Meet your Mentors

Mentors

Richard Clarke
Former USSOCOM Commander
Eric Landau
CEO, Encord
Ulrik Stig Hansen
Co-founder, Encord
Aaron Slodov
CEO, Atomic Industries
Jude Gomila
Entrepreneur
Ryan Noon
Chairman, Material Security
Will Roper
CEO, Istari
H.R. McMaster
U.S. Army Veteran; U.S. National Security Advisor
Partners

Surrounding founders with the best partners to complete their mission

More coming soon.

Anthropic
AI safety and research company working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems and models.
Camber Road
Equipment leasing to venture-backed companies. No blanket liens, covenants or high interest rates.
Microsoft
Building tools like Azure, on-demand GPU VMs, GitHub and Microsoft 365 to accelerate startups at every level.
Palantir
Software that powers AI-driven decisions in critical government and commercial enterprises.
Rho
One platform to manage end-to-end startup finances, banking and more.
Second Front
Securing strategic advantage for the world’s democracies by accelerating government access to emerging technologies
Sift
Accelerate mission-critical engineering with unified data pipelines, infrastructure, and analysis tools designed for complex hardware.
Harpoon Ventures

Black Flag is an initiative from Harpoon Ventures

Harpoon Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm with a deep commitment to supporting the next generation of groundbreaking technology.
When you're accepted in to Black Flag, you'll receive direct investment from Harpoon Ventures and work hand-in-hand with the team to achieve your next milestones.
Learn more about Harpoon Ventures
collaboration

When you apply to Black Flag, your submission is simultaneously shared and reviewed by Shield Capital and In-Q-Tel.

hOW IT WORkS
1
Apply to Black Flag
2
Your submission is shared with Shield Capital
and In-Q-Tel
3
If there's interest, they will reach out directly
Read more in the FAQs below
More from Shield Capital
More from In-Q-Tel
FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Have any additional questions? Email us at crew@blackflag.vc
Do I need to be a "defense tech" startup to apply?
What stage of companies are you looking for?
$500K - $5M million investment? What are the terms? Who does that investment come from?
How involved are the mentors listed with the program?
What's the association with Black Flag and Harpoon Ventures?
How are Dauntless, Shield Capital and In-Q-Tel involved with Black Flag?
How long does the program last?
Is Black Flag in-person or virtual?
What is Palantir's AIP and Foundry?
In the time of pirates, a black flag was a signal to other ships that surrender was not an option. That you were prepared to fight until the end.
Today the future belongs to the same bold and unyielding pirates.  Rebels ready to take the helm and usher in a new era of acceleration, abundance and national security.
We need them now more than ever.
That’s why we’re here. We’re your tactical advantage. We’re your acceleration.
We're Black Flag. And we’re waiting for you.
Apply Now
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