Rob Slaughter

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Defense Unicorns

Last Reviewed: September 29, 2026

Executive Summary

Rob Slaughter is co-founder and chief executive of Defense Unicorns, a veteran-owned defense technology company that builds open-source, airgap-native software for developing, delivering and sustaining mission software across cloud, on-premises and tactical edge environments. He started it in 2021 after 13 years in the US Air Force, where he ended up running Platform One, the Department of Defense’s DevSecOps platform team. The company’s pitch is essentially that experience turned into a product: the military had learned to build software in modern ways, but it had no easy way to ship that software into disconnected, classified or battlefield environments. In January 2026 a $136 million Series B led by Bain Capital valued Defense Unicorns at more than $1 billion.

Career Highlights

• Co-founded Defense Unicorns in March 2021 with Jeff McCoy (CTO) and Andrew Greene, and leads it as CEO.
• Raised a $35 million Series A co-led by Ansa Capital and Sapphire Ventures in February 2024.
• Raised a $136 million Series B led by Bain Capital’s Tech Opportunities fund in January 2026, taking the company’s valuation above $1 billion; Valor Equity Partners, AVP, Uncorrelated Ventures and former CIA Director David H. Petraeus also invested.
• Served as Director of Platform One, the Department of Defense’s DevSecOps platform team, which the edX bio says he also co-founded.
• Named a finalist for ColoradoBiz Top Entrepreneur in 2026.

Professional Journey

Slaughter spent 13 years in the US Air Force. His company biography describes that career as leading work in space vehicles, computer vision and future capabilities. His speaker bio adds DevOps leadership at the National Space Defense Center and work with AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation unit.

The role that shaped what came next was Platform One. As its director, he ran the Department of Defense’s DevSecOps platform team, the effort to give military software teams a common, pre-accredited way to build and deploy code rather than each programme standing up its own. DefenseScoop describes him as having made his name in defense tech by leading a range of software development teams inside the Department of the Air Force and the Department of Defense.

He founded Defense Unicorns in March 2021 with Jeff McCoy, now chief technology officer, and Andrew Greene. The company is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, and sells to the US Navy, Army, Air Force and Space Force. Its core product line, including the Unicorn Delivery Service (UDS), is built around open-source tooling that works without an internet connection, so software can be deployed and operated in classified enclaves and at the tactical edge. Slaughter puts the goal as making software “a strategic deterrent by making it easy to deploy and operate software in any mission environment.”

Growth followed the funding. A $35 million Series A in February 2024 was co-led by Ansa Capital and Sapphire Ventures. In January 2026 the company announced a $136 million Series B led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, which put its valuation above $1 billion. Through 2026 Slaughter has been a regular voice in coverage of the defense technology boom, including a Forbes feature on veteran founders and appearances on the NYSE floor and at defense technology events, and ColoradoBiz named him a finalist for its Top Entrepreneur award.

Education

Defense Unicorns states that he holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics. The awarding institution was not confirmed from a primary source, so none is named here.