About
A New Mexico institution for national security founders
The Rio Grande runs the full length of New Mexico, from the Colorado line to the Texas border, through its defense corridors. In Spanish it is the Río Bravo del Norte: the fierce, wild river of the north. Bravo doesn't mean calm or managed. Of a river it means untamed; of a person, brave.
Rio Bravo Lab carries the name because the program shares that disposition. It is built for founders willing to do the hard thing in a place the venture map still overlooks: to come home, or to stay, and build something that matters here.
Mission
Rio Bravo Lab exists to turn New Mexico's national security research infrastructure into dual-use companies that headquarter and hire in New Mexico.
The state hosts Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Kirtland Air Force Base, White Sands Missile Range, and Holloman Air Force Base. New Mexico trains world-class engineers and scientists on the hardest problems in the country. And then too many of them leave, because every program that funds defense technology here asks for a company first, and little reaches the technologist before the company exists.
We are building that program as a nonprofit, on purpose: a nonprofit that takes no equity, serves the state's defense corridors equally, and measures success by what stays in New Mexico rather than by what it owns.
What we commit to
- No equity, ever. Awards are non-dilutive grants, not investments.
- Both corridors. Northern New Mexico and southern New Mexico. Same program, same terms.
- New Mexico keeps the upside. Ventures must headquarter and hire in the state, wherever they incorporate.
- Real problems. Problems come from practitioners at the labs and in the services, not from a whiteboard.
- Open door. No clearance, no prior defense experience, and no venture pedigree required to start.
- No insider participation. No director, officer, employee, or selection committee member — nor any fund they control — may invest in, hold equity in, or take compensation from a cohort company.
- No advance access. No funder or sponsor receives information about cohort companies ahead of anyone else. Demo Day is open to any investor at no charge.
Founding board
Leadership
Operators from the national laboratories, the New Mexico National Guard, Army Special Forces, and defense technology startups.
Systems Engineering Manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory. MIT System Design & Management '26, NMSU '19. A New Mexican who left to get the training and came back to build the on-ramp he never had.
Harvard MBA '26. Green Beret, 5th Special Forces Group. Operating experience on both sides of the defense technology market, as an end user and as a founder.
Nearly four decades with the New Mexico National Guard, culminating as the state's senior military officer. M.S., Naval Postgraduate School.
Advisory board
Advisors
Advisors are asked for one or two engagements a year: mentoring cohort teams, reviewing curriculum, or serving as a mission problem sponsor. In return, the role carries direct access to New Mexico's defense research network, early visibility into the founding teams coming out of the state's laboratories, and a seat at the Cambridge showcase once cohorts begin.
Brings laboratory program leadership and direct visibility into the mission problems that feed both tracks.
USAF and Space Force veteran. Harvard JD/MBA. Connects Rio Bravo Lab to the QLab network and the Cambridge showcase.
Institutional partners
Why partner with us
Each partnership is designed to return something specific to the institution.
For the national labs
LANL and Sandia already generate technology that never leaves the building. Rio Bravo Lab is built to give that work, and the people behind it, a commercialization path, without pulling engineers off mission or asking the lab to run its own founder program. A sponsored problem is meant to end as a company formed, not a whitepaper filed.
For universities
A 12-credit graduate certificate, licensed non-exclusively so more than one New Mexico research university can host it: two of the host's own courses paired with two new courses built on Rio Bravo Lab curriculum, designed with MIT MIX. New Mexico State University offers it first, beginning Fall 2027; the University of New Mexico is the intended second host. It is designed as a retention story for your strongest technical students, and a reason top applicants weigh New Mexico against Austin or Boston.
For investors
The model is built so that Track A teams reach you having already spent a year in contact with real mission problems, and with DoD and IC operators willing to tell them, in one conversation, whether what they're building matters. The intent is dealflow pressure-tested before the deck, sourced from a state most funds aren't covering yet.
For applied research organizations
Physical Science Laboratory and Arrowhead Center already sit between research and application. Rio Bravo Lab is designed to add a venture-formation path to that position: a way to turn the prototypes and protocols your teams already touch into companies, without adding headcount or building new infrastructure.
Currently engaged
Institutional engagements as of September 2026.
University of New Mexico
Rio Bravo Lab and UNM Rainforest Innovations work together on technology access, referrals, and connections to academic and research units. UNM is the intended second host for the graduate certificate.
New Mexico State University
First campus to offer the graduate certificate, with a memorandum of understanding in development. Covers the Physical Science Laboratory.
New Mexico has a dense entrepreneurial support ecosystem, and we are not a replacement for any part of it — see what we don't do.
Organizational status
Rio Bravo Lab is a New Mexico nonprofit in formation. State incorporation and the federal 501(c)(3) application are both in preparation; neither has been filed yet.
Board members and advisors serve in their personal capacity. Their listing here does not imply endorsement by their employers, and no institution named on this site has approved or reviewed it. Rio Bravo Lab will maintain a written conflict-of-interest policy governing cohort selection wherever board, advisor, or staff affiliations overlap with an applicant.
A grant application to the New Mexico Economic Development Department's Entrepreneurship Programmatic Support program is in preparation, with a letter of support from UNM Rainforest Innovations committing in-kind support contingent on the award. Funders and institutions who want to see governance documents, the program budget, or the formation timeline can request them directly.
Phase 1 funding is being raised through state grants, foundation support, and philanthropic contributions. Once the certificate has a confirmed host institution, university in-kind contributions are one option we intend to explore as matching funds, where a given state grant program recognizes them; that has not been established with any program yet. Over time, cohort sponsor fees (from laboratories and agencies that bring mission problems into the program) are intended to reduce dependence on any single source. The long-term measure is not grant dollars; it is companies headquartered and growing in New Mexico.
Where we are — September 2026
Rio Bravo Lab is a New Mexico nonprofit in formation. State incorporation and the federal 501(c)(3) application are both in preparation, and we cannot yet accept tax-deductible charitable contributions. The first Track A cohort has not been selected and applications are not open. The Graduate Certificate in Defense Innovation is in development: New Mexico State University offers it first, with a memorandum of understanding in development, and the University of New Mexico is the intended second host. This page is updated quarterly.
Get involved
Talk to us
Funders, laboratory and university partners, mission problem sponsors, mentors, and founders. We want to hear from all of you.