Marcus Zimmerman

Marcus Zimmerman is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Candor, an artificial intelligence platform focused on government procurement, based in Stanford, California. At the two-employee startup, which is participating in the Y Combinator Winter 2025 batch, he directs overall strategy, operations, and growth initiatives to help defense and deeptech companies secure government funding. Prior to founding Candor, Zimmerman attended Stanford University, where he helped manage the institution's DEFCON Technology and National Security Network. He also served as a National Security Innovation Fellow at Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center, establishing a campus accelerator for American Dynamism startups, and previously held product and growth roles at an earlier Y Combinator-backed company. Zimmerman currently focuses his career on advancing national security technologies and actively participates in the sector as an angel investor supporting early-stage defense and government technology ventures.