By application - Israel
A closed network for defense tech founders and operators. Every member is verified by email, by phone, and by a human being who reads their LinkedIn and their company before anyone is let in. No vendors. No recruiters. No press. No forwarded invitations.
Why this exists
The hardest problems in this sector are the ones you cannot post on LinkedIn: which regulator to approach first, what a real programme of record takes, who actually pays, which investor understands dual-use and which one will run at the first export question. Those conversations only happen between people who already trust each other. This club exists to make that trust routine instead of accidental.
The vision
Strengthen the founder community, and it builds stronger companies. Stronger companies mean a stronger economy, a stronger technology sector, and stronger national defense.
That chain is the whole point. Everything here follows from it - membership is verified rather than large, the room is closed so the conversation can be honest, and the club is free to its members.
Four checks stand between an application and the group. Membership is personal and non-transferable, and links are single-use.
Two circles so a Series B founder and a pre-seed builder each get a room that is useful to them, rather than one room that serves neither.
Chatham House rule in the room and in the groups. Nothing said inside is attributed or repeated outside it.
Membership
You apply to one. If the reviewer thinks the other fits you better, they will say so.
Founders and co-founders of defense tech companies that have closed institutional financing.
Verification includes confirming the round. A press link, an investor who will vouch, or a Companies Registrar filing is enough.
Pre-financing founders, operators, researchers, and people from the ecosystem worth knowing.
Selective rather than open. You do not need funding, but you do need to be building something real and to be someone the room benefits from meeting.
Service providers and consultancies looking for clients, recruiters, journalists, anyone who will not verify their identity, and anyone whose reason for joining is to sell to the members rather than to build alongside them. This is not a judgement on the work - it is the only way the room stays worth attending.
Launch event
An evening for Circle II: a short on-record conversation, a genuinely senior panel, and then the part that matters - unhurried, high-quality mingling with people who are hard to reach any other way.
Speakers are confirmed to attending members by name ahead of the evening. We do not publish them, for the usual reasons.
Places are limited and allocated by application order among verified members.
Apply to attendVerification
Four checks, in this order. Nothing is skipped and nothing is automatic - the last step is always a person. Most applications are decided within 48 hours.
Who you are, what you are building, and why it belongs in this room. Two minutes, one screen.
A one-time link proves you control the address. Work addresses carry more weight than free ones.
A six-digit code to your number. This proves the number is yours and that WhatsApp is live on it, which is exactly what the group requires.
Your LinkedIn profile and your company are checked by a member, against what you told us. Where it matters, we ask someone who already knows you.
On approval you receive a join link that works once, expires in seven days, and is tied to your name. Forwarded invitations do not work.
Your application is used to decide on your membership and nothing else. It is not sold, not shared with sponsors, and not used for marketing. Sponsors receive a description of the room, never a list of the people in it. Ask us to delete your record at any time and we will, along with your place in the groups.
Partners
The club is free to its members and intends to stay that way. The launch evening is paid for by partners who want to be in the room early: the primes, the funds, and the cloud providers who are already asking to be part of this.
Elbit, Rafael, IAI and their corporate venture arms - direct access to the founders who will become suppliers, partners and acquisitions.
Israeli and international funds writing defense and dual-use cheques, meeting the round before it is a round.
The platforms these companies are built on, in front of the technical decision makers who choose them.
Questions