FORTRESS

Fortress is a defense technology residency. We don't do SaaS, we don't do consumer tech, and we don't do anything because it looked like an interesting market. We exist for one type of founder, the kind building ground-warfare technology for Finland and allies, and who is serious and committed enough to go all in on it for 14 weeks.

We started Fortress because we kept seeing the same thing. Brilliant founders building real technology, hitting a wall the moment they tried to get it in front of the people who actually needed it. Not because their product wasn't good enough, but because they didn't know the right people, hadn't been in the right rooms, and had no realistic path to getting there on their own. We've been in those rooms. We built Fortress to bring you with us.

No curriculum, no workshops, no slide-deck demo day. We run a 14-week residency in Lappeenranta where you show up, move in, validate, and build. We work with founders from Finland and allied nations, with a strong preference for those who have compulsory, voluntary, or similar military service, or participated in voluntary national defence activities in their respective country. That focus defines who we work with and what we're building toward.

We are the direct link between you and the defense industry. The mentors we bring in have spent careers inside the sector, procurement, operations, technology, the field. They've seen what gets adopted and what gets shelved, and they'll give you an honest read on your product long before you find out the hard way.

You keep one hundred percent of your company. We don't take equity, we don't take IP, and we don't take warrants. Fortress is funded by Finnish foundations because the program exists to build Finnish and allied defense capability, not to extract value from founders. Most accelerators won't tell you their incentives. Ours are simple: build something that works, and the program succeeds with you.

We're not trying to sell you on Lappeenranta. The conditions for this kind of work are here, and if that matters to you, you'll see why immediately.

Finland has the longest border with Russia in Europe and a defense culture that carries real weight. You'll live and work at Radiotalo inside the Lappeenranta Fortress, a site with military pedigree built into the environment, with full live-work facilities provided.

A few hours away, we have a private 35-acre testing site "Site Alpha" with mature forest, vertical relief, complex shoreline, and with full accommodation, power, water, and internet. Available to you in the program. A co-working space in Berlin cannot give you this.

In the program, we travel to Ukraine together, coordinated through our operational partners and their networks. You will sit in rooms with operators dealing with real problems right now and hear things that will change how you think about what you're building. You validate, gather feedback from people who won't be polite about what doesn't work, and come back knowing exactly what needs to change. Most founders in this space never get that kind of access. You get it in month one.

Founders from Finland and allied nations who already understand that defense doesn't operate like other industries. There is no VC playbook here, no growth hacking your way to a government contract. Sales cycles run long, the regulatory environment is serious, and when something ships that doesn't perform in the field, the consequences are nothing like a bad quarter.

We work with technically excellent students, recent graduates, and early-stage founders building in ground warfare: unmanned ground vehicles, drones and counter-drone, tactical communications, sensors and detection, electronic warfare, soldier systems, power and energy, battlefield AI and autonomy.

We prefer teams of two. Solo founders considered if the technical depth is exceptional. Hardware, software, or both, we don't mind. We care that you're starting from a real problem, not retrofitting a consumer product into a defense use case because the market looked interesting.

Finnish reservist eligibility is preferred. Allied applicants from EU and NATO countries are considered with a parallel exercise track. To apply one must be or have:

• A citizen of a NATO country. No citizens with non-NATO countries (dual citizens included) will be chosen.
• Preferably compulsory, voluntary, similar military service, or participated in voluntary national defence activities in their respective country.
• Committed to move to Lappeenranta for 3.5 months to live.

You live and work in Lappeenranta. Accommodation, food, and program travel are covered. You receive a flexible prototyping component pool to fund the build. You get the software and hardware tools you need, and ongoing access to mentors from inside the industry who work with you directly throughout the program, not just for a one-hour session.

A defense use case tested under real conditions in operational environments. Feedback from people who operate in the field. A prototype that has met realistic terrain, conditions, and end users. A business case built on actual data, not slides. The people we work with in the industry can tell the difference the moment you walk in the room.

The defense sector across NATO needs innovation that moves faster than it currently does. The window is open right now and it will not stay that way. We built Fortress because the founders who can do this already exist in Finland and allied nations – they just need to be in the right place, with the right people around them.

If that sounds like you, come build with us.