Ethne Laude

Ethne Laude is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Candor, an artificial intelligence and defense technology startup based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2024, the company develops AI agents to assist defense and deeptech startups in securing government funding, recently raising a $500,000 seed round from Y Combinator as part of the W25 batch. Prior to launching Candor, Laude studied computer science and mathematics at Stanford University, where she conducted research on compiling sparse tensor applications to domain-specific hardware. Her professional background includes developing low-latency trading systems as a quantitative trading intern at Morgan Stanley and serving as a research scholar with the U.S. Space Force. As a National Security Innovation Scholar, she previously built a defense directory, establishing her current focus on bridging complex systems engineering with government procurement processes.