This Atlanta-Based Startup Has Secured $1M In Contracts In Its First Year
DeMarcus Edwards, a PhD graduate from Howard University, is the founder of an AI security startup, DARE Labs, which secured over $1 million in contracts last year. Edwards launched the company after being laid off from Google.
The importance of mentorship
Speaking to The Dig, Edwards highlights the growing number of computer scientists who studied at Howard. “People in the Valley have a lot of respect for Howard,” Edwards said. “I’d like that to be more well-known.”
Edwards earned his master’s degree in computer science in 2020 and finished his Ph.D. program in May 2024 with the help and mentorship of Danda B. Rawat, Ph.D., associate dean for research and graduate studies.
Rawat, who was recognized as one of three outstanding faculty mentors at Howard’s 2025 Research and Leadership Awards in April, said, “Supervision means guiding a student through their Ph.D. research, but mentorship goes beyond that.”
“You mentor them through other things — like how to survive in the field, how to develop professionalism, how to apply for funding or write a thesis, and even how to establish a company. All those things extend beyond typical academic supervision,” he adds.
Building DARE Labs
Rawat began introducing Edwards to important people in the industry. Edwards completed residencies at Netflix, Apple, Meta, and Google X to gain industry experience around adversarial machine learning.
After being laid off from Google X, he began considering starting his own company, and eventually DARE Labs was born with the help of his co-founder, Branford Rogers. The startup helps government agencies turn documents into knowledge graphs for search and for training new machine learning models.
“We take customer data and build knowledge graphs so it’s easy to use in AI applications,” Edwards said. “Our bet is that with everyone investing in AI, the real gain will come from how well you structure things. It’s like cleaning your room so you can find your phone.”
Even though it’s only in its first year, it has already brought in $1.2 million in contracts, with major clients like the Department of Defense and Department of Energy.
Image: The Dig, Howard
