Jeffrey Cole

Co-founder & CEO Hidden Level

Last Reviewed: September 23, 2026

Executive Summary

Jeffrey Cole is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hidden Level, a Syracuse, New York company that detects drones and other low-flying aircraft by listening to the radio-frequency environment rather than transmitting into it. Passive RF sensing lets its systems cover large areas without the licensing, emissions and infrastructure that active radar needs, and the company sells that coverage to the US military, federal agencies and operators of critical infrastructure. Cole came to the company from Syracuse’s defense electronics industry, where he co-founded Gryphon Sensors as the commercial arm of the research contractor SRC. Since founding Hidden Level in 2018 he has taken it through a $35 million Series B and a $65 million Series C led by DFJ Growth, announced together in February 2025.

Career Highlights

• Co-founded Hidden Level in September 2018 and signs its SEC filings as Chief Executive Officer.
• Announced $100 million raised in twelve months in February 2025, including a $65 million Series C led by DFJ Growth with Booz Allen Ventures, Revolution Growth, Costanoa Ventures and others.
• Leads a company whose systems support the US Army, US Air Force and AFRICOM, INDOPACOM, CENTCOM and NORTHCOM, as well as federal, state and local agencies.
• Deployed sensors at Stewart Air National Guard Base during the December 2024 drone sightings in the New York region.
• Earlier co-founded Gryphon Sensors, SRC’s commercial subsidiary, which worked on drone surveillance and on integrating unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System.

Professional Journey

Cole grew up in Syracuse, a city where radar and electronic warfare are local industries, and built his career in them. By his own account on the Valley Crossers podcast, he worked on radar and sensing technology at Saab and on systems for Army, FAA and NASA customers at SRC, the not-for-profit defense research company. At SRC he co-founded Gryphon Sensors, a subsidiary set up to take the organization’s surveillance technology to commercial markets, particularly the problem of fitting drones safely into the National Airspace System.

He co-founded Hidden Level in September 2018. The company’s approach is passive. It does not emit radar pulses, and instead uses existing RF signals, including passive radar and RF direction-finding, to find and follow objects in the air, from small drones to higher-altitude aircraft. Passive systems can be spread across a city or around an installation without the spectrum licensing and emissions of conventional radar, and that suits the low-altitude airspace where commercial drones and hostile ones now mix.

The company’s market moved toward defense as drone warfare and drone incursions over US facilities became a policy problem. Hidden Level says it reached program-of-record status under an urgent-capabilities pathway in January 2024, eighteen months from first prototype to fielded systems. Its February 2025 funding release says it supports the Army, the Air Force and several combatant commands, and that it worked on airspace security for the presidential inauguration. When unexplained drone sightings spread across the New York region in December 2024, the company had sensors running at Stewart Air National Guard Base within 24 hours.

The funding followed. Hidden Level raised a $35 million Series B and, six months later, a $65 million Series C led by DFJ Growth, announced together in February 2025 as $100 million in twelve months. Cole framed the raise around critical infrastructure and argued for monitoring the airspace comprehensively, “from low-altitude drones to high-altitude aircraft and everything in between.” The company is still headquartered on North Geddes Street in Syracuse. Other listed executives include Chief Strategy Officer Brad Garber, Chief Financial Officer Mike Goll and Chief Technical Officer Tim Graham.

Education

No education record was found in a first-party or filed source. A degree attributed to him in search results could not be traced to a primary source and is not recorded.