From the Founders

WHY WE'RE BUILDING THIS

We spent a combined four decades in Naval Special Warfare. We led teams. We executed missions. And we transitioned out — and watched friends struggle to do the same.
The cleared community is one of the most capable, most vetted talent bases in the country. But the infrastructure connecting our people to the missions, contracts, and partners that need them was never built for us. It was built for everyone — which means it was built for no one in particular.
Cleared veterans routinely spend months searching for their next role. Small contractors miss opportunities they had every right to win. Defense-tech founders cold-pitch into closed circles. Investors can't find the deal flow they know exists. Program offices can't surface the partners they need.
All of this connective tissue exists today as phone calls, golf courses, and PDFs traded over secure email. The relationships are real. The trust is real. What's missing is the platform to scale it.
Defense Nexus is that platform. Built by operators, for operators. Vetted, cleared, mission-aligned.
If you're part of this community — whether you're transitioning out, running a small shop chasing your next contract, building the next defense-tech company, or sitting in a program office trying to source the right partner — we're building this for you.
Reach out. Sign up for the beta. Tell us what's broken. We're listening.

Michael Lore

Founder & CEO

USN SEAL Master Chief (Ret.)

Mike "BMC" Colletta

Co-Founder & CGO

USN SEAL Master Chief (Ret.)

Leadership

LEADERSHIP

Michael Lore — Founder & CEO

US Navy SEAL Master Chief (Ret.) · MBA, Norwich University

Retired U.S. Navy SEAL Master Chief. MBA from Norwich University. Former President of Proof Insights and KPMG aerospace & defense advisor.

Michael Lore is the Founder and CEO of Defense Nexus Technologies, an AI-powered platform modernizing the national security ecosystem. The platform serves as a secure, collaborative hub that connects talent, organizations, and information across the defense industrial base — enabling faster partnerships, smarter decisions, and more efficient mission outcomes.

A retired U.S. Navy SEAL Master Chief, Michael brings decades of leadership in high-stakes, complex environments where alignment, speed, and execution are critical. He led elite teams, drove organizational restructuring aligned with the National Defense Strategy, and built consensus across diverse stakeholders — experience that now informs his approach to scaling Defense Nexus.

In the private sector, Michael has focused on growth, strategy, and emerging technologies. As President of Proof Insights, he transformed a private equity-backed firm through pipeline expansion, cloud modernization, and strategic partnerships. Previously at KPMG, he advised aerospace and defense clients on growth strategy and deal execution, helping commercialize advanced technologies including autonomy, robotics, next-generation power systems, and software.

Michael combines operational leadership with a passion for technology and innovation, driven by the belief that the right platforms can solve critical challenges for those protecting national security.

[email protected]linkedin.com/in/michaeljlore

Mike "BMC" Colletta — Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer

U.S. Navy SEAL Master Chief (Ret.) · BS, Frostburg State University

Retired U.S. Navy SEAL Master Chief with 29 years of service. Senior roles at SOCOM and JSOC. Founder of BMC Enterprises.

Mike Colletta is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Defense Nexus, where he owns partnerships, prime relationships, and the company’s federal portfolio — including SDVOSB set-asides, SBIR, and grants.

A retired U.S. Navy SEAL Master Chief with 29 years of service, Mike brings extensive leadership experience across the Special Operations community, including senior roles within U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). His career provided him with a deep, firsthand understanding of how the Department of Defense and interagency partners operate — particularly the challenges around communication, coordination, and execution across complex organizations.

This operational perspective is complemented by his experience in the private sector, where he has worked closely with defense contractors and industry partners. As the founder of BMC Enterprises and a strategic advisor to multiple organizations, Mike has developed a strong understanding of the defense contracting landscape, including the friction points that exist between government requirements and industry execution.

At Defense Nexus, Mike combines operational credibility with contracting insight to own the company’s growth into the federal market and across the prime ecosystem. He is known for a disciplined, analytical approach to problem-solving and a commitment to building high-performing teams and lasting relationships across the national security ecosystem.

[email protected]linkedin.com/in/mikecolletta

Bryant Nichols — Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

MS Computer Science, Georgia Tech · MS Biomedical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University · BS Electrical Engineering, University of Virginia

Twenty years building mission-critical systems for national security customers. Full-stack engineer, cloud and AI platform architect, and repeat technical founder.

Bryant Nichols is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Defense Nexus Technologies, where he owns platform architecture, the engineering roadmap, and the company’s technology strategy. He is responsible for the decisions that determine whether the trust promise on this platform is real: how identity is proven, how sensitive data is protected, and how disclosure between members is enforced.

