founding_up · About Founding Up, Inc.
founding_up
For veterans For employers About FOR CONTRACTING OFFICERS
FOUNDING UP, INC. · CORPORATE OVERVIEW
A talent exchange that finds what a person is genuinely good at and maps it to the jobs employers need filled now and next.
founding_up is the operating name of Founding Up, Inc., a Delaware corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. It builds and operates the Futures Workforce Exchange: a marketplace, guided by an AI mentor named CLEO, that connects students and workers, employers, and the schools that train them — especially where the gap is largest, in defense industrial manufacturing and military-to-civilian transition.
LEGAL ENTITY
Founding Up, Inc.
Delaware corporation · incorporated late 2023
CAGE · UEI
15Z91 · HERUYMFFX546
SAM.gov: Active, All Awards · renewal 2027-08-06
BUSINESS STATUS
Nontraditional Defense Contractor
per 10 U.S.C. § 4022 · no prior DoD contract subject to full CAS
PRINCIPAL OFFICE
Austin, Texas
2201-B Trailside Drive · Austin, TX 78704
SUBJECT-MATTER EXPERTISE
The problem was mapped from the ground, then built into a system.
For twenty-five years, Dan Dillard has worked at the intersection of finance and the decisions families and young people make about their futures — thousands of direct conversations with students and parents about what comes next and how to pay for it. That is where this problem was first seen and mapped: not in a study, but in a quarter-century of front-line cases.
Guest lecturer on artificial intelligence to students at Texas A&M University
Working sessions with university chancellors, presidents, and state higher-education commissions
Ongoing interviews and podcasts on the future of work and learning
founding_up is the operational form of that pattern recognition — the problem mapped from the ground, then built into a system.
PRINCIPAL
Dan Dillard
Chief Executive Officer & Founder · primary point of contact
LEADERSHIP
Danielle Rosenthal · Research Psychologist & Domain Expert
Matt Wagner · Operations · ex-Amazon
Matthew Liddle · Product / ML · ex-Amazon
Gene Baxter · CTO · ex-Amazon, Cisco
CAPABILITIES · WHAT THE EXCHANGE DOES
Three things a résumé-and-keyword market cannot.
1
Verify what a person can actually do
From observed work rather than self-report — the SIGNAL skills-verification engine, mapped to O*NET. For service members, military experience enters the match through the MOS→SOC crosswalk and DoD COOL data.
2
Match proven capability to real employer demand
Demand is composed by employers from discrete, checkable pieces and backed by a scholarship. The matching engine is built with no access to the dollars, so ranking cannot be bought; identities stay private on both sides until both commit.
3
Route to the exact missing training
When a role needs one credential the person doesn't yet hold, the exchange routes them to that piece — not a full degree of filler — and exports results as portable Learning and Employment Records.
ARCHITECTURE
Four proprietary layers: identity formation · SIGNAL skills verification · the Exchange Layer marketplace · the CLEO AI guide.
FEDERAL INCENTIVE LAYER
Surfaces DOL, VA and SBA veteran-hire programs at the point of hire and embeds the filing workflow (IRS Forms 8850 and 5884) so appropriated credits get claimed.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Provisional patent filed on the exchange architecture. Private R&D investment in excess of $4M. Proprietary measurement internals held as trade secrets.
EVERY NUMBER THE SYSTEM SHOWS CARRIES A RECEIPT — OR IT ISN'T SHOWN. FEDERAL AWARDS ARE IN PURSUIT; NO AWARD, VALUATION OR OUTCOME IS REPRESENTED AS SECURED.
PATHWAY FOR SUPPORTING GOVERNMENT REQUIREMENTS
Two problems, one prototype — proposed under 10 U.S.C. § 4022.
THE FUTURES WORKFORCE EXCHANGE · PROTOTYPE OTHER TRANSACTION
A civilian-side talent-pipeline prototype for Defense Industrial Base workforce recovery, submitted in response to the Defense Innovation Unit Commercial Solutions Opening (HQ0845-20-S-C001) and before the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness. Problem one — the manufacturing gap: roughly 800,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs today, on a trajectory toward 2 million within five years. Problem two — military-to-civilian transition: about 200,000 service members leave every year; 62% remain underemployed 6.5 years after separation.
