Lightning Rod Labs Assessed 'Awardable' for Department of Defense work in the CDAO’s Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace

AI startup helps defense organizations generate actionable predictions from unstructured data

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, July 2, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Lightning Rod Labs, a leading provider of AI-powered predictive intelligence, has been designated "Awardable" through the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office's (CDAO) Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace.

The Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace is the premier offering of Tradewinds, the Department of Defense's (DoD's) suite of tools and services designed to accelerate the procurement and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), data, and analytics capabilities.

Lightning Rod Labs trains AI to make accurate, reliable predictions from unstructured data. Defense and intelligence organizations can continuously scan data feeds—like breaking news, social chatter, documents, images, APIs—to spot emerging threats before they materialize. The company's proprietary AI training framework learns at scale directly from real-world outcomes, without human labeling or curation, producing well-calibrated probabilities that outperform general LLMs. Beyond defense applications, the technology shows promise for use cases that still rely on manual analysis, such as watch-office early warning, claims-cost forecasting, and AML compliance screening.

"We're honored to be recognized for our innovation and potential impact on DoD missions," said Ben Turtel, Founder and CEO of Lightning Rod Labs. "We’re excited to help defense partners transform messy data into actionable predictions."

Lightning Rod Labs' video, "Accurate AI Predictions from Unstructured Data," demonstrates how the company's models deliver better predictions at a fraction of the size of general LLMs, and can be tailored for specific use cases with non-public data. The video is accessible only by government customers on the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace. Lightning Rod Labs was recognized among a competitive field of applicants to the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace whose solutions demonstrated innovation, scalability, and potential impact on DoD missions. Government customers interested in viewing the video solution can create a Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace account at tradewindAI.com.

###

About Lightning Rod Labs:
Lightning Rod Labs helps organizations turn raw, unstructured data into well-calibrated predictions. The company's Foresight AI helps organizations stay ahead of emerging threats by continuously scanning public and private data sources to detect potential issues before they materialize. Founded by ex-Google engineers Ben Turtel and Danny Franklin, Lightning Rod Labs uses a proprietary framework that trains models to predict the future using self-play on real-world outcomes—without curated labels or human input. These models deliver higher accuracy at a fraction of the size of general-purpose LLMs, can be fine-tuned for specific use cases in days, and deploy flexibly from cloud to fully on-premises environments.

Media Contact: press@lightningrod.ai

About the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace: The Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace is a digital repository of post-competition, readily awardable pitch videos that address the Department of Defense's (DoD) most significant challenges in the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), data, and analytics space. All awardable solutions have been assessed through complex scoring rubrics and competitive procedures and are available to Government customers with a Marketplace account. Government customers can create an account at www.tradewindai.com. Tradewinds is housed in the DoD's Chief Digital Artificial Intelligence Office.

For more information or media requests, contact: Success@tradewindai.com

Ben Turtel
Lightning Rod Labs
+1 732-674-2125
email us here
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
X