Forge Institute puts cyber defense to work in Arkansas

A sailor who spent twenty years fixing aircraft electronics might seem an unlikely recruit for a cybersecurity classroom. Sam White had worked aboard the Navy’s P-3C Orion, repairing systems in flight and operating sensors. During a Forge Fellowship, he earned CompTIA certifications and worked with the Emerging Threat Center. Forge’s account says he subsequently accepted a position at Northrop Grumman. The interesting part is the sequence: experience, retraining, useful work, an employer.

That sequence helps explain Forge Institute, the Little Rock nonprofit Lee Watson founded in 2018. Its programs can look like an eccentric collection: bootcamps, startup accelerators, threat intelligence, university research. Read them as attempts to close the distance between knowledge and its use, and the collection starts making sense. A certificate needs somewhere to go. So does an invention.

The classroom has an exit door

Watson had already co-founded The Venture Center, giving him experience connecting entrepreneurs with established businesses. At Forge, the connecting happens across military, government, academic, and commercial boundaries. The organization calls itself a “do-tank.” One can forgive the word if the doing is sufficiently specific.

Forge Academy currently advertises a seven-to-eight-week IT/Cyber Fundamentals bootcamp for beginners and a seventeen-week Cyber Bootcamp for people building on existing expertise. Custom courses address subjects including AI risks, red-team operations, and governance. Employers can train teams; individuals can build skills; workforce organizations can help people make the transition.

The delivery model has changed under pressure. Forge’s historical brochure records that COVID-19 forced training into a virtual, instructor-led format in 2020. The room disappeared; instruction continued online. It is a modest but concrete example of adaptation, considerably more useful than a founder’s polished revelation about embracing change.

The Fellowship adds work-based learning through Forge’s authorization as a Department of Defense SkillBridge provider. Its employer network includes Acxiom and Nabholz. Cybersecurity is one destination, but construction and project management appear too. The logic is practical: translate military experience into civilian work rather than insist every applicant squeeze into the same job description.

The Pentagon does not buy a pitch deck

Consider the startup version of the same problem. A researcher has an idea; a military unit has a need. Between them sit customer discovery, procurement rules, technical requirements, and the small matter of staying solvent while everyone considers the proposal. A conventional accelerator may sharpen the pitch. Forge’s defense programs also work on finding the mission.

Embers Xcelerator concentrates on grid-connected cybersecurity. Its twelve-week pre-accelerator combines mentoring, business validation, financial planning, and pitch preparation. The program is funded by the Department of Energy. A student or researcher can investigate whether an interesting technical idea has the makings of a business before making entrepreneurship a full-time occupation.

Phoenix addresses defense and aerospace startups. The current fourteen-week program offers coaching and access to mission partners, plus guidance on funding proposals and contracting requirements. Forge’s October 2026 announcement describes it as no-cost and no-equity. Founders keep their ownership; sponsors carry the program expense.

The early numbers deserve reading without confetti. As of June 2025, Forge reported a 56% completion rate for the inaugural Phoenix program, one corporate spin-out, and four SBIR or OTA submissions. Submitting a proposal is a step toward funding, not an award. Completion is a program measure, not proof of commercial success.

Atomic Anvil, delivered in partnership with APEX, extends the work into technology transfer, prototyping, assessments, and defense procurement navigation. These offerings place Forge between a school, an innovation intermediary, and a security organization. Comparing it with a bootcamp alone misses most of the machinery.

The water keeps running - if someone does the work

Forge’s customers and beneficiaries also include municipalities, utilities, small businesses, and infrastructure security teams. The Arkansas Cyber Defense Center offers awareness, assessments, and training. The Emerging Threat Center brings professionals into a trusted community for intelligence sharing and collaboration. Joining requires agreements, including an NDA. Information sharing depends on people being willing to share.

Research gives this network another purpose. In April 2024, UA Little Rock announced a $5 million federal energy-cybersecurity initiative with partners including Forge, the University of Arkansas, and UAPB. The university leads the award. Its objectives combine workforce education, industrial-control-system security, threat analysis, and entrepreneurship. The money belongs to a collaborative effort; it should not be mistaken for a $5 million investment in Forge.

The nonprofit’s own technology choices offer a smaller lesson. A Virtru customer case study describes Forge seeking stronger protection for sensitive emails and an easier way for partners to exchange files. It adopted encrypted Gmail tools and Secure Share. The concern was what happened to information after delivery, alongside the friction of asking partners to use cumbersome systems.

“When you’re involved in public-private partnerships, trust is everything.”Lee Watson, in a Virtru customer case study

Somebody pays for the introductions

Forge’s 2024 filing reports $2.32 million in revenue against $3.68 million in expenses, a $1.36 million deficit. Contributions supplied about 70% of revenue; program services supplied about 28%. A nonprofit can offer subsidized access, but it must still finance instructors, staff, and operations.

The AEDC awarded Forge’s aerospace and defense accelerator $200,000 in December 2024. Forge also reports a $200,000 Walton Family Foundation matching grant for inaugural Phoenix. That is the concrete cost behind one corner of the operation. Free participation is an arrangement about who pays.

For another organization, the useful thing to copy is the sequence: identify an employer or mission, attach learning to practical work, and make collaboration manageable. It requires committed partners and participants. A course cannot promise a job; an accelerator cannot promise a contract.

Next comes another public test. Forge has scheduled its Summit for October 13-14, 2026, and Phoenix Demo Day for October 14 in North Little Rock. Summit attendance is restricted to U.S. citizens, with Chatham House Rules governing sessions. The introductions will have an audience. What happens afterward remains the work.