Hardshell, co-founded by Hunter Moore and Andrew Schoka, won first place and the $25,000 grand prize at the 2026 VetsinTech Pitch Contest, held August 20 at Andreessen Horowitz's San Francisco office. Now in its sixth year, the contest is sponsored by J.P. Morgan and brings together veteran founders from across the country.
Five finalists were selected to pitch live at a16z: Hardshell, Hyperios Technologies, Supply Veins, Phinorm, and Bandelier Technologies. Bandelier Technologies took second place and $10,000, and Hyperios Technologies took third place and $5,000. The judging panel included Steve Kiser of Veteran Ventures Capital, Jack Garza of J.P. Morgan, and Ernie Bio of Forgepoint Capital.
Schoka, Hardshell's CEO and a former Army cyber operations officer, pitched the company's approach to securing the data layer of enterprise AI: scanning sensitive datasets for poisoning and leakage risks, then hardening them for safe use in training, fine-tuning, and RAG.
"Winning the VetsinTech Startup Pitch Competition is meaningful validation of the problem we're solving and the company we're building," Schoka said in VetsinTech's announcement. "As enterprises move quickly to adopt AI, protecting the sensitive data that powers those systems has become mission-critical. We're grateful to VetsinTech and J.P. Morgan for backing veteran entrepreneurs and giving companies like ours the opportunity to turn ambitious ideas into businesses with real-world impact."
VetsinTech is a national nonprofit that connects veterans and military spouses to careers in tech through employment, education, and entrepreneurship programs. Its annual pitch contest awards $40,000 in prizes across the top three finishers.
Read VetsinTech's announcement of the 2026 winners →