Young Engineer Who Worked for Trump Administration Starts Defense Company

Ethan Shaotran, a 22-year-old who recently left his job at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has started a new company called Blitz Industries focused on defense technology, according to WIRED. He dropped out of Harvard University to work for DOGE and has now registered his company to bid for government contracts.

From Government Work to Starting a Company

Shaotran left Harvard during his senior year to join DOGE, a department created under the Trump administration to streamline how government works. While there, he was part of a small team of young engineers and worked across several government agencies, including the Social Security Administration.

During his time at the Social Security Administration, DOGE made a controversial decision: it moved thousands of immigrants into a database called the Master Death File, which effectively shut down their access to government benefits and the right to work.

Shaotran is now based in Los Angeles and says his new company is "backed by big names," though he has not disclosed who is investing. Blitz Industries was officially registered in Delaware in February 2026.

Location and Government Contracts

Blitz Industries' office is in Hawthorne, California—directly across the street from SpaceX headquarters, which is also a major defense contractor. By registering with the government's System for Award Management, or SAM, Shaotran is positioning his company to bid on defense contracts. Think of SAM as a catalog where companies list themselves if they want to do business with the federal government.

The company's website does not say what it specifically does or what technology it focuses on.

Why Defense Tech Right Now

The defense technology sector is seeing a lot of investment. In 2025, investors put over $49 billion into defense tech startups. Major venture capital firms are actively encouraging entrepreneurs to pursue government defense contracts. This creates an attractive environment for new companies entering the space.

We have seen this pattern before in technology. When a new industry or funding wave opens up, people with insider knowledge of how government works often move from public service into private companies to build businesses. It is a cycle that has played out many times over the past few decades.

Other DOGE Members in Defense Roles

Shaotran is not the only member of the DOGE team to move into a senior defense position. Gavin Kliger, another young engineer from DOGE, is now the chief data officer at the Department of Defense. This creates a network of connections that could help Blitz Industries and other startups work with the government.

Before he worked for DOGE, Shaotran founded a company called Energize.ai that focused on artificial intelligence tools for productivity. He also received funding from OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, to research how artificial intelligence can be made more democratic and inclusive.

What Blitz Industries Will Do

While Shaotran has not publicly detailed what his company will build, his background suggests it will likely involve artificial intelligence, robotics or autonomous systems, and ways to improve how government operates. His registration with SAM suggests the company will work with physical hardware or systems rather than just software.

The company was set up with 25 million authorized shares, which typically signals that the founder expects to raise significant investment in the future. However, he has not said how much money the company has raised or who the investors are beyond describing them as "big names."

This moment points to a broader trend: a new generation of defense contractors who understand both how to build technology and how to navigate government contracts. Whether Shaotran can actually turn these advantages into a successful defense company remains unclear, but his positioning suggests he has thought carefully about how to launch in this space.