{
  "reviewed_at": "2026-09-16",
  "scope": "Purposive pilot: the complete ten-neighbour defense screen plus featured defense, services, hardware and simulation examples. Not a representative accuracy estimate or an independent human review.",
  "rubric": {
    "Direct": "The described product or delivered business model satisfies the substance of the request.",
    "Adjacent": "Enables the requested sector or shares its customers, but does not itself deliver the requested product/business model.",
    "No match": "No substantive product/customer fit established beyond shared language.",
    "Unresolved": "Current fit or historical timing cannot be established sufficiently from the reviewed public source.",
    "chronology": "Directory dates are from the fixed API snapshot and are not founding, acceptance, or original launch-post dates. Earlier batch membership does not prove the current business model existed then. Launch posts are historical product evidence but may not be immutable."
  },
  "cases": [
    {
      "company": "Candor",
      "slug": "candor",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 1,
      "fit": "Adjacent",
      "historical_fit": "Adjacent",
      "reason": "Government-funding search and proposal preparation enable defense companies; this is procurement tooling rather than a new defense system.",
      "chronology": "Winter 2025; reviewed launch describes grant/proposal software.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/candor"
    },
    {
      "company": "Orbital Operations",
      "slug": "orbital-operations",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 2,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "Develops propulsion/vehicles for protecting military satellites; launch discusses military orbital mobility needs.",
      "chronology": "Winter 2025; product alignment after the February 2024 request, without RFS-origin testimony.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/orbital-operations"
    },
    {
      "company": "RiskCube",
      "slug": "riskcube",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 3,
      "fit": "No match",
      "historical_fit": "No match",
      "reason": "Insurance business; military background or defense vocabulary does not establish a defense product.",
      "chronology": "Fall 2024; thematic false positive in the ranked screen.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/riskcube"
    },
    {
      "company": "PAX Markets",
      "slug": "pax-markets",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 4,
      "fit": "No match",
      "historical_fit": "No match",
      "reason": "Exchange and high-frequency trading hardware is not a defense system.",
      "chronology": "Winter 2025; use stable slug to avoid confusion with the unrelated company Pax.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/pax-markets"
    },
    {
      "company": "Usul",
      "slug": "usul",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 5,
      "fit": "Adjacent",
      "historical_fit": "Adjacent",
      "reason": "Contract intelligence helps defense suppliers sell. A launch passage acknowledges YC's government request and frames its software as a response; this is public acknowledgement, not proof of founding causality.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2024; public RFS acknowledgement found, exact referenced release not established.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/usul"
    },
    {
      "company": "Guardian RF",
      "slug": "guardian-rf",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 6,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Unresolved",
      "reason": "Drone-detection hardware serves national security; current profile includes deployment claims. Reviewed current prose includes 2025 events, so it cannot independently establish its original 2024 state.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2024; current product fit established, original-time verification remains incomplete.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/guardian-rf"
    },
    {
      "company": "Archon",
      "slug": "archon",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 7,
      "fit": "Adjacent",
      "historical_fit": "Adjacent",
      "reason": "Government sales and procurement tooling, not a defense capability itself.",
      "chronology": "Winter 2025; enabling-company match rather than a defense-system match.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/archon"
    },
    {
      "company": "Vendra",
      "slug": "vendra",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 8,
      "fit": "Adjacent",
      "historical_fit": "Adjacent",
      "reason": "Manufacturing/vendor infrastructure serves aerospace and defense. Earlier launch concerned hardware vendor/project management.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2024; product presentation changed; relevant enabling infrastructure remains distinct from defense systems.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/vendra"
    },
    {
      "company": "Consus",
      "slug": "consus",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 9,
      "fit": "Adjacent",
      "historical_fit": "Adjacent",
      "reason": "Secure AI infrastructure for aerospace/defense; reviewed launch describes government-document management, a different enabling product.",
      "chronology": "Fall 2024; evidence of changed product framing reinforces snapshot leakage risk.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/consus"
    },
    {
      "company": "Reditus Space",
      "slug": "reditus-space",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": 10,
      "fit": "Adjacent",
      "historical_fit": "Adjacent",
      "reason": "Reusable satellites and orbital manufacturing are space infrastructure; reviewed launch focuses on pharmaceutical and semiconductor payloads, not a direct defense system.",
      "chronology": "Winter 2025; space adjacency should not count as direct defense delivery.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/reditus-space"
    },
    {
      "company": "Ares Industries",
      "slug": "ares-industries",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "Launch explicitly describes low-cost anti-ship missiles and summer prototype tests.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2024; directory date 2024-08-20. Launch describes 11 weeks from company start to flight tests, consistent with post-request formation but not RFS attribution.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Ler-ares-industries-building-low-cost-cruise-missiles"
