, put together compliance documents and build relationships pinch acquisition officials. Those skills helped Darkhive triumph a $149,000 assistance successful 2022 from the national Small Business Innovation Research program. These sorts of authorities awards sustained Darkhive until investors yet shook disconnected their trepidation astir the sector.

“We abruptly went from having only a fistful of firms we could attack to dozens,” Goodson says. “I property this oversea alteration straight to companies for illustration Anduril, Saronic and Shield AI. Their meteoric emergence and expertise to move the heads of the biggest VCs brought the full manufacture up pinch them.” Darkhive has now raised $55 cardinal altogether, astir precocious astatine a $155 cardinal valuation successful May.

Many VCs opportunity they are specifically looking for companies that person vets successful activity roles. Mike Sherbakov, a erstwhile hand-to-hand combat coach successful the Marine Corps who cofounded a mini VC shop successful 2022 focused connected seeding veteran-led companies, says that leads to amended returns: The nett IRR of his first $20 cardinal money is 39%. Lorin Selby of the maritime-focused Mare Liberum (and erstwhile main of naval research) says thing other is simply a reddish flag. “In the military, we’ve sewage our ain small lingo. If you don’t understand that, you request to get group who do speak the connection truthful you tin relate, arsenic good arsenic strategize connected what will entreaty to a warfighter connected the battlefield.”

Veterans person a unsocial knowledge of what troops really request and are often peculiarly motivated to deliver—after all, they’ve lived it. “I was the extremity of the spear of doing worldly connected behalf of our nation,” says Brett Velicovich, cofounder and COO of the fledgling drone outfit Powerus, who served arsenic an intelligence expert for the Army. “We couldn’t person thing that didn’t activity successful the field. That’s really I deliberation astir everything we do: I deliberation astir the younger type of maine and putting [our products] successful my hands.”

Investors praise veterans not conscionable for their familiarity pinch the subject but besides their tenacity. Take Tseng again: His original transportation for Shield AI was turned down 30 times. The institution survived only because, aft a twelvemonth connected a shoestring budget, it yet nabbed a $1 cardinal authorities statement for a drone prototype. Still, that sounds for illustration a breeze compared to what Tseng knowledgeable successful 2010 during the U.S. Navy’s infamous, high-attrition “Hell Week.” That’s erstwhile SEAL candidates acquisition 5 days of near-constant, sadistic drills, often while bedewed and freezing cold, pinch reportedly nary much than 4 cumulative hours of sleep.

“Veterans are really bully astatine enduring symptom and suffering,” Tseng says. “A 22-year-old marine has astir apt endured overmuch much than a 22-year-old caller retired of assemblage going to activity astatine XYZ institution successful Silicon Valley.”

When he encounters stressful challenges now, “that problem-solving mentality I learned successful the SEAL teams conscionable takes over.” He needed that calm resoluteness precocious aft 2 work members from the U.S. and Romania, astir 2 years apart, had their fingers partially severed during tests of the company’s V-BAT drone. The first incident led immoderate customers to hold purchases. Tseng calls the media reports astir the events—including the 1 connected Forbes.com that collapsed the communicative a twelvemonth aft it happened—“dishonest,” and says the 2nd incident, which occurred successful May, happened because information procedures were not followed. During the turmoil, he says he has encouraged his squad to enactment “focused connected the mission” and, arsenic is emblazoned connected his agency walls, do what grant dictates.

“We’re idealistic to a fault,” says Chad McCoy of veterans. A erstwhile main maestro sergeant successful the Air Force, he served astir 23 years, including 17 combat deployments. In 2005, he led a squad into a burning irrigation ditch to retrieve bodies and instrumentality aft a British C-130 cargo level was changeable down complete Baghdad. Four years later, he was portion of the group that rescued Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates successful a hostage situation that shocked the world and inspired the Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips.

A formidable résumé, yet 1 that didn’t afloat hole McCoy for the business world, wherever often, he says, “the champion merchandise does not win.” In 2022, he cofounded Firestorm Labs, a institution that 3D-prints drones and replacement parts correct adjacent to the battlefield. Firestorm is now worthy $725 million, but to get there, McCoy had to thin heavy connected the accomplishment sets of his cofounders—one of whom is simply a serial entrepreneur—and mentors who taught him really to transportation imaginable customers, for example.

Now McCoy, 45, useful to salary it forward. A broadside effect of the defense startup roar is that it has spawned a web of successful vet entrepreneurs who are eager to thief caller entrants. As ex–Marine Corps Matt Warnick, CEO of Auburn Hills, Michigan–based American Rheinmetall, puts it: “Veterans are exceptional astatine rallying astir different veterans.”

“There’s group for illustration maine who ever return the telephone telephone pinch these folks and say, ‘Hey, let’s talk done it,’ ” McCoy says. “And getting that early thesis scrutinized saves a ton of time. The web of successful business folks, that is the aureate ticket.”

One ex-military who tapped the vet web to raise his first seed information is Blake Hall. The erstwhile Army infantry serviceman was struggling backmost successful 2011 to money TroopSwap, a classifieds marketplace for subject families. Then task capitalist Kelly Perdew took him to the yearly Army-Navy shot game. “Kelly brought maine astir the tailgate to the astir successful grads from Annapolis and West Point. He would conscionable beryllium like, ‘You person to put $25,000 aliases $50,000 into Blake!’ ” Hall, 43, remembers, adding: “I deliberation it has surely helped to beryllium a veteran. People want to thief you because of who you are and what you’ve done.”

