Rouge

Home for the next generation of industrial tycoons.
Based in heartland of American industry.

[Rouge @joinrouge]

Time to build: https://t.co/eItq0Ec9ho.

[Brian @bheiligenthal]

Introducing @joinrouge. 

One of the country’s earliest-stage residencies for the next generation of industrialists. Based in the heartland of American industry, Detroit.

America was born on the industrialist spirit.

Ford. Edison. Wright. Rockefeller. Watson. Von Braun.

We’re the product of pioneering inventors, scientists and industrial cowboys who stared into the abyss of unfathomable risk and sure, constant failure with unbreakable dreams of leading a revolution.

For generations we’ve slowly lost that spirit sitting behind computers, building in bits, calling photo-sharing apps revolutionary and blocking out the increasingly chaotic world outside. A world where generational issues (economic trade tensions, wars, space races, energy dependency, global warming, housing in-affordability, obesity) grow largely unaddressed by the day.

Rouge is here to change that.

Built for pre-idea → seed stage founders on the frontier of manufacturing, robotics, space, defense, energy and health, we’re a home to design, build, test and launch new critical technologies that tackle the impossible.

And Detroit? Some forget it in the shadows of the financial crisis. It’s a city built by tycoons of industry on steel, blue collars and grit. It was and will again be the center of American innovation.

We’ll prove it to you.

[Brian @bheiligenthal]

Excited to announce the addition of @Nick__Smock to the Rouge Collective.

When I met Nick earlier this year, I was blown away by his depth of defense knowledge, experience and network. You can imagine how surprised I was when I found out he was just 30.

Raised in the defense world by way of his dad (a 25+ year US Army vet), Nick grew up in military towns riding tanks and watching HIMARS launches.

At the time we chatted, I was deep in the early learning phase for Rouge, digging into the evolving local and federal defense worlds and trying to pull away anything from anyone. We blew past our 30 min slot talking about the immense opportunities across the United States and Michigan defense landscapes. His passion and vision for its future is infectious to say the least.

Nick currently serves as Head of Growth at AG3 Labs and as Board Member (National Security & DoW) at the Michigan Drone Association. For nearly a decade, he's been embedded in the defense tech space coordinating field exercises and live test events, working alongside senior military leadership and building relationships with the country's top defense policymakers (most recently with @ElissaSlotkin's team).

He's a trusted defense advocate, one of the first to hear of new military priorities, actively shaping policy around the future of global defense and is a huge add for our defense startups (especially those building autonomous, all-environment systems).

[Brian @bheiligenthal]

Hardware is hard. Getting a hardware startup off the ground and scaled is nothing short of a miracle.

Today we’re launching the Rouge Collective to shorten the chaotic hardware learning curve and accelerate time to build, test, launch and scale by 100x.

With access exclusive for startups in Rouge (@joinrouge), the Collective is a network of top operators, government advisors, researchers, investors and more across critical tech -- each serving as personal domain experts, niche specialists and advisors for the residency's founders and their teams.

First advisor announcement (and many more) coming soon.

[Brian @bheiligenthal]

Stainless steel, prismatic silicon chips, latticed circuit boards and supersonic rockets. How can you not be romantic about hardtech?

It’s impossible. That’s why we’re starting @heavymetalmag, the first design periodical sharing stories and research from the frontier of critical hardtech. Written from Detroit, c/o @joinrouge.

Heavymetal 001 with @connorkapoor (@digitalmetalinc) is out now. Get a glimpse inside the future of America’s industrial base: