Company Alexandria, Virginia Founded 2026

Founder-led. Veteran-owned.
Funded to prototype on founder capital.

Harrow Defense builds body-worn electronic systems for people who work beyond reliable infrastructure. We founded the company in early 2026 around one product, PYLON, and one conviction: the sensors already on a soldier should reach the network, and every soldier should have a position on it. We took PYLON from concept to assembled prototype hardware without outside capital or a government award, and the intellectual property is founder-developed and company-owned.

Special Forces officer, hardware program leader, defense company COO.

Dr. Daniel Kurtenbach, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Harrow Defense
Dr. Daniel Kurtenbach
Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Dan founded Harrow Defense in 2026 and has taken PYLON from concept to assembled prototype hardware on founder capital, owning the product architecture, directing a U.S. engineering partner on board design, and carrying the customer engagement himself.

Before Harrow, he served as Chief Operating Officer of a defense electronics company fielding soldier-borne sensor systems, where he led the technical and operations teams. Earlier, he built and scaled emerging technology products at Apple as a hardware program leader, and led AI and machine learning deployments for U.S. defense and intelligence customers at DataRobot.

He is a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer, a former White House Fellow, and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds an active TS/SCI clearance.

  • B.S., United States Military Academy at West Point
  • M.B.A., MIT Sloan School of Management
  • M.P.A., Harvard Kennedy School
  • Doctorate in International Affairs, Johns Hopkins University

Lean by design. Specialist partners where it counts. IP in-house.

Harrow keeps non-recurring engineering low by owning its intellectual property and pairing founder-led product architecture with specialist U.S. partners: printed circuit board design and assembly by a U.S. electrical-engineering firm, enclosure design and additive manufacturing domestically, and compliance handled in-house. The result is a company that reached assembled prototype hardware for a fraction of what a conventional defense hardware startup spends to get there.

With funding
Lead engineer

Firmware, board bring-up, and MIL-STD-810H test. Owns the path from Rev A to qualified hardware.

With funding
Firmware engineer

Zephyr RTOS, LoRa and Bluetooth stacks, and edge inference on the node.

With funding
Capture manager

Government sales pipeline across Army, Marine Corps, and special operations offices, plus the first-responder channel.

Electrical engineering, FCC compliance, and transition support continue through contracted partners.

A named transition customer and engagement across the offices that own the problem.

Primary transition customer
Portfolio Acquisition Executive Maneuver Ground (PAE Maneuver Ground), the Army acquisition portfolio that owns soldier systems and Soldier Borne Mission Command. PYLON is the missing transport layer the Army's adaptive squad architecture defines.
Research and standards
Army DEVCOM C5ISR Center, which sets interoperability standards for soldier-borne sensors and leads electronic-warfare and sensor research. PYLON is the physical transport layer those standards specify. White papers submitted and under evaluation.
Marine Corps
Capability brief delivered to the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in August 2026.
Special operations
Army special operations and Army modernization solicitations have identified the low-probability-of-intercept position mesh and the warfighter sensor bridge as capability gaps. PYLON maps to both.
Vehicles
SBIR and STTR including Direct-to-Phase-II, other transaction agreements, open broad agency announcements, and service laboratory experimentation. SDVOSB status opens set-aside pathways.

What has been built, and when.

2026
Founded and built to prototype

Virginia company based in Alexandria, founded to build body-worn systems for people who work beyond reliable infrastructure. Mesh and positioning demonstrated end to end on development hardware: a four-node self-healing LoRa mesh carrying GNSS position into CivTAK as Cursor-on-Target, with per-operator icons on the tactical map. U.S. patent applications filed on the core architecture. SBA certification as a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, and DLA Joint Certification Program certification for access to export-controlled technical data.

July 2026
Rev A circuit board released to a U.S. fabrication and assembly partner

Custom board with an all-COTS bill of materials, designed with a U.S. electrical-engineering partner and validated at multiple quantity tiers.

August 4, 2026
Capability brief to the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory

PYLON presented to the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory.

August 2026
Twelve assembled Rev A prototypes delivered. First board alive.

Prototype boards delivered August 24. First board powered up August 27. All twelve units pass self-test on the sensor, GNSS, and Bluetooth subsystems. Nylon prototype enclosures in production.

September 2026
Four-unit Rev A mesh live in CivTAK

Four Rev A units running as a Bluetooth mesh with relay, nodes on battery, plotted live in CivTAK. Sealed hardware kill and Bluetooth-only reduced-signature mode bench-demonstrated. Rev B board revision (antenna and RF front end) in design. Gasketed enclosure in print ahead of company-funded squad-scale validation, Q4 2026.

Registered, certified, and ready to contract.

Business status
SDVOSB and VOSB
SBA-certified service-disabled veteran-owned small business. SBIR and STTR eligible.
CAGE code
1AQ41
SAM.gov registration active
Unique Entity ID
DA6ZTG2ENSH6
Primary NAICS 541715, research and development in the physical, engineering, and life sciences
Technical data access
JCP certified
DLA Joint Certification Program, certified for access to export-controlled technical data
Cybersecurity
CMMC Level 1
Self-assessment complete; NIST SP 800-171 assessment filed in SPRS
Intellectual property
Patent pending
U.S. patent applications pending on the core architecture. All IP founder-developed and company-owned.

Alexandria, Virginia.

For investors, government customers, integration partners, and press. Deck, data sheet, and technical materials are available on request.

Investors

Current deck, technical materials, and a conversation with the founder.

dan@harrowdefense.com
Government & Industry

Capability briefs, pilot programs, integration with soldier hubs and TAK products, and procurement across government and commercial markets.

dan@harrowdefense.com