He brings more than twenty years across national security, software engineering, cloud platforms, artificial intelligence, and digital forensics, having built mission-critical systems in production for multiple government organizations. For over a decade he developed digital forensics, cybersecurity, and data analytics technology for government customers — work that shapes how Defense Nexus treats sensitive information, because he has spent his career on the side of the problem that handles it.

As a full-stack engineer and technical leader he has delivered mobile applications, cloud-native platforms, and large-scale enterprise systems supporting defense and intelligence missions. That range matters for a platform that has to be modern enough for operators who expect consumer-grade software and rigorous enough to carry a federal compliance roadmap.

Bryant has also founded and helped build several startups — a mobile application and simulation technology company, an education technology venture, and a biomedical engineering company — taking products from concept to execution, building technical teams, and bringing new technology to market. He holds graduate degrees in Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering, is a published author and open-source contributor, and is drawn to the problem of applying emerging technology to hard national security challenges.

[email protected]linkedin.com/in/bryant-nichols

Advisory Board

GUIDED BY OPERATORS, BUILDERS, AND CAPITAL

Defense Nexus is shaped in active dialogue with senior advisors across capital markets, company building, and emerging-technology investment — each bringing deep operating experience and active networks to the platform's mission.

Taylor Grant

Strategic Advisor, Capital Markets & Defense Operations

A defense-sector investor who flew the missions, sold to the customer, and priced the transactions — the full stack of how capital reaches this market.

Taylor advises Defense Nexus on capital strategy and on the economics of the defense industrial base. He founded and runs Fox Three Partners, a private investment firm, and came to it through an unusually complete path: eleven years as a Navy fighter pilot flying F-14s, F-5s, F-16s and F/A-18s in peacetime and combat operations, then the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs in New York working M&A, leveraged buyouts, and capital raises.

Between those, he spent years inside the defense supply chain itself at ADS, Inc., a DoD equipment distributor and logistics provider, where he ran a sales division producing over $200 million in annual revenue before being selected to build the company's Business Analytics team from scratch — a mandate to grow revenue, cut cost, and find operational efficiency across every department. That combination is what he brings to the platform: he has been the operator, the seller, and the investor in the same market Defense Nexus is built for.

linkedin.com/in/wtgrant

Malcolm Lotzof

Strategic Advisor, Founder Mentorship & Financial Discipline

A four-time founder with four exits, who advises on the discipline of building a company rather than the excitement of starting one.

Malcolm advises Defense Nexus on company building, operating discipline, and the financial rigor that separates a durable software business from a promising one. He has built and sold four technology companies, each founded on the same pattern: identify a paradigm change in the market, build the team, and ship the product that answers it.

He founded INXPO in 2003 to bring physical events online, building a virtual event and webcasting platform used by AWS, VMware, Merck, Cisco, Fidelity, Red Hat and others, and sold it to the Notified division of Intrado in 2018 — then spent four years consulting to Notified's president on strategy, financial review, customer health and churn, and post-acquisition integration. Earlier he co-founded and led Proamics Corporation, changing how professional services organizations captured time and measured profitability, and sold it to Niku. He is a Chartered Accountant, and the financial discipline shows in how he advises.

linkedin.com/in/inxpo

John Suh

Strategic Advisor, Emerging Technology & Corporate Venture

Thirty years across engineering research, corporate venture capital, and robotics — the person who has actually stood up new-technology ventures inside a large organization.

John advises Defense Nexus on emerging technology and on how new capability gets funded and built inside large institutions. He founded Hyundai Motor Group's New Horizons Studio and CRADLE, the group's corporate venture and advanced-technology arms, and led the development of “Ultimate Mobility Vehicles” — robotic walking vehicles designed to go where conventional ground mobility cannot. John is currently doing independent research on expanding our understanding of systemic innovation and institutional change.

His record is technical before it is investment. Prior to his career at Hyundai, he worked at General Motors and at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center).

He holds a Stanford PhD in Mechanical Engineering, has numerous technical publications, and has been granted 15 patents in the fields of robotics, artificial nose technology, toy design, and location-based services.

Across thirty years spanning engineering research, corporate venture capital, and robotic ground vehicles, he has repeatedly taken technology from laboratory to funded venture — the same transition Defense Nexus is built to accelerate for defense-technology founders.

linkedin.com/in/johnsuh

THE CLOSED BETA IS FORMING.

Founder-reviewed. U.S. persons only. The earlier you're in, the more of the platform gets built around you.

Join the Closed Beta Talk to the Founders