    },
    {
      "company": "Theseus",
      "slug": "theseus",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "Launch describes GPS-denied navigation for drones and customer/operator feedback after a February hackathon.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2024; directory date 2024-09-03. February origin overlaps the request month; exact ordering is unresolved.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/theseus"
    },
    {
      "company": "AminoAnalytica",
      "slug": "aminoanalytica",
      "theme": "Defense",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Unresolved",
      "reason": "Current biodefense positioning is relevant, but reviewed launch describes a protein-engineering agent and references later events.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2024; cannot assume biodefense positioning at original admission.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/aminoanalytica"
    },
    {
      "company": "Minerva",
      "slug": "minerva",
      "theme": "AI-native services",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "Reviewed launch offers end-to-end accounting services; current profile broadens the financial-services framing.",
      "chronology": "Spring 2025; directory date 2025-05-10. Earlier batch and service launch support a preexisting example; exact launch-post version date is not established.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/NXG-minerva-ai-accountant-for-smbs"
    },
    {
      "company": "Humoniq",
      "slug": "humoniq",
      "theme": "AI-native services",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "Reviewed launch explicitly offers AI-operated customer-support outsourcing rather than tools for human teams.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2025; directory date 2025-07-06. Founder account points to prior travel operations as inspiration, without proving absence of any RFS influence.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/OFd-humoniq-ai-contact-center-for-travel"
    },
    {
      "company": "Balance",
      "slug": "getbalance",
      "theme": "AI-native services",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "Launch describes AI-run accounting with accountant review and filings; this delivers a service.",
      "chronology": "Winter 2026; directory date 2026-01-21. Launch says incorporation was in January, without independently establishing day-level dates.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/getbalance"
    },
    {
      "company": "PARES AI",
      "slug": "pares-ai",
      "theme": "AI-native services",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Adjacent",
      "reason": "Current profile sells brokerage/property-management services; reviewed initial launch sells software to brokers.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2025; directory date 2025-07-09. Earlier admission cannot date the transition to a service business.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Nxo-pares-ai-helping-commercial-real-estate-brokers-find-close-more-deals"
    },
    {
      "company": "Denki",
      "slug": "denki",
      "theme": "AI-native services",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Adjacent",
      "historical_fit": "Adjacent",
      "reason": "Firm-oriented headline notwithstanding, the launch sells an assurance platform for internal auditors; description emphasizes software rather than delivered independent audit services.",
      "chronology": "Fall 2025; directory date 2025-10-08. Do not classify direct service delivery from the headline alone.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/denki"
    },
    {
      "company": "Korso",
      "slug": "korso",
      "theme": "AI-native services",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Unresolved",
      "reason": "Current headline offers an engineering agency; reviewed launches describe manufacturing automation and agent-collaboration tools.",
      "chronology": "Spring 2026; directory date 2026-03-12. The date of the agency transition is unresolved.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/korso"
    },
    {
      "company": "Hlabs",
      "slug": "hlabs",
      "theme": "Hardware supply chain",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "US-made robotic parts and actuators are directly relevant and explicitly cited in the later RFS.",
      "chronology": "Winter 2026; directory date 2025-11-17; profile reports founding 2025. Named exemplar, not discovery attributable to the later request.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/hlabs"
    },
    {
      "company": "Prototyping.io",
      "slug": "prototypingio",
      "theme": "Hardware supply chain",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "Automates design-to-parts manufacturing and is explicitly cited in the later RFS.",
      "chronology": "Spring 2026; directory date 2026-03-25. Live profile marked Acquired on review; fixed September 7 snapshot marked Active. Transaction date, price and returns unknown.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/prototypingio"
    },
    {
      "company": "Ångström AI",
      "slug": "angstrom-ai",
      "theme": "Physical simulation",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "Reviewed launch describes generative molecular simulations, matching the requested ML-based replacement for conventional simulation.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2024; product fit established without direct RFS decision attribution.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/angstrom-ai"
    },
    {
      "company": "Silurian",
      "slug": "silurian",
      "theme": "Physical simulation",
      "screen_rank": null,
      "fit": "Direct",
      "historical_fit": "Direct",
      "reason": "Reviewed launch describes a learned weather simulator rather than a generic AI tool.",
      "chronology": "Summer 2024; launch refers to a July weather simulation. Technical/performance claims are company-reported, not independently verified here.",
      "source": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/silurian"
    }
  ]
}