Proposed pilot sites: Texas A&M–Fort Worth (the manufacturing pipeline, opening with 25-plus employers) and Texas A&M University–Central Texas (the Fort Hood transition track). Eighteen months; approximately 3,000 candidates prepared across both tracks.
SOURCES: AMERICAN LEGION DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL WORKFORCE SUMMIT, MARCH 2026 · INSTITUTE FOR VETERANS AND MILITARY FAMILIES, "REIMAGINING MILITARY-TO-CIVILIAN TRANSITION," 2025 · FOUNDING_UP DoD OT WHITE PAPER
HOW WE ENGAGE
founding_up is sole technical lead and author of the solution. It contributes the full commercial Exchange Layer as non-federal cost share, materially above the one-third threshold. Final terms are negotiated with the Agreements Officer.
DATA RIGHTS POSITION
Limited Rights on pre-award private-expense IP (CLEO, SIGNAL, the matching engine, the four-layer architecture) · Government Purpose Rights on prototype-funded adaptations · Unlimited Rights on aggregated, anonymized outcomes.
MO 0–6
Integrations + tax-guidance workflow
MO 6–9
MOS→SOC crosswalk + veteran matching
MO 9–12
Operational pilots, both A&M corridors
MO 12–15
Records-export conformance (LERs)
MO 15–18
Outcomes measurement + § 4022(f) Production OT scoping
POLICY & STATUTORY ALIGNMENT: 10 U.S.C. § 4022 · FY24 NDAA MANAGEMENT INNOVATION PILOT · ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT 2026, CH. 8 · FEDERAL REGISTER DOC. 2026-07084 · EXECUTIVE ORDER 14278
WORK IN MOTION · AS OF AUGUST 2026
PRODUCT
CLEO and the exchange built and demoable today — the AI mentor, the student map, the employer order engine.
TEXAS A&M
Active work across the A&M System — Fort Worth defense-manufacturing pipeline and the Fort Cavazos military-transition track.
DFW PILOT
A costed 10-step deployment plan for the DFW corridor; a "Pioneer 100" first cohort in formation.
ADVISORS
Molly Beth Malcolm · fmr Exec VP Chancellor, Austin Community College
Jan Ryan · Director of Entrepreneurship, UT
John Sharp · fmr Chancellor, Texas A&M System
Ricardo Berckemeyer · Co-CEO, Cintana Education
Saul Paul · Founder, Skill Builders Career Academy
Dr. Richard Box · Chairman Emeritus, Texas A&M Board of Regents
Dr. Alton Barron · Chairman, Post University
Steve Moore · CMO & Communications, UNT System
Robert Hansen · Cybersecurity · White Hat
Darron Gross · Co-Founder, Tenrecx · ex-VP SHI
FOR CONTRACTING OFFICERS AND PROGRAM OFFICES
One point of contact. Everything on this page is on the record.
PRIMARY POINT OF CONTACT
Dan Dillard · Chief Executive Officer
dan@foundingup.com
512-799-4450
2201-B Trailside Drive · Austin, TX 78704
REGISTRATIONS
CAGE 15Z91
UEI HERUYMFFX546
SAM.gov Active, All Awards · renewal 2027-08-06
Nontraditional Defense Contractor · 10 U.S.C. § 4022
THIS PAGE CONTAINS NO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. FIGURES AND STATEMENTS ARE DRAWN FROM FOUNDING UP, INC.'S DoD OTHER TRANSACTION WHITE PAPER AND ITS ADVISOR BRIEF (AUGUST 2026), WITH THEIR NAMED SOURCES. FEDERAL AWARDS ARE IN PURSUIT; NONE IS REPRESENTED AS SECURED.
© 2026 Founding Up, Inc. · A DELAWARE CORPORATION · AUSTIN, TEXAS