Joe Kigin

Head of Government

Joe Kigin is Head of Government for Fairwater Labs. He has over 30 years of experience in sales, business development and operations in the high-tech sector, focused on bringing innovative society-changing solutions to the defense, federal civilian, and private sectors. Joe has advised DoD leadership in areas of technical innovation, risk management, and process optimization in the following specialties: Information Dominance (Cloud migration/deployment); Data Security; Logistics, and Expeditionary Warfare. He has served in Business Development and Program Management leadership capacities for Fortune 100 companies such as Oracle, Seagate, and Northrop-Grumman, and with market-defining high-tech startups Exabyte, Innoprise Software, and Micro Research Industries. 

Joe holds a BBA in Management Information Systems from James Madison University and an MBA in Operations & Finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Our Portfolio Companies

acquired

DFL Technologies

DFL is building the tactical mobile future through AI powered software and ATAK development.

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acquired

Swell

Science-backed therapy—self-guided, expert-built, and always on.

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acquired

Delta AI

Agentic AI for training and task automation.

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acquired

Halite Medical

AI platform integrating critical patient data and delivering continuous insights through the Golden Hour and beyond.

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acquired

Clara Copilot

Operator’s intelligence teammate — distills open-source info, analyzes impact, and drives faster decisions.

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acquired

Endstate Technologies

Collaborative AI for planning and decision-making.

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Our Partner Companies

Cyphlens

Cyphlens keeps sensitive data encrypted, even when viewed or shared.

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Reveal

Reveal builds technology products that improve, simplify and accelerate human decisions through AI, resulting in mission success.

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Why founders choose Fairwater

These are independent companies. Founders maintain meaningful ownership stake, drive the roadmap, and build lasting businesses. Fairwater provides the platform, structure, and early support to get them there.

"Partnering with Fairwater Labs has been instrumental in advancing our military mission. They connected us directly with frontline operators and secured access to critical technical experiments, including Trident Spectre, that we could not have achieved on our own. Their network and expertise have been a force multiplier for Cyphlens in the defense community."
Rocky Motwani
Co-Founder and CEO
Cyphlens
"Fairwater Labs has been a valuable partner for Clara Copilot. Their support and guidance have helped streamline the government sales process and advance our platform’s development. Their collaboration has been essential in driving impactful, mission-focused solutions."
Alex Moffitt
Founder & CEO
Clara Copilot
"Partnering with Fairwater Labs significantly de-risked the early stages of our startup journey. Their team brought deep expertise across business and product development, from refining our go-to-market strategy to offering critical input on product design decisions. Just as importantly, they helped us accelerate our prototyping process, allowing us to iterate faster and with greater confidence."
Mark Buonforte
Founder/CEO
Delta AI
"Our partnership with Fairwater Labs has been a catalyst for Halite Medical. Their team brought not just tools and structure, but strategic insight that comes from deep experience in defense and dual-use ventures. It’s still early, but we’ve already seen the impact with key wins in the defense marketplace."
Rachel Wong
Founder/CEO
Halite Medical
"Fairwater Labs was the first organization to believe in Swell. They saw my vision before others could—stood by us through the trough of sorrow, rolled up their sleeves to work alongside us when we were deep in the trenches, challenged me as a founder and backed my toughest calls. More than partners, they show up like cofounders, especially in the hardest times."
Rachel Edenfield
Founder & CEO
Swell
Fairwater Labs has been a pleasure to work with from incubation. Their advisors across business and product development have been critical to helping us win our Phase 1 SBIR, improve on our product, and provide mentorship.
Aristos Xanthus
Founder/CTO
Delta AI
"Fairwater Labs has been instrumental in shaping our early go-to-market strategy within the DoD, helping us identify initial users and securing an exercise invitation before we even launched. They've also provided valuable feedback on our early product designs as we developed our MVP."
Jamison Pereira
Founder/CEO
Endstate Technologies

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