He has since transformed the business into the $2 cardinal (September backing round) ID.me, which lets individuals securely beryllium their personality online. His first thought was to make it easier for veterans to entree discounts and different benefits. Today ID.me has verified complete 90 cardinal identities, among them first responders, educators and, yes, 7.3 cardinal veterans—including those who are bum and underbanked.

Hall thought starting a institution was a bully measurement to leverage the addiction to consequence he developed during his clip successful service, erstwhile he’d tally 15 consecutive months of “kill-capture missions” against members of al-Qaeda. “There’s nary letup. There’s nary safe time,” he says. “I’m judge it changed my physiology.” When he near the military, he missed the adrenaline and emotion that his actions had very precocious stakes.

“For folks successful the ‘combat arms occupational specialties,’ the problem is you walk a batch of clip learning really to occurrence a instrumentality weapon retired of a helicopter, and that’s not a accomplishment that’s easy transferred to immoderate different task successful the civilian economy,” says Jeffrey Wenger, a elder economist astatine RAND who studies the subject transition.

In a 2021 study by Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families, vets cited their apical transitional challenges arsenic losing a consciousness of intent and camaraderie. One who tin subordinate is Dino Mavrookas, cofounder and CEO of drone vessel institution Saronic (valued astatine $9.3 cardinal successful a March backing round). He served arsenic a Navy SEAL for 11 years earlier leaving successful 2015, successful portion because his woman had conscionable had the couple’s first child.

“It was a difficult transition,” he remembers. “I was genuinely leaving a brotherhood. And it wasn’t conscionable the SEALs—it was our families that were truthful ingrained and supported each other. We’ve been looking for that mission, intent and community, really, ever since.” Mavrookas’ first move aft the Navy was getting an MBA from Wharton, aft which he had a mates of stints successful backstage equity. But the jobs didn’t consciousness rather right. “I had the realization that if I’m going to do thing for the adjacent 30 years of my life, I want it to beryllium what gets maine retired of furniture each azygous day. And that’s helping support group safe.” So he near a occupation astatine the Austin, Texas–based PE patient Vista to commencement Saronic successful 2022.

“As SEALs, we’re ever looking at, really do we crook the rules? How do we move faster?” Mavrookas says. At Saronic, it’s now: “How do we move faster than the acquisition ecosystem is group up to do truthful that we tin innovate and enactment up of the adversary?”

Like galore seasoned founders, Mavrookas hails from a Special Operations background. It’s unsurprising that those folks mightiness flock to entrepreneurialism. In the military, their units run successful volatile, unfamiliar environments. Former Army Ranger (a Special Ops role) Doug Philippone, who headed defense astatine Palantir and is now a task capitalist astatine Snowpoint Ventures, puts it this way: “You’re successful the mediate of nowhere, you’re almost ne'er trained for what you’re being asked to do, group are trying to termination you and you person to fig retired really to win. That’s a really bully point to put connected your résumé.”

Some ex-military entrepreneurs opportunity they for illustration to prosecute veterans. It’s not conscionable altruism. Rob Slaughter, cofounder and CEO of the package startup Defense Unicorns, says vets make bully labor because they’ve had to presume activity roles early successful their careers. Slaughter conducts each candidate’s last question and reply astatine the $1 cardinal institution (January backing round). In the years since its 2021 founding, he has identified a “magic 2:1 ratio” whereby vets will “outperform personification connected the manufacture [side] pinch doubly that experience.” About 40% of Defense Unicorns’ labor are veterans.

Ironically, he has an easier clip hiring beardown talent now than he did erstwhile he was an Air Force serviceman moving alongside early cofounders Jeff McCoy and Andrew Greene to thief the subject deploy caller package faster. Slaughter recovered it intolerable to clasp onto talent backmost then: His apical engineers were contractors whose employers kept reassigning them earlier they could settee in. He came to judge that the companies were much willing successful utilizing their champion group to people caller activity alternatively than execute the contracts they’d already won.

Eventually he couldn’t return it anymore. He near the subject successful 2021 to spot if he could amended execute from the outside. It’s working: Defense Unicorns’ platform, which helps the U.S. subject support its package up to date, is now embedded successful much than 90 systems crossed the services.

Slaughter, 40, has made a luck that Forbes estimates astatine $150 million—something he ne'er could person imagined successful the Air Force, wherever moreover officers must service for years earlier they ace six figures. The backstage assemblage is much generous. As the money keeps pouring into defense startups, much veterans are discovering they don’t person to take betwixt pursuing wealthiness and serving the mission. And the stakes will only get bigger. In a marketplace wherever tech moves faster than regulation, the unreserved for contracts and backing will output tons of large winners, but besides large losers, bad actors and collateral damage.

Opportunity beckons for America’s ex-warriors. Savvy veterans will harness the devices of entrepreneurial capitalism to thief the Pentagon accommodate to a changing battlefield—and profit from the golden unreserved that is conscionable beginning.

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