We’re an autonomy company with a human-machine interface obsession

Our Mission

Enabling warfighters to more naturally harness the power of increasingly complex military systems.

We’re a team of engineers and former special operators with roots in world-class prototyping organizations and elite military units. This lineage creates a unique blend of user intimacy, bias for utility, and creative engineering - all fueled by an undeniable get-it-done factor. We’re laser-focused on the mission of national security and work hard to deeply understand warfighter challenges across the industry.

Primordial Labs team at flight test in Norway

Our Vision

The time has come for a high-torque interface that enables human-machine collaborative excellence — that’s what we’re building. 

The DoD has come to terms with its “Big Data” problem and taken significant steps to address it. But in a race to pursue advanced autonomous capabilities and a one-to-many human to robot ratio, we believe the Department is on the verge of a new challenge — a “Big Robot” problem. 

AI’s true potential will never be unlocked until we account for the human warfighter’s place within this high-tech future. The answer is a better interface, one that allows for faster adoption, greater trust, and more natural interaction between humans and an increasing number of machine and computer counterparts. Primordial Labs is building this exact solution.

Meet the Team

  • Lee Ritholtz profile photo

    Lee Ritholtz

    CEO & Co-Founder

    Lee is a hands-on technical executive who loves building AI systems and high-performing teams. He has extensive experience applying machine learning to a variety of DoD problems ranging from sensor processing to autonomous platform control. Prior to founding Primordial Labs, Lee was a technical leader at Lockheed Martin, where he most recently served as Director and Chief AI Architect for the Applied AI organization. Before that, he spent the better part of a decade at the Skunk Works.

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  • Adrian Pope profile photo

    Adrian Pope

    CTO & Co-Founder

    Prior to founding Primordial Labs, Adrian was a Principal AI Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin, where he successfully developed and deployed AI-based ISR and EW payloads for special mission unmanned systems. Adrian has led research teams on numerous defense-focused S&T projects, most notably DARPA’s 2020 AlphaDogfight Trials. Adrian has extensive experience designing and deploying human-centric AI solutions for defense use cases in both research and operational settings.

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  • Mick Adkins profile photo

    Mick Adkins

    Director of Product

    Mick leads product and business development operations. Prior to Primordial Labs, Mick was a Marine Special Operations (MARSOC) and Infantry Officer for 10 years. He has deployment experience within both CENTCOM & INDOPACOM. Mick is focused on making it easier for warfighters to use technology to gain an advantage on the battlefield.

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  • Rehana Asmi profile photo

    Rehana Asmi

    Marketing

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  • Antonin Couturier profile photo

    Antonin Couturier

    Machine Learning Engineer

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  • Kevin Cuomo profile photo

    Kevin Cuomo

    Director of Business Development

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  • Jordan Doss profile photo

    Jordan Dross

    Senior Product Manager

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  • Calvin Ferraro profile photo

    Calvin Ferraro

    Machine Learning Engineer

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  • Leo Holland profile photo

    Leo Holland

    Operations Associate

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  • Rory O'Connor

    SkillBridge Intern

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  • James Simone profile photo

    James Simone

    Software Engineer

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  • Jason Twedt profile photo

    Jason Twedt

    AI Research Engineer

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Join Our Team