From the Team

News, Media, and Insights

Blog posts, technical guides, and announcements from the Hardshell team.

Featured image

Announcement

August 24, 2026

Hardshell Selected for TechCrunch's 2026 Startup Battlefield 200

TechCrunch selected Hardshell for the 2026 Startup Battlefield 200. The team will exhibit all three days at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, October 13-15 at Moscone West in San Francisco.

Hardshell

Featured image

Company News

August 4, 2026

Hardshell Featured in PitchBook Report on OpenAI's Breach of Hugging Face

PitchBook's Q3 2026 analyst note examines the first autonomous AI agent breach of a third party and features commentary from Hardshell co-founder and CEO Andrew Schoka on why the attack started at the data layer.

Hardshell

Featured image

Press Release

April 23, 2026

Hardshell Wins $100K at 10th Annual Veteran Startup Showcase

Hardshell secured a $100,000 non-dilutive cash grant at the 10th Annual Service First Foundation Veteran Startup Showcase, competing against five veteran and intelligence community-led startups.

Hardshell

Featured image

Press Release

December 23, 2025

PitchBook Features Hardshell in AI Cybersecurity Investment Report

PitchBook's Emerging Tech Research profiles Hardshell as one of six AI-native cybersecurity startups shaping the next phase of AI security investment, in a market where AI cyber now accounts for over half of all global cybersecurity VC deals.

Pitchbook

Featured image

Press Release

February 13, 2026

Hardshell Raises $1.1M to Deliver the Data-Centric Foundation of AI Security

Today we're announcing our $1.1M pre-seed raise to build the data-centric security layer for AI/ML systems across healthcare, defense, and high-trust sectors.

Hardshell Info

Featured image

Announcement

September 4, 2026

Uday Gupta Joins Hardshell's Board of Directors

Hardshell welcomes Uday Gupta, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Adovate and Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia, to its Board of Directors, bringing three decades of experience building, financing, and scaling companies across biotech, agtech, and financial services.

Hardshell

Featured image

Blog Post

August 26, 2026

Hardshell Joins the Industry Panel at Central Virginia's First Critical Infrastructure Forum

Hardshell CEO Andrew Schoka served on the Private Sector Capabilities panel at the Central Virginia National Security Alliance's inaugural forum, held August 25 at PVCC in Charlottesville.

Hardshell

Featured image

Announcement

August 24, 2026

Hardshell Wins First Place at the 2026 VetsinTech Pitch Contest

Hardshell won first place and the $25,000 grand prize at the sixth annual VetsinTech Pitch Contest, held at a16z's San Francisco office and sponsored by J.P. Morgan.

Hardshell

Featured image

Announcement

August 14, 2026

Hardshell Builds Encrypted Fraud Detection with Google and Niobium

Hardshell worked with Google and Niobium to compile a credit card fraud detector that runs entirely on encrypted data, published by Google as one of four private inference applications built with HEIR.

Hardshell

Featured image

Announcement

August 3, 2026

Hardshell Named One of DCA Live's 2026 Red Hot Companies

Hardshell has been selected as one of DCA Live's 2026 Red Hot Companies, the annual list recognizing the Washington region's fastest growing and most exciting companies.

Hardshell

Featured image

Blog Post

July 30, 2026

The Hugging Face Breach Was a Data Pipeline Failure

The July 2026 intrusion into Hugging Face started with a malicious dataset that drove a production data loader into file disclosure and then code execution. Most coverage focused on the model that ran the attack. This looks at the pipeline that let it in.

Hunter Moore

Featured image

Company News

July 24, 2026

Hardshell Featured in Technical.ly's Coverage of DMV Dual-Use Startups

Technical.ly features Hardshell in its coverage of the July Accelerate Breakfast at George Mason University, where Andrew Schoka pitched the company's approach to securing the data layer of enterprise AI.

Hardshell

Featured image

Announcement

June 20, 2026

Hardshell Wins $25K at Greater Washington Partnership Next Level Pitch Competition

Hardshell CEO Andrew Schoka wins the $25,000 pitch competition at the Greater Washington Partnership's Next Level: Growth Exchange accelerator, held at Deloitte's Rosslyn offices in Arlington.

Hardshell

Featured image

Announcement

April 23, 2026

Hardshell Selected as Finalist in 2026 UVA Galant Challenge Showcase

Hardshell selected as a finalist in the 2026 Galant Challenge Showcase at UVA McIntire, pitching for over $6M in investment capital at one of the country's most significant university-sponsored venture funding events.

Hardshell

Featured image

Announcement

December 9, 2025

Hardshell Named DCA Live 2025 Red Hot Dual Use Company

DCA Live names Hardshell to its 2025 Red Hot Dual Use list, recognizing the most promising defense tech and dual-use companies in the Washington, DC region.

Hardshell

Featured image

Announcement

May 1, 2026

Hardshell Named Finalist for Startup of the Year and Student Entrepreneur of the Year at 2026 CBIC Awards

Hardshell named a finalist in two categories at the 27th Annual CBIC Awards Gala in Charlottesville, recognized for Startup of the Year and Student Entrepreneur of the Year.

Hardshell

Featured image

Announcement

June 9, 2026

Dr. John Elder Joins Hardshell's Advisory Board

Hardshell welcomes Dr. John Elder, founder of Elder Research and Vice President for Data Science at ManTech, to its Advisory Board, bringing three decades of leadership in applied machine learning and analytics.

Hardshell

Featured image

Company News

June 1, 2026

Hardshell Featured in Virginia Business Elevator Pitch

Virginia Business Magazine spotlights Hardshell in its Elevator Pitch column, featuring Virginia startups with innovative approaches to technology and business.

Hardshell

Featured image

Blog Post

April 21, 2026

From Notebook to Pipeline: GPU Data Engineering at Startup Scale

Ben Cutter shares the director's cut of his Applied Machine Learning Conference talk on building GPU data pipelines at startup scale, from notebook experimentation to production infrastructure.

Ben Cutter

Featured image

Company News

July 17, 2025

Q&A: Protecting AI from the Inside Out with Hardshell

Andrew Schoka speaks with the Darden Report about building Hardshell, the imbalance between AI spending and AI security investment, and why data-layer protection is essential for high-stakes AI adoption.

Andrew Schoka

Featured image

Podcast

April 15, 2026

Why Securing AI Starts Before the Model

Andrew Schoka joins CyberBytes: The Podcast live from RSA to discuss why AI security starts at the data layer, and why security should be an enabler for AI adoption, not a blocker.

Andrew Schoka

Featured image

Podcast

January 26, 2026

Protecting Data as the Critical Supply Line for AI Applications

Andrew Schoka joins George Kamide on Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks to discuss why AI data security requires treating datasets like mission-critical supply lines, not filing cabinets.

Andrew Schoka

Featured image

Blog Post

March 6, 2026

The Elasticity of Values

On the companies, the models, and the values we train into both. Ben, our Founding Staff Software Engineer, examines what happens when corporate values meet economic pressure, through the lens of Anthropic's decision to walk away from a DoW contract.

Ben Cutter

Featured image

Blog Post

February 16, 2026

Hello World: Startup vs. Big Company

Ben Cutter, Hardshell's Founding Staff Software Engineer, reflects on leaving a 12-year career at a large tech company to become a founding engineer and what you take for granted in big tech.

Ben Cutter